Synopsis: After coming out to his parents and wanting to change, teenage Jason takes what he believes to be a cure for being gay.
Director’s statement:
There’s this idea out there that gay people can be cured: shock therapy, praying hard enough, whatever. A while back, being young and an angry teenager at pretty much everything, it bothered me so much and I found it so completely ridiculous that I wrote what was to eventually become Cure(d). I wanted to do more than make fun the people who believed in such a cure but more importantly, to convey the ludicrousness and sheer stupidity of there being a remedy for being who one is.
In the film, teenage Jason (Michael Germant) comes out to his parents (Sarah Harlow and Pascal Belanger). Though it’s a typical scene in many gay-themed films, I still wanted there to be pathos towards the parents; they don’t give their son this cure because they don’t love him, but just the opposite – he’s the one that wants to change and they simply support him in his wish. They are not bad parents; they are not evil parents, and Jason is not a bad kid for wanting to change. With still so much homophobia in our culture, and how he can suddenly cease to be gay, what is he to think?
Cure(d) is a fun project that I hope conveys its themes and messages subversively.
Previous screenings: Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Merlinka International Queer Film Festival, Out in the Desert Film Festival, Bangalore Queer Film Festival, Fort Worth Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Kashish Mumbai International Queer Film Festival
Photo stills:
