YFF In Focus - Fest best shows human face of trans politics

The Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is not just four days at the end of May. Planning for the next one starts virtually before the last filmmaker gets on the shuttle to start heading home and screenings and events are scheduled throughout the year leading up to the main event.

This weekly column will review YFF films past, present and future. The obvious place to start is the winner of the 2016 Best of Festival Award.

Sex Spirit Strength is a powerful documentary that tackles two timely political issues in an intimately non-political way.

This 45-minute film made by rookie director Courtney Montour and veteran producer Tracey Deer for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) tells the stories of Jack Saddleback and Michael Keshane.

Jack is a University of Saskatchewan sociology student, who made history last year by becoming the first transgender president of the school’s Students’ Union.

The film was perhaps bound to attract lots of attention at this year’s festival as transgender politics has become one of the hottest issues of the day. Eleven American states are suing U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration over a directive that schools must be trans-inclusive. Closer to home, our federal government has moved to enshrine transgender rights in legislation.

In both countries those rights are already constitutionally guaranteed underscoring just how contentious the issue has become that governments feel they must go beyond their own highest laws to fight systemic discrimination.

Montour’s doc transcends the politics compassionately recounting Jack’s realization at a very young age he was different and the ensuing struggle against confusion, bullying, discrimination and even suicidal thoughts to reach a place of solid gender and sexual identity in which he now enjoys love and acceptance.

Michael’s story is perhaps more familiar, but equally compelling. Sexually molested by his birth father, Michael embarks on a path of drug addiction and crime in north central Regina. After being diagnosed with HIV, Michael gets clean by embracing his traditional culture with the help of his grandmother. Faced with life or death, he chose to live.

Those are the nuts and bolts, but an effective point-of-view (POV) documentary needs to be more than narrative; it must challenge pre-conceived notions and evoke a call for change.

This one is, at times, uncomfortable to watch, even for someone predisposed to be empathetic. It is difficult to imagine how someone could come away from viewing Sex Spirit Strength with an unchanged view of the issues it raises. The politics melts away in the presence of very real and personable people.

And it is all done with a very deft hand. The pacing, the unintrusive use of the camera, the ease of the subjects, the subtlety of the re-enactments, give the film quality and depth worthy of praise.

In addition to the Best of Festival award, Montour picked up the Emerging Filmmaker Golden Sheaf, a rarity for the festival.

Sex Spirit Strength is currently on the festival circuit, but it will eventually be available for online viewing at APTN.ca.