For two days this month (January 26th and 27th) the new documentary on Canadian musician and writer Rae Spoon will be streaming for free on the NFB’s website.
Spoon — who was featured in a cover story in issue 58 of Broken Pencil — is a transgender musician from Alberta who put out their first book, First Spring Grass Fire, last year. The documentary-musical, directed by Toronto filmmaker Chelsea McMullan, follows Spoon’s story of surviving an Evangelical Christian upbringing and discovering their identity and also explores their relationship with the prairies into adulthood.
First Spring Grass Fire (Arsenal Pulp Press) combines fiction and non-fiction to tell the story of “Rae.” This documentary is also an amalgamation of styles, using documentary interviews and musical numbers to tell the story of Spoon’s life.
My Prairie Home is currently screening at Sundance and will open in Canadian theatres in Fall 2013.
photo of Chelsea McMullan and Rae Spoon by JJ Levine.