Experiencing Interruptions?

DAWN, HER DAD & THE TRACTOR

Briefest:
A young trans woman returns home after the death of her mother to keep a promise to repair her relationship with her estranged Dad. As they begin to restore the old family tractor, they cautiously rebuild their relationship and come to understand the mechanics of the heart.

When a young woman with a startling resemblance to John Andrew’s wife Miranda appears days before her funeral, John Andrew MacGinnis begins an odyssey towards understanding. His son Donald is now Dawn, home to mourn her mother and repair the estrangement with her Dad. As Dawn reconnects with her sister Tammy and her fiancé Byron, a new family order begins to emerge.
An ancient tractor becomes a focus for the mechanically-minded Dawn, but John Andrew’s long-simmering resentments about the tractor heighten family tensions.  
Watching his child work to restore the tractor, he realises reclaiming this relationship means his own coming out: supporting Dawn publicly, and fighting the malicious transphobe whose vicious acts threaten Dawn and her family.  
As they restore the family tractor and work towards showing it as a kind of memorial to Dawn’s mom, Dawn and her Dad cautiously rebuild their relationship and come to understand the mechanics of the heart. 

  • Shelley Thompson
    Director
    DUCK DUCK GOOSE, PEARLS, DAWG, BATS
  • Shelley Thompson
    Writer
    DUCK DUCK GOOSE, PEARLS, DAWG, BATS
  • Terry Greenlaw
    Producer
    UNDER THE WEATHER, STUDIO BLACK, HARD DRIVE, MAN OF A THOUSAND SONGS, BLACK COP (exec prod), IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0339109/
  • Shelley Thompson
    Producer
    DUCK DUCK GOOSE, PEARLS, DAWG, BATS
  • ROBB WELLS
    Key Cast
    "JOHN ANDREW MACGINNIS"
    TRAILER PARK BOYS, RELATIVE HAPPINESS, BEAT DOWN, IMDB. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1036211/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  • MAYA V. HENRY
    Key Cast
    "DAWN"
    FOR NONNA ANNA,
  • AMY GROENING
    Key Cast
    "TAMMY"
    WOULDN'T IT BE NICE, A HOUSE ON FIRE, BONE CAGE, SNOW KISSED, HALLOWEEN PARTY - IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4082592/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  • REID PRICE
    Key Cast
    "BYRON"
    CHAPELWAITE, TRAILER PARK BOYS, MR. D, BONE CAGE IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6714032/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  • BETTE MACDONALD
    Key Cast
    "SANDRA"
    Tracy and Martina's Cape Breton Christmas, Mr. D, Everyone's Famous, Rideau Hall IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0531626/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  • TAYLOR OLSON
    Key Cast
    "MARTY"
    BONE CAGE, I AM SYD STONE, DIGGSTOWN, HOPELESS ROMANTIC IMDB https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6569972/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1,
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 31 minutes 47 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 26, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    1,203,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Language:
    English
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • INSIDEOUT FILM FESTIVAL
    Toronto, ON,
    Canada
    May 27, 2021
    Canadian Premiere
  • FIN Atlantic International Film Festival
    Halifax NS
    Canada
    September 17, 2021
    Atlantic Canadian
    Gala Selection
  • St. John's International Women's Film Festival
    St. Johns, Newfoundland
    Canada
    October 14, 2017
    Newfoundland/Labrador
  • Charlottetown Film Festival
    Charlottetown, PEI
    Canada
    October 24, 2021
    PEI
Director Biography - Shelley Thompson

Nova Scotia, Canada based, award-winning performer and veteran of The Trailer Park Boys, Thompson trained at the UK’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the Canadian Film Centre (2015), and was one of the eight Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC 2016/17) where she was also the recipient of the Feature Film Award for her screenplay Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor.
Dawn, Her Dad & the Tractor was one of twelve projects invited to the Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman Writers Lab and one of ten international scripts invited to Cannes for the Breaking Through The Lens initiative in 2019. This, Thompson’s debut feature film, was shot in Nova Scotia in the summer of 2020 and made its world premiere at the Inside Out Film Festival in Toronto, May 2021.
Thompson’s short films have played festivals around the world. Pearls, the precursor to this feature and also starring Robb Wells, was one of the last BravoFact shorts. Her short Duck Duck Goose (2018), explored the impact of school lockdowns, and was selected by Telefilm Canada for the Not Short on Talent program at Clermont-Ferrand before playing across Canada and in the US, as well as being a finalist in CBC’s Short Film FaceOff.
Thompson has performed leading roles on the stage across Canada and the UK including at the Shaw Festival, UK’s Royal National Theatre and the West End. Notable TV and film performances include Labyrinth, and award-winning performances in Michael Melski’s The Child Remains and Thom Fitzgerald’s Splinters (TIFF 2018).
Thompson is presently working on her second feature BOUQUET (Canada Council NS Arts) and a TV drama series SEE JANE.
She is a champion of LGBTQ issues and parent to Singer/Songwriter T. Thomason.

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Director Statement


Coping with the loss of a loved one in any circumstances is wrenching. But for John Andrew MacGinnis, struggling to cope with the loss of his beloved spouse, while coming to grips with the transition of his only son to a daughter, creates layers on layers of bereavement.

When my child came out to me as trans, his father and I knew we would always support the child we loved. But for all of us it was a roller-coaster time. We couldn’t have predicted the sense of bereavement as we lost our daughter, but the euphoria as we gained a son. We hadn’t lost the person we loved, but were aware that pieces of our future and our past were being shelved: two decades of memories which could be places of pain for our child now; expectations, hopes, plans that all revolved around a world of binary-based expectations.

As my son was transitioning, he would joke that I was, too. I was shifting from years in front of the camera to becoming a writer and director watching from behind. My son's journey inspired me to reach for a different life. This project - reflecting some of our story - had to be my first feature.

DAWN is intended for a broad audience: the queer community certainly, but any audience who enjoys family dramas. We hope DAWN will encourage conversation, understanding, and commitment to a community that is threatened by violence and inequity. I hope it will give parents an opportunity to reflect on how they support their queer children: that it will help us imagine the potential unlocked when communities and families love and support trans individuals.

Shooting this film was a joy for our diverse cast and crew. It was made even more sweet, when, uncertain about when we’d create again, our team emerged after months of pandemic isolation to work together in a glorious Nova Scotia summer.