Sleeping Beauty of East Finchley, The

Beautifully shot and edited, this tender drama ambitiously tells its story with openly emotional acting and music. Joan is a 40-ish woman in North London, a devout Catholic who looks after her mum with the help of a nurse, Pat. As Joan and Pat become friends, Pat discovers Joan’s love of singing and invites her to join her choir, “The Friends of Dusty.” But it takes Joan awhile to realize that this is a lesbian choir, and as a performance at the Various Voices festival on the Southbank approaches, Joan gets cold feet in more ways than one. – Rich Cline