Production of Justin Ducharme’s debut feature Seventeen is set to start 1 July in Vancouver under producers Olivia Golosky, Tyler Hagan and Eva Thomas, according to the Film & Television Industry Alliance database, which also lists locations and a one-day-in-the-city story line. The drama expands the writer-director’s earlier work and traces three Indigenous sex workers—December, Tamara and Aaron—across 17 hours that intertwine chance, crisis and community.
Ducharme grew up in the Métis community of St. Ambroise and now works on Coast Salish territory; his creative practice fuses personal experience in survival sex work with formal training at Vancouver Film School.
Recognition has come through the Indigenous Screen Office, which backed him for the 2022 Sundance Native Lab, where he refined character and structure for the project that became Seventeen. Earlier shorts such as Positions laid narrative groundwork by depicting a day in the life of a young Indigenous hustler.
During a public “Research As…” residency at Emily Carr University, Ducharme called the feature “a love letter” to chosen family among urban Native youth and stressed an intent to counter shallow screen tropes surrounding sex work. The residency opened development to audiences through table reads and watch-party events, letting community members influence dialogue and tone.
Consultation has also taken place with PACE Society, a peer-driven Downtown Eastside organisation whose harm-reduction model shaped early drafts. PACE and similar groups have recently faced funding cuts that advocates warn leave local sex workers without key supports, underscoring the urgency of accurate representation on screen. Ducharme says embedding lived perspectives throughout production is essential to “decreasing stigma and shame” while keeping the narrative grounded in real agency.