Screening times:
Friday, April 21, 6:45 PM - Half-capacity screening
Saturday, April 22, 6:45 PM - Half-capacity screening

Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky | Canada | 2022 | 96m
with Anwen O’Driscoll, June Laporte, Liane Balaban, Antoine Yared

1992. Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll), 17 years old and growing up in Thunder Bay, loves sci-fi, The Cure, and getting high. And unbeknownst to anyone around her, she’s gay. When her father dies and her mother suffers a breakdown, she’s sent to the Saguenay region to live with her aunt (Liane Balaban) and uncle (Antoine Yared), both members of the town’s tight-knit, devoutly faithful Jehovah’s Witness community. Jaime feels like an outcast. But at a religious service she’s dragged along to, Jaime meets Marike (June Laporte), an exemplary Witness girl and daughter of a prominent community elder. The two instantly strike up a deep friendship, and Jaime finds herself falling hard for Marike. As the two grow closer, Jaime is drawn deeper into the Witness theology, which promises an eternal life in God’s promised kingdom what they call “the new system of things” after the world ends. The two disappear into their own little world, and for a moment, are happy. But when the community notices how close they’ve become, it moves swiftly to keep them apart, forcing them each to make a terrible choice between faith and love.

Sarah Watts director statement:

I grew up gay in a Jehovah’s Witness community in a small northern town. As a teenager, I was eager to see a story with a character who even remotely resembled me on the movie screen. But I was always disappointed. When there were lesbian characters they were inevitably used as plot points and usually died tragic deaths. I was so desperate for representation that I spent all the money I’d been saving for a trip to Europe to fly to Vancouver so I could see Bound on the big screen. When I met Mark and explained my upbringing to him, he immediately understood my point of view. For years, we worked together to create a film that could honor my own background and the experiences of other young people in a similar predicament. You Can Live Forever is the movie I always wanted to see as a teenager.

"A delicate balance is achieved here between telling the girls’ story, exploring the role which Marike’s religion and culture play in her life, and critiquing aspects of the way she is expected to live." -Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film

"You Can Live Forever is an unassuming, but exceptionally composed little film in a crowded sub-genre that sets itself apart simply by knowing what it takes to be great." -Andrew Parker, The Gate

Tickets $8.75 ($8 cash at the door if available).

Half capacity

Half capacity