Film based on Miles City woman's novel about conversion therapy wins Sundance prize

[Ptah]

Miles City native Emily Danforth attended her first Sundance Film Festival in January, an honored guest whose 2012 novel, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” was featured in one of 15 films vying for the top prize in the dramatic narrative category.

Watching the film with more than 1,000 others in the Eccles Theater in Park City, Utah, Danforth had the pleasure of seeing positive reactions to the partially autobiographical story she wrote about being gay in a small town.

The film, which shares the book's title and was directed by Desiree Akhavan, won the Grand Jury Prize, announced by Octavia Spencer on Jan. 27. It was a big moment for Danforth and the actors who were in the audience.

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The book has been earning accolades since it was published by HarperCollins. It won the Montana Book Award in 2012 and two High Plains Book Awards in 2013. It deals with the dark subject of conversion therapy, which is an attempt through spiritual or psychological means to turn gay people straight.

Many of the details about the life of the protagonist, Cameron or Cam, come from Danforth’s own struggles growing up as a gay teen in Miles City. But Danforth’s family never pushed her into conversion therapy.

http://billingsgazette.com/entertainment/books/film-based-on-miles-city-woman-s-novel-about-conversion/article_da8951de-5719-50fc-8ba1-fbacfa189380.html