Monica’s News, from Pamela Gallant, is a hidden gem of a movie bouncing around festivals for about two years. Finally getting a theatrical release, although limited, it tells the story of Casey (Polly Gallant-Mclean) from Nova Scotia. The village’s first paper girl, she gets into other people’s houses, houses with sad and couch ridden women. Houses where fathers pray the rosary, forcing their families on a God even if they are not believers.

Although Monica’s News is mostly a movie that’s realist, toeing the lines of depressing, Casey has some rays of sunshine in her life. Those rays are her older cousin Monica (Elisa Paszt) and the latter’s friend Joey (Wiljo Martin) from afar. But that disappears as Monica dies, a piece of news that makes her as depressed as the adult women. Summer turns to winter, the cops arrest Joey, but she saw Monica’s father (Kevin Kincaid) during that night.

This movie is more about a random disappearance because of how it paints society from five decades ago. Feminism and ‘liberal’ politics roared back in the 1970s, echoing even in the repressive villages of Nova Scotia. The movie paints those villages as places where the Catholic church still had a stronghold on households. And Monica’s News shows that repression from a child seeing that men are hypocritical about their beliefs.

Calling Monica’s News a depressing movie feels reductive, so let’s spin things in a more positive light, shall we? At least this movie isn’t afraid to tell the truth and how it impacts children too young to learn what’s really going on. Gallant-Mclean isn’t perfect because most child actresses aren’t but she’s very good in moments. That’s specifically true when she doesn’t have to say anything and lets us feel Casey’s depression.

Bittersweet independent movies like Monica’s News are also good at telling its story through elements like costume design. The movie gives Casey, a child, the best post-hippie drip with rainbow blouses from whoever buys them for her. Contrast that, of course, with church girl outfits that her father (James Gilbert) forces on her. All of this is obviously pointing to the life she wants to lead and what society forces on.

Another element in Monica’s News is the cinematography as a warm summer turns into a fading winter. Most of the movie takes place indoors, where warm colours can turn dowdy like what the 1970s probably felt like. Homes are where  men can sometimes impose their rules, but at other times, women get their say. Casey learns this from an older woman, Hazel McClure (Allegra Fulton), another ray of hope for Casey.

Canadian film lovers can watch Monica’s News in select theatres.