North By Current Discussion Guide

Filmmaker and artist Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown after a family tragedy. Weaving vignettes of VHS and Super 8 home movies with the present day, Madsen creates a poetic, nuanced portrait of a family navigating grief, addiction, and transgender identity. A co-production of POV. Official Selection, Berlinale. Official Selection, Tribeca Film Festival.

This guide is an invitation to dialogue and requires preparation before you and your community dive in. This guide is designed for people who want to use North By Current to engage family friends, classmates, colleagues, and communities in honest, though challenging, conversations that will require all participants remain committed to being fully present. Conversations that center gender identity; feelings of belonging; addiction; abuse and safety; loss and grief can be difficult to begin and facilitate, but this guide is meant to support you in sustaining conversations in community. In contrast to initiatives that foster debates in which participants try to convince others that they are right, this document envisions conversations undertaken in a spirit of openness in which people listen actively and share different experiences and viewpoints with care and respect.

This discussion guide is meant to inspire people with varying degrees of knowledge, as well as dynamic and different experiences, in relation to these topics to enter the conversation, and stay present in the conversation, in order to impact change and awareness.

AJ Jennings (they/them) is an early childhood educator in Chicago, IL. They are committed to listening closely to children and fostering a classroom environment that supports positive identity development. They have served as the Curriculum and Professional Development Director at the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, an organization that advocates for schools to create affirming learning environments for LGBTQ+ students in Illinois.