“Representation is power. Representation is a political act,” Kat Setzer, Director of Programming for image+nation’s 37th Festival Film LGBT2SQueer Montréal, told The Tribune. 

image+nation culture queer, a non-profit dedicated to encouraging and nurturing 2SLGBTQIA+ culture and storytelling, kicked off their annual film festival on Nov. 20 with their opening night screening of Queer, Luca Guadagnino’s highly anticipated new work. The festival—which lasts until Nov. 30 and screens films across various Montreal theatres over the course of 10 days, alongside virtual screenings—platforms queer and trans filmmakers and stories, aiming to explore their individuality and universality. This year’s projects focus on Indigiqueer, Québecois, Canadian, and Acadian perspectives, among others.

“We know what’s going to be happening in the world in […] the next four years, the erosion of our rights, and the attacks. I mean, it has already kind of started. So that’s the reason why a Queer Film Festival is important and essential,” Setzer said. 

2024 short film Landfill by filmmaker Jess Lee, adapted from Anna Leventhal’s 2014 short story collection Sweet Affliction, is one of the 150 films the festival is screening. The film follows Alice (Moe Angelos), a lesbian elder who has been diagnosed with a terminal uterine tumour as a direct result of living close to and working at BGD Manufacturing, a local factory. Alice struggles to decide upon the legacy she wants to leave behind: Her legacy coach (Fariba Bonakdar) encourages her to become an organ donor and a documentary filmmaker (Sarah Levesque), enthralled with the story of capitalism’s dire environmental and health impacts, expresses interest in interviewing Alice to expose and hold accountable corporate greed. 

“[Alice is] in a [long-term care home], considering her ideas of legacy amongst the community there,” Lee explained to The Tribune. “It just speaks to different notions of dying, aging, legacy, environment, capitalism.” 

Alice does not want to solely blame BGD Manufacturing CEO (Gillian Doria) for her condition, citing she knows that “it’s much more than that.” In what is presumably some of her life’s final weeks and days, Alice puts on a faux inspirational persona for the documentary filmmaker, critiquing the media’s tendency to commodify tragedy. 

Alice explains that when positive adjectives are paired with pain, they take on a whole new meaning. While joy is a positive feeling, the joyous torment that Alice experiences depicts her melancholic approach to her final days, as she recalls her life’s accomplishments.   

Alice talks directly to viewers while inching closer to death in her care room, shaking her dog’s collar while flashbacks to memories of walking her dog cut in and out of the screen.

“5,025 walks. 52 miles of floors mopped. 70 hours watching movie stars kiss. Three women who called me darling. Nine scars, 13 funerals, and so on,” Alice says, before giving the camera one final sombre smile. 

As a queer elder, Alice’s story highlights the unique burdens placed on marginalized communities, who are often left most vulnerable to systemic neglect and environmental harm. Alice is both relatable and deeply compelling, with her queerness woven seamlessly into her identity rather than sensationalized or marginalized. While not the central conflict of the story, her queerness is intrinsic to her perspective, reminding audiences that queer lives are not only worth fighting for but also worth representing in all their complexity. 

Angelos’ stellar performance illustrates the beauty of life, transforming the mundane into profound markers of existence. From the day she first met the BGD CEO and thought to herself that it was remarkable the company had a woman CEO, to joking around with Ruth (Cat Lemieux), her new friend from her care unit, Alice never ceased to find and capture moments of sardonic joy. Her life served as a counterpoint to the corporate greed that dehumanized her and countless others. Alice is blunt, slightly mischievous, and ever-loveable—and her legacy is a life well-lived. 

image+nation runs from Nov. 20-Nov. 30 in Montreal theatres. Tickets are available at https://www.image-nation.org