I, Claudia is an adaptation of the hit one-woman play starring Kristen Thomson. Claudia is an “official” pre-teen, still reeling from her parents’ divorce. Her father is getting re-married, she has a science fair project coming due, and she is in the physical and emotional throes of puberty. Claudia speaks to us from inside the boiler room of her school where she stores all the things that are secret and dear to her. Incensed and incredulous at the adult world around her, she is irrepressibly funny about it at the same time.

Kristen Thomson won a Dora for her stage version and transfers the wit, skill and emotional range for the film. She plays four very different characters and her transformation into each of them is aided by masks. The characters are: Claudia, who is just about 13, and struggling to hide her hurt and confusion over her parents’ divorce and her father`s impending remarriage; her soon-to-be stepmom, Leslie, who is just a bit too flighty and brittle to provide much comfort, but Claudia is offered some solace by the character of Douglas, who is her grandfather and finally Drachman, her school`s “Bulgonian” custodian and a former filmmaker whose works are cleverly integrated into the fabric of I, Claudia.

75 minutes – Comedy
Release date: 2004
Canadian distributor: Mongrel Media