Following the death of his mother, 17-year-old Egyptian teenager Nabil (Ryan Ali), moves to Toronto to live with his traditional-minded architect father. He soon meets Malibu (Alexandra Billings), a charismatic trans elder, fighting alone against the possible demolition of her drag bar/social center, Mandy’s. When Nabil, an aspiring dressmaker, learns that Malibu makes all her clothing, the two bond with Malibu taking him under her wings. Soon the two work together on the crusade to save the historic queer bar, a task complicated by Nabil’s father’s own involvement with the developers. A charming and entertaining look at one young man’s coming out as well as a celebration of drag life and LGBTQIA+ history.
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Egyptian/Canadian Reem Morsi worked as a professional scuba diver and as a human rights officer at the UN for over a decade before turning her career attention to filmmaking.
Her short films include THEIR FEAST (2012), THE DOOR (2016) and SHOW AND TELL (2016). Morsi has also directed numerous episodes of Canadian TV series. Her first feature film was the comedy/thriller HYSTERIA (2022), which was followed by the thriller THE LAST MARK (2022).
Morsi’s feature film script, BOOTLEG, received many accolades including the Rainin Grant/San Francisco Film Society (2016), Berlinale Script Lab 2018, and highlighted at the Berlinale Talents Opening Ceremony, participated at Realness Pan African Screenwriting Residency & Cannes Film Festival Atelier des Cinemas du Mondes.
Morsi has participated in the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2012, the Women in the Director’s Chair in 2014/2015, the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors’ Lab in 2015, and the TIFF Talent Lab in 2016. She also won the Telefilm Canada New Voices Award at the Toronto Screenwriters Conference in 2017.
Morsi is a recipient of The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s inaugural Apprenticeship Program for Female Directors, through which she is currently shadowing the director of THE HANDMAID’S TALE. She has also been chosen as a participant of Women in View’s 2xMore 2017 Director’s Lab, where she will get the opportunity to shadow on and direct an episode of Sinking Ship Entertainment’s series DINO DANA.

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