We start off in a diner, filled with eating and conversing patrons. Though the decor is a bit kooky, it is no different a setting as might be found in any restaurant just off the highway.

The camera focuses on a lean back, hunched over at the counter. After a moment the individual rises, takes up their guitar, and turns a bespectacled face towards the lens. "I wanted you to think I was a fighter / so I showed you all my teeth," they sing in a pure, sweet voice, beginning to move through the diner, heedless of all the other guests. This is the opening scene of My Prairie Home, and it is this strange and imaginative from the start to the very end. And while it may be a documentary-musical focusing on musician Rae Spoon, the subject matter will resonate deeply among viewers, especially those who hail from Alberta.

If you’ve never heard of Rae Spoon before – well, you should hear about them now. Hailing from Calgary, Alberta, Spoon is a trans musician who pens songs about their complicated life growing up in the suburban prairies. Their voice is sweet, ethereal, and sometimes heartbreaking, and these songs – most of which can be found on the album of the same name – are the score to My Prairie Home. Instead of existing as an examination of Rae Spoon’s contributions to Canadian music, however, the film acts more like an extension of the music itself.

Before you start thinking that documentaries are boring, you need to take into account the subject and the execution. Bits of life on tour are scrambled up with surreal sequences of narration, interviews, and performances. Since the documentary is scored by Rae Spoon themself, their haunting and ethereal voice gamely draws the viewer onwards in their story. Spiritual recognition, gender identity, familial relationships and even Spoon’s first love are all given their turn to shine. Peppered here and there are subtle and not-so-subtle hints of the issues Spoon (and many others in this country) still face; perhaps the most iconic being shots of Spoon, who prefers to identify themself through the gender neutral pronoun ‘they’, walking in and out of men’s and women’s bathrooms alike.

Helmed by filmmaker Chelsea McMullan, My Prairie Home takes us through the flat and mesmerizing landscape of the prairies, on a straight and yet strangely twisting journey not unlike the highways that snake through the grasslands themselves. In the press release, McMullan gave light to this, saying "I’ve always been interested in landscape and atmosphere and how that reflects your psychological state. This is a further exploration of those ideas, of how we live in spaces and how that forms our identity."

The psychological state viewers could find themselves in might just be one of familiarity. Though Spoon tackles topics that can be more than troubling – their father’s mental illness, their infant brother’s death, the beginning of religious doubt – the film never dwells in dissatisfaction nor drags the viewer down into a depressed state. Rather, the narrative tiptoes deftly between thoughtful meditations and good-natured humour. The lingering effect is not one of negativity but rather of bittersweet, Albertan nostalgia. Spoon’s story may not be ours, but there are many elements within it that a lot of us will be able to recognize as a shared experience.

The truly ‘musical’ aspect of the documentary-musical comes in the form of Spoon’s songs, which are visually represented in what can best be described as music videos. With each new remark and reminiscence by Spoon, the related song creeps up and begins to roll out its own sequence, many of them strange and surreal (the ‘Love is A Hunter’ segment shows Spoon running about a forest in flannel, pursuing and being pursued by elegantly dressed people with giant deer heads). In all, the entire documentary feels like a dream sequence you might have had about someone you were particularly close to, or even yourself.

In short, even if you’ve never heard of Rae Spoon before, this documentary-musical is not something you will want to miss. Beautifully shot and intelligently put together, it will make you think without weighing you down, and you also might walk away with a new musical obsession. The film will premier this month at the Calgary Underground Music Festival on November 22. After that, you can catch it at the Globe Theatre, where it will be playing for a week starting November 29.