Leaving Metropolis is a 2002 Canadian drama film, written and directed by Brad Fraser as an adaptation of his theatrical play Poor Super Man. The film, about a gay man and a married heterosexual man who fall in love, was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and played the international gay and lesbian film festival circuit throughout 2002 and 2003. Plot David (Troy Ruptash) is a well-known artist who is blocked. He decides to take a job as a waiter to try to find inspiration. His friend and roommate Shannon (Thom Allison), a pre-op male-to-female transsexual, stumbles across the Main St. Diner, owned by Matt (Vince Corazza) and Violet (Cherilee Taylor), who are looking for a waiter. David gets hired and quickly becomes close with the couple although they don't know of his standing in the art community and are surprised to learn that he's gay. David's friend Kryla (Lynda Boyd), a columnist for the Winnipeg Tribune, tracks David down at the diner against his wishes. An annoyed David demands that she write up the diner in her column, which she does. The diner's business picks up considerably. Shannon, whose sex reassignment surgery has been repeatedly delayed because of her HIV-positive status, begins to become ill. David has a painting installed and Kryla gets his photo in the paper. Matt and Violet see the photo and realize that he's famous. David and Matt start hanging out. Matt, who had tried his hand at drawing comic books, pesters David to show him his paintings but David resists. Matt confesses that he had once fallen in love with another man in college although he hadn't acted on it. David, finding himself drawn to Matt, paints him nude (although Matt doesn't pose). He tells Matt that there's a painting he needs to see. Matt comes to David's place and sees the painting. He becomes aroused and the two begin an affair. David paints two more portraits of Matt, who still doesn't actually pose. Kryla and Shannon hail them as his best work and entreat him to exhibit them but Matt, nervous about how Violet would react, makes him promise not to. Each also tells the other that he loves him. They keep the relationship secret, though, especially in the face of the vehement disapproval Kryla expresses to David at the idea of his sleeping with a married man. Kryla soon discovers the affair when she