Feb. 7, 2024 / PRZen / LOS ANGELES -- Hollywood-based Epic Pictures Group will release the festival favorite feature BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND in the U.S. next month. The film, which IndieWire dubbed a "tender and knowing coming of age story," hits select theaters March 1, 2024 and digital platforms March 5, 2024. The first feature from award-winning filmmaker Trevor Anderson originally premiered in competition at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Before I Change My Mind has since screened at festivals all over the world including BFI Flare presented by the British Film Institute, the Oslo/Fusion International Film Festival, and Festival Mix Brazil. Before I Change My Mind was directed by Trevor Anderson from a screenplay by Anderson & Fish Griwkowsky, produced by Katrina Beatty and Alyson Richards, and executive produced by Trevor Anderson, Justin Lachance, Patrick Ewald, and Nick Adams. The cast includes Vaughan Murrae, Dominic Lippa, Lacey Oake, Matthew Rankin and Shannon Blanchet.
Set in 1987, while the other students wonder if their new classmate is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices to fit in. In the innovative screenplay, the protagonist's gender is never disclosed. No gendered pronouns are used to describe Robin throughout the film, and young nonbinary actor Vaughan Murrae plays the role.
"When I was a teenager in Canada in the 1980s, I was often asked, ʻAre you a boy or a girl?ʼ I wish I could've let that question hang in the air unanswered, like Robin does in the film," Anderson says. "It was a time when kids like me – or like our hero Robin – wouldn't have words like nonbinary or genderqueer to describe our genders. We'd know we were somehow different and that difference would be palpable to those around us, but because we didn't have language to describe it, we never talked about it – and we still had to survive middle school and answer more pressing questions, like: 'Who do I like?' 'Do they like me back?' 'What kind of person am I?' 'Where do I fit in?'"
Prior to going into production, GLAAD, the world's LGBTQ media advocacy organization, in partnership with The Black List, chose Before I Change My Mind for inclusion in the 2020 edition of The GLAAD List. The GLAAD List recognizes the most promising unmade LGBTQ-inclusive screenplays in Hollywood that have been hosted by The Black List.
Patrick Ewald, Epic Pictures Group CEO and Executive Producer adds, "Bringing Before I Change My Mind to the screen is not just about representation; it's about celebrating the diverse narratives that shape our world. Working on Before I Change My Mind with visionary director Trevor Anderson along with incredible producers Alyson Richards and Katrina Beatty was a wonderful opportunity to amplify voices, foster understanding, and contribute to a more inclusive cinematic landscape."
Founded in 2007, Epic Pictures is an independent content studio with the mission of delivering the best-in-class genre entertainment "for fans, by fans." Epic Pictures produces, finances, and distributes approximately twenty-thirty independent genre films a year. In 2013, the company established Epic Pictures Releasing which is its US focused distribution division.