Being Different
1957 · 9m · Canada
Directed by Julia Murphy
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A 13-year-old who collects butterflies is mocked by his friends and must choose between his passion and fitting in with the crowd.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1957 NFB earnestness about butterfly-collecting and peer pressure—exactly the safe coming-of-age beats everyone else would greenlight. Unless Murphy does something genuinely perverse with the premise, this feels like it's *designed* to be uncontroversial, and that bores me.
Murphy's formalist touch in the NFB tradition is evident here—the contemplative framing of a boy's solitary passion set against social pressure creates a visual argument about individuality that unfolds with rigor and restraint. This is the kind of tender, structurally considered short that deepens with each festival circuit viewing.
The singular move is likely how Murphy uses silence and butterfly imagery—whether as metaphor or pure observation—to let the protagonist's internal life speak louder than dialogue; that restraint on a shoestring 1957 budget is what separates a polished school film from something that actually breathes.