Documentaries are rarely uplifting preferring an endless stream of negativity and when the topic is Canadian indigenous life the negativity is often escalated to misery.
Another plate of angry misery fills the screen in Hayley Morin’s documentary about jaye simpson a poet, activist and drag queen. Abandoned as a child her single mother died in Vancouver’s drug infested Downtown Eastside.
jaye simpson was equally abandoned by the foster system she was dragged into. Her anger is understandable and her view that given the “hungry nature of white supremacy” which fosters indigenous stories of trauma causes jaye to fight back from the beast that “you have made me” she defiantly states if the system is now going to eat her alive it will have to chew!
Query though if with this type of documentary Morin is perpetuating the trauma that simpson refers to? simpson says as the result of her experiences her hands were transformed into into claws and she just may have used those claws to drag herself out of the hole she was thrust into.
Credit to simpson for using the creativity of her poetry and drag performances to escape her misery. Query again was the predominant strain of the documentary one of augmentation of misery or the positivity of an attempt to escape it? Probably a bit of both.
“I’ll Tell You When I’m Ready” will be part of the Opening Night Presentation of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival on 11September2024 where jaye will be performing in her drag persona of Persephone Estradiol.
The documentary will be available to Canadian audiences on 16September2024 on Telus Optik TV Channel at watch.telusoriginals.com
RKS 2024 Film Rating 64/100.
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