The Red Deer Museum and  Art Gallery (MAG)’s Fall 2023 season of Reel Movie Mondays will open with a feature film debut from award winning, writer and director Trevor Anderson, Before I Change My Mind.

Born, raised, and educated in Red Deer, then Edmonton, Anderson describes himself as a “writer director and former video store clerk”. Accolades for his short films include the Lindalee Tracey Award, 2007, from Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, Ontario, Jury Award for Best Short Film, 2009, from Pink Apple Film Festival in Zurich, Switzerland, Best Documentary Short, 2015, from Scruffy City Film and Music Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Anderson was named one of “25 Influential Alberta Artists” of the last 25 years by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Before I Change My Mind is Anderson’s first feature-length film. It has since gone on to screen around the world, from Gimli, Manitoba to Oslo, Norway, and now it is returning home with the MAG’s Red Deer screening.

Before I Change My Mind confronts the challenges and triumphs of self-becoming with the unwavering honesty of someone who remembers them both.” While the other students wonder if their new classmate is a boy or a girl, Robin forges a complicated bond with the school bully, making increasingly dangerous choices to fit in.

Eagle-eyed viewers will also take note of the nostalgic ‘green onion’ water tower visible in some of the scenes, as the film was partially shot in Red Deer.

Tickets for the film are available for purchase online, over-the-phone, or in person at the MAG in advance of the film’s screening.