Wed March 8 — 1:30 pm

1 hr 32 min
Not rated/18+
Drama

International Women’s Day screening

Tla’amin Spirit Singers and guest speakers Cyndi Pallen and Cindy Elliot

Special Guests: Violet Gave Willingly Director Claire Sanford, Sound Designer Sophia Sanford and Textile Artist Deborah Dumka

Rosie is an adorably infectious coming-of-age story set in a Montreal melting pot. Orphaned and alone, Rosie (Keris Hope Hill), a precocious English-speaking Indigenous girl, is unceremoniously deposited at the doorstep of her Francophone Aunty Fred (Mélanie Bray) by child services. A foul-mouthed, underemployed outsider artist, Fred is facing eviction and not exactly in the market for added responsibility.

However, she’s powerless to resist Rosie’s practically paranormal positivity as the girl sees the upside of sleeping in a scrapyard and warmly embraces Fred’s street-working non-binary best friends (Constant Bernard and Alex Trahan). There’s also a local panhandler (Brandon Oakes’ Jigger) and busker (Arlen Aguayo Stewart’s Janine) as two examples of indigenous people in Canada. This is an eye-opening education for all.

Director Gail Maurice is seeking to tell a tale from the heart that digs deep enough to provide characters too-often relegated into stereotypes a semblance of three-dimensionality. Drawing from her lived experience as a queer Cree/Métis woman, Gail Maurice brings a singular sensibility to her first feature. Her film’s buoyant charm and humour only make its passionate appeal for acceptance all the more persuasive. We’d all do well to take a page from Rosie.