Black Conflux (2019)

Set in suburban Newfoundland in 1987, Nicole Dorsey's debut feature 'Black Conflux' is a dreamy account of two converging lives. Fifteen-year-old Jackie (Ella Ballentine) is navigating from vulnerable adolescence to impending adulthood. Dennis (Ryan McDonald) is a socially-inept loner with a volatile dark streak and delusional fantasies of adoring women at his beck and call. The film opens with Jackie auditioning for her school choir with a gorgeous rendition of "Hey, Who Really Cares?" by little-known 1970s psychedelic folk singer Linda Perhacs. It's a symbolic opening for a promising young woman from a broken home. Raised by her aunt and living under the cloud of all the failures endured by the women in her family, Jackie finds herself giving in to internal and external pressures--partying, skipping school, and hitchhiking--in search of her own identity. Her choices leave her speeding inevitably towards Dennis, whose car doubles as a venue for his violent desires.