Underplayed Gems

The Fruit Machine (2018)

The Fruit Machine poster
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
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

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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.

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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)

More like this

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