PIER KIDS: THE LIFE follows the director over the course of three years as he films three gay and transgender youth of color who have become, like the director once was, homeless on the same street the Gay Rights Movement began so long ago.

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Aliya has just won the lottery: the Green Card lottery that will enable her to emigrate to the United States. In this wonderfully observed slice-of-life portrait of post-Soviet Kazakhstan, Aliya navigates keeping her aging mother company, an affair with a taken woman, her sister’s unhappiness in a strict Muslim marriage, and the futility of living in a place with little opportunity to build the life you desire — all while trying to find a way to tell them she’s leaving it behind.

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Ten months into a ‘cancer’ diagnosis, talented dance student Katie (Kacey Rohl) is informed that her grant is in jeopardy. She needs to fake her medical records but that kind of fraud doesn’t come cheap. Her loving girlfriend Jennifer (Amber Anderson) offers money, thinking it’s for an experimental treatment, but instead Katie turns to her father, Doug (Martin Donovan). He doesn’t believe her, hinting at a troubled history and past trauma, and when he challenges his daughter publicly, she becomes increasingly desperate. Directed by Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas | 2019 | 96 min | Canada | English

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