Chelle Turingan is a Filipinx-Canadian filmmaker and video journalist based in Toronto, Ontario. They are a National Magazine Award-winning editor and cinematographer and their work has been featured in publications including Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Today’s Parent, and on Sportsnet. Small Town Pride is their first film.

I grew up as a closeted queer teenager in Scarborough in the mid-90s. The Toronto suburb wasn’t always the easiest place to navigate. But I was fortunate to live minutes away from downtown and Church Street’s Gay Village, with ready access to the LGBTQ2S+ community. I didn’t realize how much I took that for granted until I met my partner. She also grew up as a closeted queer teenager in the mid-90s, but in a small town nestled in the Ottawa Valley. This was before GSAs existed in high schools, and before the internet and social media made it easier for us to connect with each other. In 2018, her hometown of Smiths Falls celebrated its first annual Pride. The event moved my partner to tears. “I just never thought I’d ever see this day,” she says. That’s why Small Town Pride is special to me: it’s a love letter to all the queer and trans folks who grew up in small towns—past, present and future. The film offers a chance to reflect on where we are now and where we still need to go, and serves as a reminder that the LGBTQ2S+ community is so much larger than our downtown enclaves.