Image+Nation
Flashback

Flashback

PETER HAYS | CANADA | 2024 | 90 MIN | ENGLISH

PETER HAYS | CANADA | 2024 | 90 MIN | ENGLISH

DocumentaryMADE AU CANADA

Synopsis

The rediscovery of a neon sign transports us back to when disco was queen and Edmonton’s Flashback club became “the Studio 54 of the Prairies.” Through years of violent raids and the encroachment of AIDS like wildfire, the club and its members nourished an open-hearted, fashion-forward oasis. Created and narrated by Montreal teacher and writer Matthew Hays, Flashback is an insider’s take on how a nightlife “melting pot” defied expectations of “the most Bible Belt-y place in Canada” and rose to international fame. Told he wasn’t gay enough to enter Club 70, Albertan John Reid endeavoured to create his own welcoming space: equal parts state-of-the-art discotheque, record store, and community hub. There, queer youth blossomed and Gretzky and Sarah McLachlan partied. Twirl to the soaring vocals of D’orjay and hip bump with those who were there through clouds of perfume and poppers, while getting a fascinating primer on how the club’s designers calibrated disco music for a custom-built dancefloor. Even when Flashback eventually lost its blissed-out exuberance during the AIDS epidemic, it gave much in return: a relief in a maelstrom and a social conscience for the fights to come.

Trailer

Filmmaker Bio

Peter Hays is an award-winning writer/director/producer of unscripted television series and feature films made for Canadian and American broadcasters and distributors. The former journalist lives in Calgary, Alberta where his company Tangerine Productions Ltd. is focused on telling essential human stories with universal appeal.

Producer

Bradley Warren

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

You might also like

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Bath Bomb[MADE AU CANADA]10 minutes

A possessive doctor prepares an ostensibly romantic bath for his narcissistic boyfriend, but after an accusation of infidelity, things take a deeply disturbing turn.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Breaking Silence[MADE AU CANADA]11 minutes

Cole, a resilient transgender man, navigates his coming out journey within the confines of an all-girls school, while his mother confronts her own emotional struggles. Together, they learn to push societal norms and embrace the power of acceptance.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Jesse[MADE AU CANADA]12 minutes

A male teenager planning to come out to his father imagines different outcomes while portraying them in different cinematographic genres in his mind.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Répercuté[MADE AU CANADA]15 minutes

A man comes home to his lover on their anniversary expecting a romantic night of celebration only to find someone tied up in the bathroom.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Dairy Boy[MADE AU CANADA]15 minutes

A young trans man returns to his family’s farm in rural southern Ontario following his grandfather’s death, and must navigate the discomforts of familial rural life with his father.

PosterMade au CanadaCompetitionFeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE
Made au Canada IconCompetition Icon
Sweet Angel Baby[ZEITGEIST]96 minutes

Small towns are no place for secrets. Among the churchgoing folk of a Newfoundland fishing village, Eliza leads a double-life: exploring transgressive photography while managing an unspoken romance with a shunned woman and the insistent advances of a married man. Hearsay only two steps behind. Sneaking around the neighbours, Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky) stages increasingly revealing photoshoots in locations both remote and close to home—perhaps too close. With every new post to her 318K Instagram followers, she imperils the careful balance she’s cultivated between her coexistence with fellow villagers, her burgeoning romance with Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), and the married man (Peter Mooney) whose desire for her titillates as much as it terrifies. As a church fundraiser she’s helping to organize approaches, so too does a blaze of gossip, and choices are made that could leave her forever shattered. By turns kinky and kind-hearted, Melanie Oates’ second feature explores our wildest selves with a complexity that continues to deepen through to the final striking frame. All the while, embodying a true sense of place, depicting the rough shores and spirited personalities of one of the most isolated—and spectacular—of Canadian locales.

PosterMade au CanadaCompetitionShort
Made au Canada IconCompetition Icon
Ephemera[MADE AU CANADA]13 minutes

Robin is a young woman who lives alone above a gas station in North Bay. Every night she watches truckers fill their tanks up and munch on pepperettes. Robin has a secret. Robin is a porn addict. Robin can’t feel anything anymore.

PosterMade au CanadaDocumentary
Made au Canada Icon
Any Other Way: the Jackie Shane Story[I+N Connexe]99 minutes

Whether wowing 1960s nightclub audiences with her vocal prowess or vanishing from the scene in a haze of rumours, Jackie Shane never failed to leave her mark. Through recorded conversations with the boundary-bursting yet reclusive icon, and the magic of ghostly, gorgeous rotoscope animation, Jackie is restored to us. Encouraged to leave Jim Crow-era Nashville by Joe Tex so that her talent could soar, Jackie Shane brought her R&B sound and daring charisma to adoring fans everywhere from mafia-controlled Montreal to her beloved Toronto, getting kidnapped and turning down a transphobic Ed Sullivan Show offer along the way. Close friends with Little Richard and an opener for the likes of Etta James and Marvin Gaye, Jackie Shane was an It girl in a time when using “she/her” seemed unthinkable. So she had a choice: global superstardom or her own hard-earned authenticity. This is the story of that choice, told through Jackie’s own words, vibrant reenactments, and assessments by contemporary trans figures, with music as the film’s soul. Executive produced by Elliot Page, Any Other Way is a triumph of the documentary form—as polished and impressive as Jackie herself.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Insta Gay[MADE AU CANADA]12 minutes

A gay millennial reels after breaking-up with a popular influencer.

