CHRISTIE PITS FILM FESTIVAL
Sunday, July 30, 2023

Brokeback Mountain

With the short film Rift

Brokeback Mountain doesn’t so much transport the audience to another world as it does its two leading men, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal), who meet one summer herding sheep on Wyoming’s Brokeback Mountain in 1963. That chance encounter sparks a decades-long relationship between the two men, who meet in secret away from their wives and children. Each encounter between them transforms the vast landscapes of rural America into other worlds where the two men can explore their Queer love away from the prying and phobic eyes of heterosexual society. While Jack longs for Ennis to make their secret world at Brokeback Mountain a permanent fixture in their lives, Ennis resists, leading eventually to the tragic end of one of the greatest romances ever shown on film.

Though Ang Lee’s adaptation of Annie Proulx’s short story was a critical and commercial success upon release, Brokeback Mountain was the frequent subject of homophobic derision in the press and media, reducing a complex film to a hateful punchline. Despite that, Brokeback Mountain marked the beginning of a period where Queer narratives were more widely included in mainstream filmmaking and remains a potent love story. (Another Ang Lee masterpiece, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is also featured in the Another World programme this summer.)

Where Brokeback Mountain uses vast landscapes and physical intimacy to create a Queer world apart, Rift, from Toronto filmmaker Keith Hodder, manages to do so with only a few simple looks. Shot almost entirely in close-up and with almost no dialogue, Rift’s two nameless male leads create an entire alternate world between their shared glances – one that is shattered as quickly and easily as it is built.

This screening will be presented with optional pre-recorded Audio Description available for blind, low vision, or visually impaired audience members. More information about this accessibility feature is available at TOpictureshow.com/audio. Other accessibility features available at TOPS events, including open captioning, are outlined at TOpictureshow.com/accessibility.