Ottawa’s Saint Paul University will take a closer look at the idea of love and the complications it brings to human relationships on April 28.

The university will screen Love’s Journey, a new documentary by Rick Bechard that tackles passion, sex, sexuality and spirituality.

“Its basic intent is to provide viewers with another way of understanding our relationships,” Bechard says. “The documentary, be it good or bad, demonstrates that the event most people call love is really nothing more than meeting our ego needs. Yet, we call it love.

“The audience begins to grasp that real love, albeit hard to describe, is really within us and only begins to be experienced when we work on ourselves.”

As a gay man who lived through the ’70s, Bechard says he faced a number of challenges that influenced the documentary. “We all struggle for self-esteem, and to have messages of hatred and prejudice permeate the world was not helpful. But as I look back, I see how being gay turned out to be a very important tool for me. It put me in the position where I had no choice but to look and to understand.”

Bechard says he used to believe straight people had a monopoly on love and normal relationships.

“I have since discovered that love does not work that way,” he says. “It was being gay that turned out to be my personal motivation to look within. Even though it was difficult in the early years, I am now thankful that I was gay because it was the premise for my wanting to perceive and understand the world differently.”

Love’s Journey includes interviews with renowned psychotherapist Kenneth Wapnick and Montreal therapist Mylene D’Astous.

Love’s Journey
Sat, April 28, 2pm

St Paul’s University amphitheatre