It’s been a week full of firsts for me—first day at a new job, first day volunteering—but I still managed to squeeze in a free screening during Canadian Film Week: My American Cousin. I’m not Canadian, but I love learning more about the culture of the country I’m living in, and I want to embrace and appreciate it from a local’s perspective. I booked the ticket at the last minute, so I didn’t realize there would be a Q&A with the director afterward—such a lovely surprise, to be honest.

Synopsis of My American Cousin (from VIFF):

“Dear Diary. Nothing Ever Happens.” Sandy Wilcox (Margaret Langrick) longs for adventure and a modicum of respect. Neither is readily available to a 12-year-old growing up in rural Penticton in the late 1950s. Enter Butch in a screaming red Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz. He’s 16 going on James Dean, a California runaway and about the most exciting thing to hit town since rock-n-roll.

Sandy Wilson’s first feature — 40 years young — is a genuine Canadian coming-of-age classic. With its lovely shots of the Okanagan valley, it evokes a heartfelt nostalgia for a more innocent time, while also capturing that adolescent restlessness that yearns for energy and change. Do these competing characteristics also stand for Canada and the US of A? Let’s just say the movie speaks gently to the present discord.