A still from the film "A Place Where I Belong," directed by Rheanna Toy

By Tommy Osborne

Film Screening

Award-winning film screens in Prince George for first time

Sep 25, 2025 | 5:49 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – At the “Serving with Pride: Inclusive Approaches to 2SLGBTQIA+ Communities” conference, an award winning film was shown in Prince George for the first time. Directed by Rheanna Toy, the film-documentary “A Place where I Belong,” became the first Canadian-produced feature ever to win the Narrative Change Award at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

“A Place Where I Belong is about people who experience intellectual and developmental disabilities, who are also LGBTQ+. The film follows the very innovative program that came out of the Vancouver Lower Mainland called CQC: Connecting Queer Communities. Their mandate is to connect people who experience this intersection with the queer community, and that’s sort of the through line as we go into the stories of six individuals and what it’s like for them to have a disability and be queer and how they navigate those challenges,” Toy explained.

Describing her film as a passion project, Toy said she was inspired to create this film out of her own pocket and on her own time due to how much she cares about the issue.

“It’s really important. I don’t think enough people are aware of the barriers that people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities face, period. But especially when they’re queer, it’s a whole other can of worms, quite frankly, and it really is a human rights issue that we need to look at as a society,” Toy continued.

Toy said she learned of people in their 60s who never had the chance to fall in love due to their disability, or other people who feel stuck due to lack of mobility. In cases like these, even a well-meaning care giver could be a huge barrier towards a more free life, which is a big reason why she felt so driven to create this film.

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“One of our interviewees in the film says that you get into a situation where the people who are your oppressors are also the people you rely on. This is often the case in disability and community living, so it’s important, because we’re all people. We all want to have the best experience on this planet for as long as we have, and it’s not fair that some of us are stuck and can’t have these experiences that many of us take for granted,” Toy said.

This is the third time the film has been shown, with the previous two showings being in Vancouver and Palm Springs, California. Toy says the audience so far has really resonated with the film’s message and people featured, with several audience members crying.

“There’s a lot of seriousness and a lot of issues, but the takeaway is hope. And the other thing that people are telling me is that they want to do something to further this issue, and that they they see the commonality between themselves and their own experience, and also the people on screen,” Toy said.

If you are interested in learning more about the film, or contributing to the cause of creating more inclusive spaces, you can visit the website AplacewhereIbelong.com.

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