Underplayed Gems

Altona (2023)

Altona poster
Country
Canada
Runtime
1h 34m
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

A documentary about a 1990 attack in Altona, Manitoba where a gay teenager set fire to a house where two of his bullies were. It focuses on the survivor Tyler Pelke and his work as a motivational speaker.

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What happens

Altona is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Heath Affolter, Jon Affolter, Nathan Affolter and Thomas Affolter, and released in 2023. The film centres on the 1990 Altona murder, in which Earl Giesbrecht, a teenager in Altona, Manitoba, assaulted two classmates who had bullied him for being gay, and then set the house they were located in on fire. The film centres principally on the experiences of Tyler Pelke, who survived the incident and went onto become a motivational speaker and victims' rights advocate. Giesbrecht himself does not appear in the film, although he granted an interview to the Affolters and wrote a statement of penitence which was read in the film by actor Gabriel Carter. The film premiered at the 2023 Whistler Film Festival, where it was the winner of the Whistler Film Festival Documentary Award. The Affolters received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Editing in a Documentary at the 13th Canadian Screen Awards in 2025, and won the WGC Screenwriting Award for Best Writing in a Documentary. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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