Watch 11 exceptional Canadian feature films for free on CBC Gem this March
We’re putting the spotlight on Canadian films with Beans, Brother, Il Pleuviat Des Oiseaux and more
There's never been a better time to celebrate Canada and enjoy stories by Canadian directors. This March, watch 11 new exceptional Canadian feature films for free on CBC Gem.
You'll find something for everyone. From the critically acclaimed adaption of Quebec novel Il Pleuviat Des Oiseaux to Canadian Screen Award winners Beans and Brother to TIFF faves Learn to Swim and Matt and Mara (starring Blackberry's Matt Johnson). Escape to Kenya and meet Kipkembio, a young boy who's hit it big on the stock market. Enjoy touching LGBTQ love stories, Polarized and You Can Live Forever. We've even got new feature films for sci-fi fans: Finality of Dusk and The Beehive.
Grab your remote and sit back. Our "Spotlight on Canadian Film Collection" drops on March 1.
March 1: Beans, Brother, Polarized
Drawing from her own life experiences, director Tracey Deer chronicles the 1990 Mohawk Resistance at Kanehsatà:ke (also known as the Oka Crisis), a 78-day standoff between Indigenous land defenders, Quebec police, the RCMP and the Canadian military in Beans.
Twelve-year-old Tekehentahkhwa (nicknamed Beans) grapples with her anger over the proposed expansion of a golf course onto a Mohawk burial ground and the treatment of her people. Beans won Best Motion Picture at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards.
Based on Canadian writer David Chariandy's novel, Brother, the film (also titled Brother) follows two Trinidadian brothers, Francis and Michael as they come up against prejudices in 1990s Scarborough. Set to the beats of Toronto's early hip-hop scene, a mystery unfolds and sets off a series of events that change their lives forever. Brother won 12 awards, including Best Motion Picture at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards.
Set in rural Manitoba, Polarized is the story of a forbidden love that grows between Lisa, a blue-collar Christian farm girl and Dalia, a successful Muslim woman who runs a high-tech agricultural business in the same town. The touching story is inspired by director Shamim Sarif's own once-forbidden relationship of 27 years with her wife and creative partner, Hanan Kattan and addresses the polarization of immigrants and LGBTQ people in smaller towns.
March 7: Matt and Mara, Finality of Dusk, The Beehive
Matt and Mara tells the story of Mara (played by Deragh Campbell), a creative writing professional navigating a rough patch in her marriage. When her ex, Matt (played by Blackberry's Matt Johnson) re-enters her life after becoming a successful writer, they tiptoe around their unresolved feelings.
Set in 2045, Finality of Dusk follows Ishkode, an Ojibway woman with impressive martial arts skills and Niife, a Nigerian climate refugee. The atmosphere has become toxic, requiring them to wear special breathing helmets. They don't speak the same language but come to rely on each other for survival as they search for "paradise" and a missing sister in northern Manitoba.
The Beehive is a survival story about an Indigenous family who, after witnessing unusual celestial events, discover a strange and rapidly growing nest on their family farm. When it infects widowed single dad Frank with a virus, the family must put their conflicts aside in the face of a pandemic alien invasion.
March 14: Concrete Valley, Learn to Swim
Rashid is a doctor from Syria who is struggling to adjust to his new life in Toronto's Thorncliff Park with his young family in Concrete Valley. Shot by up-and-coming filmmaker Antoine Bourges, this film is part documentary and part fiction and has a cast of (mostly) non-actors who bring a version of themselves to the story.
Learn to Swim tells the story of a stormy romance between two musicians in the Toronto jazz scene: Dezi, a gifted saxophone player and Selma, a bubbly Latin jazz singer. The film is sexy, simmering and mournful as it follows them falling into and out of love.
March 21: You Can Live Forever, Kipkembio (The Wall Street Boy)
After her father's death, Jamie, a gay teenager is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in a community of Jehovah's Witnesses in small-town Quebec. She develops a close friendship that becomes a full-blown love affair with Marike, a devout Witness teen. As the two young women grow closer, Jaime is drawn deeper into the world of Witness theology that promises paradise but has no place for their love. You Can Live Forever is a beautiful tale about the intensity and heartbreak of first love, and the connections and beliefs that bind us.
Kipkembio is about a young mathematical genius in Kenya who passes up an MIT scholarship to provide for his family when his father dies. Using a makeshift computer powered by a car battery in his hut, he develops a unique algorithm and starts trading in the stock market earning him millions of dollars. When his success attracts the attention of unsavoury international financiers, he is forced to run for this life with his girlfriend.
They escape and hatch a plan to share the wealth with the people who need it most: ordinary Kenyans.
March 28: Il Pleuviat Des Oiseaux (And The Birds Rained Down)
Based on Jocelyne Saucier's book (and a Canada Reads contender in 2015), Il Pleuviat Des Oiseaux follows Ted, Tom and Charlie, three octogenarians who live a fiercely independent life in the forest and off the grid.
One morning, they discover that Ted has died in his sleep and as his companions grapple with grief, two women arrive without notice: Raf, a local photographer researching a past devastating wildfire and Ange-Aimee, an elderly escapee from a psychiatric institution.
Watch the "Spotlight on Canadian Film" collection on CBC Gem this March.
CBC Gem is available for free as an App for iOS, tvOS, Fire TV, Android TV, Android phones and tablets, LG and Samsung Smart TVs, Roku, and Xbox One/S/X and online at gem.cbc.ca.