PosterMade au CanadaQueerment QuébecCompetitionShort
Made au Canada IconQueerment Québec IconCompetition Icon
Legacy of Joe Rose: Queer, Bars and Police Brutality[MADE AU CANADA]4 minutes

A short queer history of violent police raids on queer bars between the 70s and 2000s, and the rise of LGBTQ+ communities fighting back. Tribute to Joe Rose.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Bath Bomb[MADE AU CANADA]10 minutes

A possessive doctor prepares an ostensibly romantic bath for his narcissistic boyfriend, but after an accusation of infidelity, things take a deeply disturbing turn.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Breaking Silence[MADE AU CANADA]11 minutes

Cole, a resilient transgender man, navigates his coming out journey within the confines of an all-girls school, while his mother confronts her own emotional struggles. Together, they learn to push societal norms and embrace the power of acceptance.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Jesse[MADE AU CANADA]12 minutes

A male teenager planning to come out to his father imagines different outcomes while portraying them in different cinematographic genres in his mind.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Répercuté[MADE AU CANADA]15 minutes

A man comes home to his lover on their anniversary expecting a romantic night of celebration only to find someone tied up in the bathroom.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Dairy Boy[MADE AU CANADA]15 minutes

A young trans man returns to his family’s farm in rural southern Ontario following his grandfather’s death, and must navigate the discomforts of familial rural life with his father.

PosterMade au CanadaCompetitionFeatureVIRTUAL EXCLUSIVE
Made au Canada IconCompetition Icon
Sweet Angel Baby[ZEITGEIST]96 minutes

Small towns are no place for secrets. Among the churchgoing folk of a Newfoundland fishing village, Eliza leads a double-life: exploring transgressive photography while managing an unspoken romance with a shunned woman and the insistent advances of a married man. Hearsay only two steps behind. Sneaking around the neighbours, Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky) stages increasingly revealing photoshoots in locations both remote and close to home—perhaps too close. With every new post to her 318K Instagram followers, she imperils the careful balance she’s cultivated between her coexistence with fellow villagers, her burgeoning romance with Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), and the married man (Peter Mooney) whose desire for her titillates as much as it terrifies. As a church fundraiser she’s helping to organize approaches, so too does a blaze of gossip, and choices are made that could leave her forever shattered. By turns kinky and kind-hearted, Melanie Oates’ second feature explores our wildest selves with a complexity that continues to deepen through to the final striking frame. All the while, embodying a true sense of place, depicting the rough shores and spirited personalities of one of the most isolated—and spectacular—of Canadian locales.

PosterMade au CanadaCompetitionShort
Made au Canada IconCompetition Icon
Ephemera[MADE AU CANADA]13 minutes

Robin is a young woman who lives alone above a gas station in North Bay. Every night she watches truckers fill their tanks up and munch on pepperettes. Robin has a secret. Robin is a porn addict. Robin can’t feel anything anymore.

PosterMade au CanadaDocumentary
Made au Canada Icon
Any Other Way: the Jackie Shane Story[I+N Connexe]99 minutes

Whether wowing 1960s nightclub audiences with her vocal prowess or vanishing from the scene in a haze of rumours, Jackie Shane never failed to leave her mark. Through recorded conversations with the boundary-bursting yet reclusive icon, and the magic of ghostly, gorgeous rotoscope animation, Jackie is restored to us. Encouraged to leave Jim Crow-era Nashville by Joe Tex so that her talent could soar, Jackie Shane brought her R&B sound and daring charisma to adoring fans everywhere from mafia-controlled Montreal to her beloved Toronto, getting kidnapped and turning down a transphobic Ed Sullivan Show offer along the way. Close friends with Little Richard and an opener for the likes of Etta James and Marvin Gaye, Jackie Shane was an It girl in a time when using “she/her” seemed unthinkable. So she had a choice: global superstardom or her own hard-earned authenticity. This is the story of that choice, told through Jackie’s own words, vibrant reenactments, and assessments by contemporary trans figures, with music as the film’s soul. Executive produced by Elliot Page, Any Other Way is a triumph of the documentary form—as polished and impressive as Jackie herself.

PosterMade au CanadaShort
Made au Canada Icon
Insta Gay[MADE AU CANADA]12 minutes

A gay millennial reels after breaking-up with a popular influencer.

PosterMade au CanadaQueerment QuébecCompetitionShort
Made au Canada IconQueerment Québec IconCompetition Icon
Legacy of Joe Rose: Queer, Bars and Police Brutality[MADE AU CANADA]4 minutes

A short queer history of violent police raids on queer bars between the 70s and 2000s, and the rise of LGBTQ+ communities fighting back. Tribute to Joe Rose.