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1983-10-01
N/A
22 min
Boys and Girls is a 1983 Canadian short film directed by Don McBrearty. It is based on Alice Munro's short story of the same name, written in 1968. It is a coming of age story about a girl growing up on a farm having to accept that in her lifetime she will always be considered "only a girl." The film won an Oscar in 1984 for Best Short Subject.
“Margaret” (Megan Follows) is a young girl living with her younger brother “Laird” (Ian Heath) on the farm of her dad (David Fox) and mum (Clare Coulter) but she’s pretty unfulfilled. She yearns to take some responsibility around the place but her father only has eyes for her brother and seems content to leave her to more mundane and domestic matters. Indeed, when she takes pity on one of their horses and lets it loose, much to the chagrin of her parents, their only word of reprimand when she is grassed on by her brother is “she’s only a girl”. It’s a curious drama this, not least because the message it clearly sends about the roles assigned to each gender flies in the face of the practicalities of running a small, rural, enterprise where everyone has to muck in and do their bit. It highlights the sheer stupidity of relegating her to a supporting role around the place when she clearly has the wherewithal to contribute more fully and usefully. A sort of cutting of your nose to spite your lace! The acting, writing and photography are all adequate enough but it’s really the thrust of the story that makes this worth twenty minutes.
