The Fruit Machine

Saturday, February 29, at 2:30 pm in Fernwood (N207)

Date

January 25, 2020

About Project

DIRECTOR

Sarah Fodey

COUNTRY

Canada

RUNNING TIME

89 mins

YEAR

2019

LANGUAGE

English, French with English subtitles

ABOUT THE FILM

Against the backdrop of Cold War paranoia, Canada investigated federal employees and military personnel considered susceptible to Soviet blackmail. Homosexuality – considered a “character weakness” – was grounds for RCMP surveillance and persecution. In the national witch-hunt known as the “gay purge” – which continued through the late 1980s – thousands of dedicated public servants were interrogated, threatened, demoted and dismissed. Their careers ruined, many suffered psychologically; some died by suicide. Now the survivors of this shameful history of state-sanctioned homophobia recount their profoundly personal stories of betrayal by the Canadian government. Named Best Documentary at Calgary’s Fairy Tales Queer Film Festival and Montreal’s Image+Nation.

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