Closing the Outfest film festival in Los Angeles, The Miseducation of Cameron Post explores the issue of gay conversion therapy in an early 90’s setting in midwest America. Based on the novel by Emily M. Danforth, the film is a refreshingly raw coming-of-age tale surrounding gay teen Cameron (played by Chloe Grace Moretz), a queer woman confident in her identity and unapologetic about her sexuality. With gay conversion therapy still occurring in certain parts of the United States, the freakish relevance of this film to a modern context is disturbing. Lead actress Chloe Grace Moretz stated at the premiere “The Miseducation of Cameron Post is about a young woman who was shipped off to a gay conversion therapy centre. Nearly 700,000 adults in the U.S. have undergone conversion therapy, and an additional 77,000 LGBTQ teens will go through conversion therapy in the U.S. in the next 5 years unless the United States passes additional protections. We hope that this film not only raises public awareness about the harm being done by conversion therapy but also serves as a beacon of hope for LGBTQ youth for are searching for their stories on screen.” Check out the trailer for the film below.

Prior to the film we briefly chatted to Sasha, Chloe and Forrest.

S: What drew you to this film?

Sasha Lane: I have empathy and I’m a human being, so that was it, you know? Easy! *smiles*

S: How important is it to maintain the visibility of queer narratives and characters in the media?

Chloe Grace Moretz: I think it’s really important for us in making Cameron Post to adequately depict gay relationships and the gay youth. I feel like this movie in particular, you know, I have two gay brothers in my family, and I think what’s special about this project is that everyone in the movie is on the spectrum; our director is a bisexual woman, so this movie is told through a queen lens, and that’s so so so important in this day and age with a story that is so modern.

S: It’s crazy that conversion therapy is still happening today. Is that something that you were aware of before you signed onto the film?

Forrest Goodluck: I think I was aware of it, but not to this extent, it wasn’t in my reality as much as being a part of a film as it is now. I think as a Native person I was aware of stuff that’s similar to it, like the boarding school systems and the residential school systems which tried to westernize Indian children, so the Catholic religion trying to change people wasn’t entirely new to me.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post comes out in theatres across the U.S. on August the 3rd.