Before Christine Hallquist was running for Governor of Vermont, she was David Hallquist, the CEO of the largest locally owned electric utility in Vermont. A self-described “closet environmentalist” Hallquist is dedicated to addressing the way electricity use in America contributes to climate change. But his mission is balanced with the utility’s charge to provide affordable and reliable service. For Hallquist, increasing the efficiency of the grid is the only meaningful route to merging these priorities. He implements one of the country’s first ‘smart’ grids, decreasing outages, increasing the capacity for renewable sources and building a national reputation as an energy pioneer. Resistance, however, comes in many forms – traditionalists balk at the renewable intermittency, solar and wind advocates think Hallquist is dragging his feet, and the public fears that ‘smart’ meters on their homes will send private information about their energy use to the government. As Hallquist struggles to build the kind of transparent company whose honest approach can get stakeholders to accept the realities of how we generate and deliver electricity, he realizes he must apply that same transparency to his personal life and reveals to his son a lifelong secret. Dave Hallquist, who presents as a chainsaw-wielding, hard hat-wearing CEO in a male-dominated industry is a woman inside. Now, Derek’s family must face facts that feel far more immediate than the melting of the polar ice caps and denial emerges as a common theme linking all of these issues. Ultimately the personal and the societal come together as Derek learns that his father, newly named Christine, is still indeed his father – and that Christine’s unique perspective as the first American Transgender CEO to transition in office, may be just the what the limiting, binary worldview on energy and the environment needs.

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Handsome control freak Patrick (writer-director Ryan Lonergan, A THOUSAND BEAUTIFUL THINGS), his second half, the charismatic, impulsive, trust fund baby Sutton (Garrett McKechnie, TERRITORY), and the third and newest member of their threesome, darling boy toy Frankie (Jack Ball, HENRY GAMBLE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY), live the charmed life of your average, everyday thruple. But when Frankie is stricken with a mysterious illness, the dynamic trio swings into action, heading west in search of a holistic cure. On the way, between fights and makeup sex in nondescript hotel rooms, the unique challenges facing this three-way relationship are probed. Shot in radiant black and white with a lively music score, part gorgeous travelogue, part political allegory, and a full on examination of the quirks and kinks of a loving threesome, KILL THE MONSTERS is the road trip you wish you could take.

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