The Fruit Machine (2018)

Directed by

Sarah Fodey

Genre

documentary film, LGBTQ-related film

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 21m

Rating

3.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary tells the story of a device the Canadian government used in the 50s and 60s to try to identify LGBT employees and remove them from government jobs. It focuses on the people whose lives were harmed by this test.

informativesoberinghistoricalinterviewee-drivenarchivalreflectiveunsettlingpersonal

What happens

The Fruit Machine is a 2018 Canadian documentary film, directed by Sarah Fodey. The film profiles the "fruit machine", a controversial device used by the Canadian government in the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to identify LGBT employees and disqualify them from the civil service, and its effects on the people whose lives and careers were disrupted or destroyed by the test. Figures interviewed in the film include Michelle Douglas, John Ibbitson, John Sawatsky and Gary Kinsman. The film premiered at the Inside Out Film and Video Festival on June 1, 2018, and had selected other film festival screenings before airing as a TVOntario special presentation on September 29. The film received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Documentary Program at the 7th Canadian Screen Awards in 2019. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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