Episode 30: Shelley Thompson

Dawn, Her Dad and the Tractor is a family drama that finds a young trans woman (Maya V. Henry in her film debut) returning to her rural Nova Scotia town for the funeral of her mother. Her arrival shakes up her father John Andrew (Robb Wells) and sister Tammy (Amy Groening), already grieving one loss and now facing another, more unexpected one, and learning that it’s also a victory. Shelley Thompson drops by the show to talk about writing and directing her first feature—which also has the dubious distinction of being the first film made in Nova Scotia in pandemic times—premiering at the Inside Out festival in Toronto this week.