Review: Dawn, Her Dad, and the Tractor

Last week my wife and I watched a movie on television. Now I am bursting to tell you about it. My wife picked it for viewing. She had a feeling I would be interested and she was right!

Why would I be interested? First, a large part of my family heritage and my upbringing involves the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is the most eastern mainland Canadian province. In many ways Nova Scotia is a rather laid-back environment. It could be called ‘Maine on Valium’.

Second, when growing up most of my summers were spent at my grandparents’ farm where I often was the one chosen to drive the farm’s 1950s vintage Ford tractor. Of course, back in my day, the Ford was not vintage. It was nearly brand new. Then some days when everyone else was outside and busy I had chances to rummage through my grandmother’s boxes of old clothes for ‘try-ons’. There was that marvelous year before my puberty when she and I wore the same sizes.

Third, over the years in places such as Toronto and Montreal I have come across many trans youth and trans young adults originally from Nova Scotia and the other Canadian Atlantic provinces who had left their hometowns rather that continue or come out living trans in their ‘small-town’ environment. I don’t know of any of them that ever returned home.

Although we have only been together for the last 20 years my wife knows all that about my past. The first two facts about me and the promo photo of the old tractor were enough to get me interested in the movie when it came available for viewing on our home television service called Crave.

Dawn’s family.

Let me tell you about this movie. Dawn, Her Dad, and the Tractor is the story of Dawn, who returns to her rural Nova Scotia home after the death of her mother, with the hope of mending her relationship with her estranged father. The description said something like this: “Set on a Nova Scotia dairy farm, John Andrew has just lost his wife Miranda to cancer. When a young woman with a startling resemblance to Miranda appears on his porch, an odyssey towards understanding begins.”

I like movies set in Nova Scotia just for the scenery and a bit for the long-shot chance that one of my old haunts may be used as backdrop. When it was revealed that Dawn had left home some years earlier as Don or Donnie, the farm lad living with a big secret, I was totally hooked.

I have seen and enjoyed many of the films where a big male star proves his versatility by doing a female impersonation role. You’ve probably all seen Tootsie, To Wong Foo, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Mrs. Doubtfire and even Birdcage. Some Like It Hot was an eye opener for the very young me.

Dawn, Her Dad, and the Tractor is not like those other films. It does not have a big-name male star imitating a female character. Dawn is played by Maya V Henry, a Canadian MTF post-op transgender woman who apparently makes a good income posting videos about her life, including her gender correction, on YouTube where her channel has over 200,000 subscribers.

Dawn, Her Dad, and the Tractor had a first-time writer and director who also has a trans connection. The writer/director is Nova Scotian Shelly Thompson. We are told Thompson started writing the film ‘about seven years ago’ and drew from her son’s experience of being trans. “This film was sort of my love letter to my son’s community, and the hope that [people] understand how important it is . . . that families and communities support trans people,” Thompson said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Mainstreet.

Hear more in Thompson’s own words on YouTube.

Needless to say, in the story there is a lot of personal conflict between father and daughter. The tractor restoration project becomes the bonding agent slowly bringing them together. It helped win me over to the story that the tractor they set out to restore was a 1950s Ford, very similar to the one my grandparents had. Even under all the grime a keen eye could tell the tractor was not a Massey-Ferguson nor International Harvester, not even a John Deere. It was a 1950s Ford. If for no other reason, I wanted to watch the film to see if they got the tractor restored and running.

I must admit that while watching the film I held a private resentment that they seemed to have cast some cisgender actress in the role of Dawn, the estranged child returned home. No one trans could have such feminine features and skin, I reasoned It seemed to me no hair follicle had ever broken through the skin of her cheeks or chin. About ten minutes into the film my wife asked if the actress was really trans. I said no but that she was doing a good imitation. She was bringing a touch of huskiness into her voice. Apparently, my wife knew better but she just played along with my ignorance. She does that a lot, I find. More on the actress comes later.

The backstory in four bullets:

• Don, the son in a small Nova Scotia farm family has grown up knowing he is trans but playing the game of being the good son and brother, working on the farm and starring on the local soccer team.
• Without telling his father and sister the reason. Don told his mother that he was leaving home, going to Montreal to pursue his dream of transitioning to female. His mother approves. (I assume Dawn had learned about the Menard clinic because when we see her, she is definitely post-op.)
• While she is away Dawn learns that her mother had developed a cancer which becomes terminal and had been moved to Halifax for treatments. Dawn moves to Halifax as well but somehow manages to avoid her dad, her sister and all friends while she visits and talks with her dying mother.
• Apparently, Dawn’s mother made her promise that when the time comes for the funeral Dawn will return home and make peace with the rest of the family.

The film opens as she carries out that promise.

Apparently as I review the film, I am not supposed to spoil the story for you. However, the trailer and the publicity stills do a pretty good job of doing that already. Dawn comes home, is accepted back into the family as they grieve their wife and mother, that daughter and father start to bond as they work together to restore the tractor, that the tractor is somehow transformed back to 1950s mint condition. It is not that it happens but how it happens that makes the story interesting.

Of course, there is conflict with the current town bully who cannot accept that the guy he knew as Don/Donnie, the local soccer star has become Dawn, a self-assured female.

There is heightened drama when the tractor is threatened with destruction in a fire set by guess who.

There is suggestion of a love interest when Dawn and a local androgynous character seem attracted to each other.

There is a resolution when the tractor wins the mysterious contest against what seems to be no other vintage tractors (I had to slip in my disappointment on that count) and a celebratory gay pride parade of one exhibit breaks out.

The real resolution comes when the father sits down on the porch/verandah with a daughter on each side and tells them . . . Well, I’ll let you see that for yourself. Bring some tissues.

The moral of this story is that whether one starts out life as Don and ends up Dawn or Marcus becomes Maya or Shelly Thompson’s daughter becomes her son, no matter how one’s outward primary and secondary sex characteristics get altered that does not change the person with skills, abilities and personality inside. Dawn coming home minus her penis did not cost her the ability to fix machinery. Her additional breast tissue did not lessen her skill with the soccer ball.

That is the same for all. The capabilities we had while displaying the characteristics associated with one gender will be the same characteristics we have with the other. That goes for the good and the bad. If we were an a-hole as a male we’ll probably be an a-hole as a female and we’ll have to work on that. There is no known way to surgically alter personality.

But wait; what about that actress playing Dawn? Maya V Henry is a young Canadian with a successful presence on YouTube and apparently other social media. Her videos on her transition, on makeup tips, on her life in general have gained a considerable following and apparently a successful stream of income for herself.

I suggest you Google her but be sure to put in the V as there is another Maya Henry, this one a GG or cisgender young female in Texas.

I think for some of you, particularly the younger ones, Maya V Henry could become an important ‘influencer’ in your lives. This is Henry’s first feature-length film. She said the experience was life changing.

By casting trans individuals like herself, Henry said the film provides representation for the trans community but also normalizes trans individuals being accepted off-screen.

Where can you see Dawn, Her Dad, and the Tractor? I’m not sure. It has been doing the circuit of film festivals. We saw it through a film and video service called Crave. However, I do not think it has been scheduled for any theater release or has been picked up by HBO or any other pay per view service.

Other Reviews:

Chris Knight of Canada’s National Post newspaper wrote, “There’s enough sly humour packed into the film’s 92 minutes to qualify it as a comedy-drama, and one with a big heart to boot.” Chris gave it a 4 out of 5.

Tags: featured, film

Category: Product Review