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Some painful, personal issues compelled former Londoner Ebony Tay to make the movie Hate Crime.
"Being a woman and a person of colour, I understand what it's like to be the victim of prejudice," says Tay, producer and music composer of the film that will have its Canadian premiere screening at Rainbow Cinemas tomorrow night.
"And another strong motivation was my brother-in-law's death," she adds.
The brother-in-law is Tay's reference to her gay brother's partner, who committed suicide in Toronto a few years ago.
"When this young man announced his sexuality to his family and friends, they all turned on him," she recalls. "He ended up losing his mind and taking his own life. It was an awful tragedy."
The horrific impact of intolerance is among the social themes probed in Hate Crime.
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Written and directed by Tommy Stovall, the film focuses on Robbie Levinson (Seth Peterson) and Trey McCoy (Brian J. Smith), a gay couple living in Dallas. Trouble arrives with Chris (Chad Donella), a reactionary young man with strong religious beliefs, who threatens their comfortable existence.
Eventually, violence erupts. On behalf of his partner Trey, Robbie is forced to confront prejudice and make some decisions about his sense of morality.
The topics of homophobia, fundamentalist religious beliefs, and same-sex marriage and adoption are addressed in the movie which, this Friday, launches its moviehouse runs in Toronto and Vancouver.
"But this isn't the traditional 'tragic gay movie,' " Tay says about Hate Crime, which has won several awards on the American film festival circuit. "It's actually a very good crime thriller and quite entertaining. I've never seen a movie that gets an audience as involved as this one does."
Born Judith Johnston in South Porcupine, Tay was in her teens when she moved to London in the early 1990s. She attended Banting secondary school and graduated from South secondary before entering the University of Western Ontario. At UWO, she excelled as a track and field star and studied political science and bio-chemistry.
"I intended to become a doctor but then I got interested in a music career," says the singer/songwriter whose professional name combines her nickname, Ebony, and her mother's first name Tay.
For the film's soundtrack, Tay created an eclectic mix of classical music, African sounds and "some Tibetan touches."
"I wanted to give the director something wonderful. I love string quartets doing Wagner and Bach and I added the African music to give it an edge," adds the composer who collaborated with Stovall to write Jesus by 45.
It's the film's final song and earned a spot on the Top 20 Billboard Club play list.
Tay will perform a short, musical acoustic set at tomorrow night's premiere, which will be attended by the film's star Peterson and director Stovall who will conduct a post-screening Q&A session with the audience.
Criticisms that Hate Crime is "anti-Christian" are strongly refuted by its producer/composer.
"Our movie is not out to bash religion," says Tay. "It just makes the observation that there are good Christians and bad Christians."
The film, she adds, carries a positive message about the need to heal the hateful wounds intolerance causes.
"It's called Hate Crime but there's a whole lot of love in this movie. At all its premieres, we've been giving out wristbands that read 'Respect Differences.' "
Proceeds from the film's Canadian premiere will go to the AIDS Committee of London.