On the Fringe of the Wild in the north
23 Sep 2021.

On the Fringe of Wild is a new movie with a cool title, sort of like the title of a '70s rock album. It’s actually a gay coming-of-age drama set in Northern Ontario. For most of us, Northern Ontario is anything north of Barrie. This movie was shot in North Bay. I grew up in Timmins, and I must say the talented cinematographer Gabriela Osio Vanden really captured the cold lonely light of the north. 

The movie is about a gay teen named Peter who likes to draw rabbits. His father wants to flush the gay out of him by taking him hunting. And he’s antagonized at school by some guy named Miles who is actually way queenier. Miles, a classic gay movie villain, has a boyfriend named Jack, but Miles is abusive, so Jack hooks up with Peter instead. Jack and Peter run off and stay in a cabin all by themselves, developing a romance. They awkwardly confess stuff to each other and at one point Jack suggests that Peter draw him in the nude, but no clothes come off, ever. Maybe because it's so cold?

Then they all go hunting and shoot at white rabbits in the snow. Much is made of the fact that if they don’t kill game or catch fish that they will not eat tonight. These people have a high school but they don’t have a grocery store? What kind of town is this? At this point it dawned on me that the lovers’ names are Peter and Jack, two names where the surname ‘Rabbit’ is apt. As you can imagine, it all ends tragically. Well, it is a Canadian film. 
A quick glance at the credits suggest that this sensitive gay male story was made largely by women. My old pal Tavish Gudgeon was a script editor on the film. Hi, Tavish! On the Fringe of Wild, now available from Breaking Glass Pictures, tells a woeful tale set in the same region I grew up in, so how could I not enjoy it?