#FIRSTLOOK: CBC GEM MARCH 2025 PROGRAMMING

As Canadians look to support homegrown stories and creators, CBC is bringing a new lineup of 12 exceptional Canadian feature films to wide audiences across the country for free on CBC Gem. The titles include CBC Films’ BROTHER, directed by Clement Virgo, and BEANS, directed by Tracey Deer, as well as recent festival darling MATT AND MARA from Kazik Radwanski, starring Deragh Campbell and Matt Johnson. The 12 films join currently available CBC Films titles such as BLACKBERRY, BONES OF CROWS, and CRIMES OF THE FUTURE in the Spotlight on Canadian Film Collection, launching March 1 on CBC Gem.

Images from the following movies are available. Please credit Courtesy of CBC.

BEANS (Drama, directed by Tracey Deer) CBC Films

Begins streaming Saturday, March 1

Drawing from her own experiences as a child, director Tracey Deer provides a poignant and engaging chronicle of real-life events that shook the nation. BEANS takes place at the height of 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, over the proposed expansion of a golf course on to a Mohawk burial ground. Twelve-year-old Tekehentahkhwa (nicknamed Beans) grapples with her anger over the treatment of her people. The film won Best Motion Picture and the John Dunning Best First Feature Film at the 2021 Canadian Screen Awards.

BROTHER (Drama, directed by Clement Virgo) CBC Films

Begins streaming Saturday, March 1

Propelled by the pulsing beats of Toronto’s early hip-hop scene, BROTHER is the story of Francis and Michael, sons of Caribbean immigrants maturing into young men. Exploring themes of masculinity, identity, and family, a mystery unfolds during the sweltering summer of 1991, and escalating tensions set off a series of events that change the course of the brothers’ lives forever. BROTHER crafts a timely story about the profound bond between siblings, the resilience of a community, and the irrepressible power of music. The film won 12 awards including Best Motion Picture, Achievement in Direction and Adapted Screenplay (Clement Virgo), and Best Performance in a Leading Role (Lamar Johnson), at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards.

POLARIZED (Drama, directed by Shamim Sarif) CBC Films

Begins streaming Saturday, March 1

On the verge of her wedding, a successful Muslim woman falls into a passionate relationship with a blue-collar Christian woman who works for her. In a modern-day small town that is politically and economically polarized, being true to themselves means turning their backs on everything they’ve ever believed.

MATT AND MARA (Drama, directed by Kazik Radwanski)

Begins streaming Friday, March 7

A chance encounter leads Mara, a young creative writing professor, to reunite with Matt, a charismatic, free-spirited author from her past who wanders onto her university campus. Bonded by their shared interests, the two begin to grow closer as she contends with her strained marriage to an experimental musician. When her husband suddenly cancels plans to drive Mara to a conference out of town, Matt accompanies her on the road trip, where pressure slowly mounts against their undefined relationship.

FINALITY OF DUSK (Drama, directed by Madison Thomas) CBC Films

Begins streaming Friday, March 7

The year is 2045. Extreme environmental devastation has pushed the scattered humans left into the wild. Ishkode is a strong-willed Ojibwe woman who has always lived on her home reserve. After the death of her companion Sam, Ishkode reluctantly teams up with Niife, a Nigerian climate refugee who is searching for her sister in the remote part of Northern Canada she calls “Paradise.” Ishkode’s cheap, general-issue mask is breaking down. With the yellow fog of poisonous air and a menacing, deaf mask-hoarder, Odin, on their heels, Ishkode and Niife must communicate with, trust, and help each other to find “Paradise,” which may or may not exist. What does exist is the drive to live and to hope.

THE BEEHIVE (Drama, directed by Alexander Lasheras) CBC Films

Begins streaming Friday, March 7

The life of a widowed single father, Frank Piers, and his two children, Arron and Rosemary, are upended after a night of strange cosmic phenomena in the skies. The next day, Rosemary discovers a peculiar nest growing on a big leaf maple tree in the back property; by the time Frank and Arron find the nest, it has grown into a giant cocoon-like hive, and it infects Frank with an alien virus. Arron begins displaying symptoms of the virus too, and falls ill while Rosemary escapes the property with her aunt, Zoe Grant, who brings them to a research vessel to escape.

