Roxane Lavoie

Sweet Sixteen presents eight 16 year old girls that unveil themselves through 8 bittersweet monologues. All highlighted in a evocative and poetic setting, the characters deliver on different themes; self-image, eating disorders, anxiety, their first love, their first kiss, friendship, sorority, sex, rape, incest, social media, social and political revolts. Constructed as a symphony form, the piece of work goes through four movements and is musically supported. The strong visual identity forces the movie to define itself somewhere between full feature film and object of art. Sweet Sixteen is a cinematographic adaptation done by Alexa-Jeanne Dubé from the play of the same name written in 2018 by the late Suzie Bastien.

Mounia, a violinist, dreams of earning a place in her school's prestigious orchestra to make her father proud. Crushed by his expectations, her teacher's relentless demands, and the fierce competition to remain first chair, she turns to a performance-enhancing drug that pushes her talent to new heights while destroying her physical and mental health. To save herself, she must find the courage to break free from the expectations that have defined her life.