Seventeen Brings Three Lives Together for One Long Night in Vancouver
Three lives cross over 17 chaotic hours in Seventeen, the debut feature from Vancouver-based filmmaker Justin Ducharme set for its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.
Ducharme discussed the Canadian indie drama in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the premiere The Hollywood Reporter. It screens in Discovery, the festival's section for first and second-time filmmakers.
The story follows three Indigenous and queer sex workers whose paths overlap in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood, according to The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter. The structure is tight. The clock drives everything.
Tamara, played by Nizhonniya Austin, has 10 hours to find her passport or face deportation back to the United States. December is dealing with family back on the reserve as they grieve her recently deceased father. Aiden, played by Taio Gélinas, is working to raise cash as a male prostitute to put down a deposit on an apartment.
Ducharme moved from Manitoba to Vancouver and did sex work to get by, an experience that partly shaped the script. He had previously come out publicly as a sex worker with his 2018 short film Positions. He also writes Seventeen, which is listed by the festival as his writer-director credit TIFF.
What makes this stand out is the closeness to lived experience. Ducharme is not observing this world from outside. He is drawing on years he spent in it.
The 2026 Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10-20, with Seventeen programmed in the Discovery line-up TIFF. The film is also listed to screen at VIFF 2026 in Vancouver VIFF.
