Toronto – How do we teach our boys to become better men? Newfoundland director Justin Simms tries to answer this vital question throughout his National Film Board of Canada (NFB) feature documentary Sons, which will have its world premiere in St. John’s on November 8, followed by community screenings in Clarenville (Nov. 20) and Bonavista (Nov. 21).
Set against the backdrop of his son’s first five years of life—from cooing infant to hurricane of a boy—Simms looks at modern masculinity through the lens of fatherhood in his deeply personal 70-minute documentary.
“I began to be haunted by the question, How do we lose so many of our boys to the dark side of masculinity? And perhaps a more important question: What can I do as a father to better model the kind of behaviour and empathetic worldview that I so wish for Jude and his cohort to absorb?” Simms explains.
Screening schedule
- World premiere
The Rooms, November 8 at 7 p.m.
9 Bonaventure Avenue, St. John’s
Followed by Q&A with the director
In partnership with the Nickel Independent Film Festival
- Clarenville Twin Cinemas, November 20 at 8 p.m.
46 Tilleys Road, Clarenville
In partnership with the Clarenville Heritage Society
- Garrick Theatre, November 21 at 7 p.m.
16–20 Church Street, Bonavista
More about the film
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/sons
Produced by Liz Cowie and Rohan Fernando
Executive producers: Rohan Fernando, Annette Clarke, Nathalie Cloutier and John Christou
It’s a boy!
It’s March 2016 and St. John’s filmmaker Justin Simms has just become a dad.
But his joy is tinged with unease.
Little Jude enters the world at a time when traditional notions of masculinity are being contested as never before. How can Simms teach his boy to be a good man?
With Sons, eight eventful years in the making, the Newfoundland-based filmmaker confronts the challenge with imagination and creative flair, crafting a big-hearted documentary essay on parenting, patriarchy—and the pain and pleasure of guiding boys through the turbulent cultural waters of the early 21st century. Woven throughout is luminous informal footage of Jude’s early years, charting his trajectory from helpless newborn to hurricane of a boy, obsessed with dinosaurs and superheroes.
Anchoring his enquiry in his home turf, a vibrant neighbourhood in downtown St. John’s, Justin enlists the help of family, friends and an engaging gang of fellow dads, all grappling with the challenge of parenting boys. “Masculinity can be beautiful,” observes one participant, “but it needs a new story now.”
Making inventive use of archival imagery, Simms evokes a traditional maritime culture where men frequently were separated from their families, and in a series of soul-bearing conversations with his own father, he explores how “masculinity” can always be questioned, always be reimagined.
“There is a conversation missing around masculinity. And that’s men talking to other men about breaking this chain. We need a deeper, inward-looking dialogue around masculinity, a dialogue removed from the ‘toxic-or-not-toxic’ binary. Where men get to express a range of emotions, where vulnerability is embraced rather than shamed. If we could see more men being open around these issues (myself included), it would speak to the many men in the world who are, up to now, ill-equipped to have these dialogues—with themselves or others,” says Simms.