I’m happy to announce the first in what I hope to be an annual visiting filmmaker series.

Nationally and internationally successful director Bruce LaBruce will be in Peterborough on Feb. 25 and 26 for a film screening of his most recent feature-length film and a seminar.

But who is Bruce LaBruce? For some, a provocateur that we are still too unfamiliar with.

For film scholar Eugenie Brinkema: “Cinephile, pornographer, former graduate student in film theory, founder of the ‘homocore’ movement in Canada – an effort to introduce erotic anarchy into the sexually complacent (and not a little homophobic) punk movement – LaBruce is simply too many things.”

By 2013, we can also add to this list that LaBruce is a director in the romantic comedy genre.

The title of LaBruce’s latest film is appropriate for its story; Gerontophilia, taken etymologically, would mean the love of old men.

In this film set in Montreal, 18-year-old Lake discovers his budding sexual interests in older men while working in an old age care facility. What initially begins as sexual desire then turns into a deep emotional attachment for 82-year-old Melvin Peabody, wonderfully portrayed by Walter Borden. In the middle of this relationship is Lake’s girlfriend, Desiree.  

This love triangle gives LaBruce much terrain to explore social mores (norms) and taboos, as well as demonstrate a loving gaze on the bodies of older men.

While the film is within the confines of the romantic comedy, LaBruce is clearly after something more than laughs. As Desiree tells Lake, his relationship with Melvin is nothing short of revolutionary.

This film will be screened at Market Hall on Feb. 25 at 8p.m. The film is rated 14A. Dr. Ger Zielinski, a researcher at the Frost Center, will facilitate a question and answer period with LaBruce after the film. (And there will likely be an after-party!)

The following morning, Feb. 26 at 10a.m., LaBruce will hold a seminar at Traill College in the Senior Common Room, in Scott House; the overflow room will be Bagnani Hall.

He will present a short film for discussion, converse about the transition from celluloid to digital, social media and the use of the pornography genre in his earlier work.

BE Catering will provide an abundance of food and drink for the seminar.

LaBruce’s stay in Peterborough is sponsored by: Trent Film Society, Traill College, Canadian Studies and the Frost Centre, English Literature, Cultural Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies (Trent), Trent Graduate Student Association and Peterborough Pride.

For more information visit the Trent Film Society Facebook page, troybordun.wordpress.com, or email troybordun@trentu.ca.