Teenagers are impressionable, but Adam more than most. When he goes to visit his grandmother in the hospital for a final goodbye, she croaks her final words, a comment about his “long torso”, causing his torso to literally extend. It’s been this way all Adam’s life, whenever his body is mocked, it distorts to reflect the callous comments of relatives and the targeted vitriol of fellow teens. His physical transformations are in some ways the least of his worries as he tries to navigate teenage life in late 90s Quebec complete with an impossible crush, pool parties, summer jobs, and a bit of existential dread. In his feature debut, director Joël Vaudreuil crafts a heartfelt portrait of teenage life, as incisive of its cruelties as it is rich in wildly creative absurd visual humor. Loaded with the weight of hindsight, it’s a reflection that never fails to be as funny as it is ultimately sincere.
Presented by
Series Media Partner
Simon Lacroix
Canada
2023
Northern Lights
In French with English subtitles
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Credits
Producer
David Pierrat
Screenwriter
Joël Vaudreuil
ANIM
Nicolas Moussette, Hristo Karastoyanov
Editor
Joël Vaudreuil
Original Music
Joël Vaudreuil
Director
Joël Vaudreuil
When Adam Changes is the feature debut of Joël Vaudreuil. Joël’s short films include The Magnificent Life Underwater (2015), L’enfant aux six hot-dogs (2011) and La récréation du midi (2009). His film, The River’s Lazy Flow (2013), was featured in over one hundred festivals around the world, including the Annecy International Animation Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Joël’s work has been the subject of a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Québécoise in 2017 and another at the Carrousel international du film de Rimouski in 2021.
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