Montrealers go viral with lesbian Jehovah's Witness teen love story

It was over glasses of scotch, “underneath the watchful eyes of the (stuffed) ostriches” at Montreal hipster pub establishment Bily Kūn, a decade again, that Sarah Watts and Mark Slutsky determined to jot down a lesbian coming-of-age love story set in a Jehovah’s Witness neighborhood in Quebec’s Saguenay area.

“I used to be telling Mark about my childhood, rising up as a Jehovah’s Witness,” Watts recounted in a latest interview about their debut characteristic movie, You Can Dwell Endlessly, in theatres Friday.

Slutsky was fascinated by what Watts described: “The language they used, the actual beliefs,” he defined, “the best way they talked concerning the ‘new system’ and ‘the reality.’ It was simply this fully distinctive, apocalyptic view of the world.

“Everybody has heard about Jehovah’s Witnesses, however I noticed I didn’t know something about them in addition to the traditional door-knocking and pamphlets. It’s this fascinating, 100-year-old cosmological faith, and never simply Christianity as we all know it however an entire distinctive subculture.”

Watts spent her early childhood as a Jehovah’s Witness in Yellowknife, however left the religion across the age of 13 after watching Carl Sagan’s TV collection Cosmos, concerning the origins of life and the universe.

Her dad and mom remained within the faith “just a few extra years,” however allowed their daughter to chart her personal path.

“They have been like, ‘You do you,’” she recalled.

Watts had a hunch she was “in all probability homosexual,” however there have been few popular culture references out there for a queer teenager within the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“I grew up watching and rewatching each potential lesbian movie that ever existed, from a alternative of 12,” she mentioned.

So when it got here time to make a movie impressed by her distinctive upbringing, it needed to be a homosexual love story.

“I needed so as to add to the canon,” Watts mentioned. “I knew I needed to jot down a film about lesbians, and Mark was open to it.”

The 2 talked about making the form of film Watts wished she might have watched as an adolescent, “a Canadian lesbian traditional,” she mentioned, “one thing the place the lesbians don’t die on the finish.”

As its title suggests, You Can Dwell Endlessly may be very a lot the other, a romance of star-crossed lovers caught between their illicit ardour and guarantees of everlasting life.

Jaime (Anwen O’Driscoll) is an city, pot-smoking teen despatched to stay together with her aunt and her aunt’s husband (Liane Balaban and Antoine Yared), who’re Jehovah’s Witnesses, following the demise of her father. She quickly falls arduous for Marike (June Laporte), a prim lady from a religious household in the neighborhood.

Insert a soundtrack that includes Cocteau Twins, Breeders, and Montrealers Jean-Michel Blais, Grimskunk and Younger Galaxy, and you’ve got a hip, heady teen love story set in a world of repression.

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The movie went viral after premiering at New York’s Tribeca Movie Competition in June of final yr, garnering rapturous TikTok tributes which have earned a complete of greater than 55 million views and a trailer that has been seen 300,000 instances, all earlier than the film was formally launched. Pirated variations of the movie have turned up on-line in Brazil, China and the Philippines.

“I believe it says we made the movie we needed to make,” Slutsky opined. “We needed to make a movie that will enchantment to younger queer folks.”

“Queer ladies say the film provides them butterflies, they usually’ve watched it 10, 20, 30 instances,” Watts mentioned. “That’s the perfect reward potential.”

Earlier than our interview wrapped, Slutsky shared one different related element about his co-writer and co-director: “Sarah is among the homeowners of a lesbian sports activities bar.”