Here’s a Pride preview for a documentary that will soon be screening across Canada. The National Film Board of Canada released today the trailer for Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance ahead of its national rollout. The documentary directed by Noam Gonick and produced by Justine Pimlott chronicles a history of queer activism in Canada as figures within the fight for LGBTQ+ rights revisit the push for equality. The film traces different movements of queer activism, from the marches in the streets in response to the Toronto bathhouse raids to protest groups that emerged amid the politics of exclusion within the community. Parade brings these voices together to share the power of a united front, and a community constantly revisiting its own considerations of equity and accountability.
The doc also offers a treasure trove of queer archives with photos and videos from meetings and marches. But there are also candid accounts from people who survived horrible abuses, like being institutionalised as a means to “cure” their sexuality, while others share stories about their experiences as caregivers amid the AIDS crisis. The film itself serves as a valuable record for voices long relegated to the margins in Canadian history.
“Parade is a moving film, tracking well-known events and some wonderfully surprising discoveries and characters…who, bolstered by a trove of archival footage, help trace some of the key moments in Canada’s 2SLGBTQ+ history,” said Susan G. Cole while writing about Parade in our current cover story. “The doc also makes vivid the ways creating communities—lesbian, Latinx, Black and Indigenous, for example—empower identities that lead to life-changing political action.”
Parade screened as the opening night film at Hot Docs this year where it finished in the top 10 titles in the Audience Award rankings. It has a Toronto encore at Inside Out LGBTQ+ Film Festival on May 31 and screenings across the country, including a broadcast and streaming debut on TVO on June 22.
Watch the trailer for Parade below:
