Director Amnon Buchbinder’s describes the making of Whole New Thing as a challenge ‘to spin the flax into gold’: a draft script in two weeks, five days of pre-production, fifteen days of shooting amidst three record-breaking winter storms and five weeks of cutting made this sharp and poetic film even more of a marvel.

Whole New Thing is a Canadian low budget film and Buchbinder’s second feature. Notwithstanding having the mathematical skills of a 6th grader, 13 year old Emerson Thorsen has the cultural intellect of a 35 year old. Having written his first thousand page book ‘The Fire of Evermore’, and having been home schooled by his hippy parents, Kaya and Rog, Emerson reluctantly goes to school for the first time at the Chezzbrook County Middle School after concerns by Kaya over his intellectual imbalance toward culture and literature, and his university prospects without an all-rounded education.

Once there, his teacher Don Grant establishes a rapport with Emerson and looks out for his personal welfare while engaging with Emerson’s wit and penchant for literature. Don is a gay 42 year old separated after a long-term relationship for which he blames himself; his life revolves around going to teach at Chezzbrook, caring for his dementia afflicted mother in a nursing home and engaging in anonymous sex with other men in public washrooms. He appears to be living his life in an existential transition; his home is filled with unpacked boxes and littered with books, candy and porn.

Don becomes intrigued by Emerson and the depth of his precocious and cultured maturity. This interest is clearly pronounced when, after Emerson’s frustrated remarks about the feebly simple messages within the class’s current reading project ‘Snowboard Snowjob’, Don has the students literally throw out the Enid Blyton-esque book and study Shakespeare’s As You Like It instead.

Figuratively and emotively Don explains the nature of the Shakespearian masks of tragedy and comedy to the class by analogising the curvatures of the mouth depicted on the masks to the ups and downs of life. He explains that tragedy begins with a depressing foundation and a gloomy outlook but there are some events that occur in the story that may be promising and potentially bring good outcomes to raise ones spirits, however the story ends as it begins, bringing a reality check to the audience. Conversely, comedy begins on a high with good fortune and happiness, followed by events that shake this foundation: a disaster or problem that threaten a favourable outcome until things are worked through, the problem is faced and as such the story ends as delightfully as it started.

Emerson sees the humanity in Don’s profound lecture and, as a result, his affections with Don begin. Meanwhile, Emerson’s parents are in the midst of relationship difficulties and Don becomes the object of Emerson’s misplaced love and infatuation during a turbulent period for the family. Don, however, does not present any indication of paedophilic proclivities; he expresses no sexual want for Emerson or makes any attempt to seduce him. Instead, he feels for Emerson’s testing journey as he perhaps sees much of his younger self reflected in Emerson’s adolescence, eccentricities and sense of the world around him as the young man encounters schoolyard prejudices at his difference, and is subjected to frequent jabs in the eyes from the bullies who conclude that he is gay.

Whole New Thing is a provocative and challenging film. It shatters the image of older gay men as predatory creatures and tests the boundaries of the student and teacher, the father and son, and the friend and lover, exploring instead the infinite possibilities in between.