#SPOTTED: SCARBOROUGH PREMIERE OF CLEMENT VIRGO’S “BROTHER” WITH LAMAR JOHNSON, KIANA MADEIRA AND CLEMENT VIRGO

A Red Carpet Premiere in Scarborough? Is ths for real? Cineplex Scarborough Town Centre hosted a special screening of Clement Virgo’s BROTHER, adapted from David Chariandy’s Novel of the same name. Like its source material this film version has gone on to win huge accolades after its TIFF ’22 Premiere, and if this weren’t enough it has garnered 14 Canadian Screen Award nominations, plus being named a finalist for Rogers’ Best Canadian Feature Award at the upoming Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.

The stars are all aligned yes, they even showed up alongside Director/Writer Virgo at the screening attended by select Media, plus friends and family. Lamar Johnson stars as Michael, a young man growing-up amidist the rise of gang violence in Scarborough in the ’90s. We meet his protective brother Francis (Aaron Pierre) whom at a young age, struggles with the ideals of masculinity, being handed the responsibilties of being a proxy caregiver while their mother works overnight shifts, and also his own standing in the neighbourhood and peers. Rad Simonpillai moderated a Q&A following the Movie, commenting on the importance of audiences seeing this Scarborough-set story.

See a reel of highlights from the night here:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mr. Will Wong 📸 (@mrwillwong)

The screening was followed by an afterparty at the Scarborough Civic Centre Library, attended by the likes of special guests Catherine Hernandez (Author of “Scarborough“) and Director X!

Elevation Pictures release BROTHER March 17, 2023.

(Photo/video credit: Elevation Pictures/Mr. Will Wong)