aGLIFF Review: Heartland

Life is a series of relationships, so it's no surprise that we’re so intrigued by both watching and telling stories about them. And as viewers we’re constantly searching for the ones we can relate to.

While director Maura Anderson’s Heartland is another story about relationships, it does not rely on the romantic one to carry the story. Instead, the film offers a small window into the life of Lauren (played by co-writer, Velinda Godfrey) who – in the height of grieving – returns home to her very religious mother after her long-term girlfriend dies of cancer. As luck would have it, her enterprising brother also visits home for work with his business partner/girlfriend, Carrie (Laura Spencer, Bones), in tow.

On the surface, Heartland follows the forming of the relationship between Lauren and Carrie, but it also examines what it means to be a family. While their mother, played wonderfully by Beth Grant, clearly loves her children, she's in denial of her daughter’s queerness. So often, Hollywood either glosses over or blows up homophobic parents, but it's the nuances that come with the conflicting beliefs and emotions that any queer child can relate to here.

At its core, the film is not a love story and that, in and of itself, is refreshing. Heartland is a mother/daughter story, a story about loss, a story about finding one's self, and a story about the bond between siblings. It's a film anyone with family can relate to, but because Lauren is queer it makes the story especially relevant and emotional for queer women. And while that might seem unnecessary, queer women are rarely (if ever) offered stories that don't rise and fall around a romance.