‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’: Sundance-Winning Gay Conversion Therapy Drama Set for Summer Release
FilmRise has announced that it has acquired exclusive North American distribution rights to Desiree Akhavan’s coming-of-age film “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where it went on to win the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize. FilmRise will release the film later this summer. Directed by Desiree Akhavan and adapted for the screen by Akhavan and Cecilia Frugiuele, the film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, John Gallagher Jr., Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck, and Jennifer Ehle.
The drama is based on the Emily M. Danforth novel of the same name and follows the eponymous Cameron Post (Moretz) after she is caught engaging in sexual activity with her best female friend on prom night. Sent off to a gay conversion therapy center, Cameron must contend with the camp’s two very different heads — the strict Dr. Lydia Marsh (Ehle) and her brother Reverend Rick (Gallagher Jr.), who himself as been through the program, meant to “cure same sex attraction” — while also growing closer to fellow campers Jane (Lane) and Adam (Goodluck).
“With ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post,’ Desiree has created a timely yet timeless, hilarious yet heartwrenching story,” said Danny Fisher, CEO of FilmRise in an official statement. “We are proud to bring this powerful film from a rising director to wider audiences, in a time when the story is as profound and pertinent as ever.”
In IndieWire’s review from Sundance, David Ehrlich wrote that the film “is a humble, poignant, and extremely touching coming-of-age drama that unfolds like a seriocomic ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ set at a gay conversion camp for Christian teens circa 1993. Complete with Jennifer Ehle as an indomitable riff on Nurse Ratched, the movie shears Emily M. Danforth’s massive YA novel of the same name down to a sensitive film that cuts right to the heart of the matter. Played by a beautifully understated and unsure Chloë Grace Moretz, Cameron Post is an orphaned high school junior who develops some very biblical — and blessedly mutual — feelings for a girl she meets at Sunday school (‘Blame’ director Quinn Shephard).”
“In FilmRise we have found a passionate supporter driven to bring this important story to a wide audience, and we’re excited to be collaborating and partnering with them on the release,” the filmmakers said in a collective statement.
The film will next screen at the Tribeca Film Festival, kicking off next month in New York City.
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