In a moving new short film, a gay dad prepares lunches for his daughter during her first weeks of school and reflects on starting his family, his own difficult school days, and his hopes for the future. Along with the film is a short documentary that looks more broadly at what family means to LGBTQ people.
Matt Gurr’s Lunchboxes, starring Daniel Brennan and directed by Dan Ellis, is a 17-minute monologue that I found to be an unexpectedly touching piece of storytelling. It was “filmed during lockdown with Zoom and a lot of time and patience,” per the show notes, as a collaboration between Green Carnation Company, an LGBTQ-focused theatrical and digital content company, and Bloody Bandit Productions, both based in Manchester, U.K.
To go along with the short, the companies have also released the educational film Queer All About It: My Queer Family, a 17-minute documentary that looks at “what family means to LGBTQ+ people and what challenges, rewards and support they experience.” In it, LGBTQ+ family members across the U.K. and from organizations like New Family Social, The Rainbow Project, and FFLAG, talk about adoption, same-sex parenting, reciprocal IVF, found and chosen families, and more. Even for those of us not in the U.K., there’s lot that should resonate.
The films are part of “Queer All About It,” Green Carnation Theatre’s ongoing digital project exploring themes affecting the LGBTQ+ community. Watch them both here—I recommend seeing Lunchboxes first, since My Queer Family uses two clips from it and there are mild spoilers.