Days before deployment to Afghanistan, Joey returns to rural Pennsylvania for Christmas with big dreams of running away to Canada with her beautiful lover. But Joey learns that things don’t always end up as planned. This short film was expanded into a feature film of the same title, it premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival, and it was released in 2017.
Acting
Breeda Wool's Rayna—magnetic, wounded, impossible to pin down.
Cinematography
Bleak Pennsylvania winter as emotional prison.
Director
Deb Shoval
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shoval expanded this 14-minute short into a 2016 feature starring Lola Kirke, but many critics preferred the original's brutal compression.
Shot during the DADT era, the film captures a specific moment when queer military service members lived in limbo—still serving, still hiding, still dreaming of Canada.
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