Shannon Amen (2019)

Based on the words, music, and art of Shannon Jamieson," Shannon Amen" unearths the frantic, passionate, and pained expressions of a young woman overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety as she struggles to reconcile her sexual identity with her religious faith. Written and directed by Jamieson's friend, Chris Dainty, the film is a multi-layered memoir that fuses archival footage and an array of animation techniques (including icemation) to reconstruct the complexity, instability, and sorrow that Shannon struggled with-issues that continue to torment so many other LGBTQIA+ youth like her. Inspired by true events, Shannon Amen is both elegy and therapy, as Dainty, like Jamieson, uses his art to come to terms with his own grief and confusion over the loss of his friend. What emerges is not a tale of sorrow or a critique of a rigid faith, but an empowering story of great love, compassion, friendship, and the importance of unharnessed self-expression. Produced by the National Film Board of Canada and made with the collaboration of Shannon's friends and family, Shannon Amen is a potent social commentary that seeks to break through social stigmas by sparking discussion on the intersection of homosexuality and religion.