CONCRETE VALLEY (Drama, directed by Antoine Bourges)

Begins streaming Friday, March 14

Rashid, a doctor from Syria, struggles to adjust to his new life in Toronto with his young family. He tries to hold on to his identity by working as an unlicensed doctor, but the tension that has accumulated in his marriage begins to surface.

LEARN TO SWIM (Drama, directed by Thyrone Tommy) CBC Films

Begins streaming Friday, March 14

LEARN TO SWIM is the jazz-infused story of a talented saxophone player, who navigates through a series of personal, professional, and romantic struggles. A musical meditation on love and loss, the film follows the tumultuous relationship between Dezi and a vivacious singer named Selma, and the music they fought to make. The film was named one of Canada’s Top Ten films, presented by TIFF, in 2021.

THIS PLACE (Drama, directed by V. T. Nayani) CBC Films

Begins streaming Friday, March 21

Starring Devery Jacobs (Backspot, Reservation Dogs) and Priya Guns (Tide of Lies), THIS PLACE is the story of two young women falling in love for the first time. One is half-Iranian, half-Mohawk; the other is Tamil. Kawenniióhstha has just moved to Toronto, to pursue her dream of becoming a poet. The city is also where her estranged father lives. Raised by her single Kanien’kehá:ka mother in Kahnawà:ke Mohawk Territory, she never knew her dad. And he does not know she exists. She yearns to meet him, but struggles to make contact. For Malai, after the passing of her mother, her father’s alcoholism reaches its peak, pushing her to leave home with her elder brother. Years later, as her father battles terminal cancer, she tries to reconcile with him, while navigating her brother’s refusal to do the same. Through two families complicated by love and loss, this film intimately explores the stories of those living in the liminal space between cultures, displaced both at home and abroad. At the centre of it all remains Kawenniióhstha and Malai, whose journeys we follow together and apart.

YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER (Drama, directed by Sarah Fobes and Mark Slutsky) CBC Films

Begins streaming Friday, March 21

When Jaime, a gay teenager, is sent to live with her aunt and uncle in a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in small-town Quebec, she falls madly in love with a devout Witness teen. As the two young women grow closer, Jaime finds herself drawn deeper into the Witness theology. The two begin a secret affair and for a short time forget that they are from two different worlds.

KIPKEMBOI (THE WALL STREET BOY) (Drama, directed by Charles Uwagbai) CBC Films

Begins streaming Friday, March 21

Kipkemboi, a young mathematical genius in Kenya, must pass up a MIT scholarship and provide for his family when his father dies. As he struggles with his dreams slipping away, Kipkemboi’s girlfriend, Chipchirchir, gives him a book that changes his life. Inspired by what he learns, he develops an algorithm to play the stock market. As he starts stock trading from a cobbled-together computer, his algorithm turns out to be an astronomical success generating millions of dollars. With massive profits falling into an unknown town in Kenya, it attracts the attention of unsavoury international financiers, local police and the elders of his village. Kipkemboi and Chipchirchir must run to save their lives.

IL PLEUVAIT DES OISEAUX (AND THE BIRDS RAINED DOWN) (Drama, directed by Louise Archambault)

Begins streaming Friday, March 28

Three elderly hermits live in the woods, cut off from the rest of the world. While wildfires threaten the region, their quiet life is about to be shaken by the arrival of two women: a luminous octogenarian unjustly institutionalized her whole life, and a young photographer charged with interviewing survivors of the region’s deadliest forest fire. After the death of the eldest hermit, the two women make an astonishing discovery: hundreds of paintings echoing his tragic experience related to that devastating fire. A story of intertwined destinies, where love can happen at any age.