Big Cedar Films is thrilled to announce the return of the hugely popular series Farm Crime, premiering Thursday, April 1, on the free CBC Gem streaming service. Returning for a second season, the true-crime documentary genre once again gets a uniquely Canadian spin with a deep dive into the world of farming and agriculture.
Comprised of six episodes, Farm Crime Season 2 explores the largely unseen dark side of Canada's agriculture industry. The series covers a range of cases; from an invasion of the Asian giant hornet AKA ‘murder hornet’ in British Columbia to the heartbreaking story of a missing mare in Ontario and a million-dollar sting operation in the secretive world of Nova Scotia’s baby eel fishery. Directors for Season 2 include Farm Crime producer Geoff Morrison, Kat Jayme (Finding Big Country), Alexandra Lazarowich (Fast Horse), Conor McNally (IIKAAKIIMAAT), Stephanie Joline (Play Your Gender) and Maya Annik Bedward (The Haircut).
Created by Big Cedar Films’ principal Geoff Morrison and produced by Morrison and Christina Carvalho, Farm Crime Season 1 earned both Canadian Screen Award and Banff Rockie Award nominations and won a raft of web series prizes, including Best Canadian Series and Best Documentary Series at 2019 ToWebFest. Farm Crime Season 1 launched in August 2018 and set the record at that time as the most-streamed CBC Gem original unscripted series over its first seven days. Warner Bros. Unscripted Television has also optioned the Farm Crime format to develop a US version of the show.
A complete list of Farm Crime Season 2 episodes is below:
- Invasion of the Murder Hornets (dir. Kat Jayme)
The Asian Giant Hornet, dubbed by the media as the “murder hornet,” made headlines when it arrived in America in Spring 2020. But nine months before the murder hornet became an overnight sensation, the honeybee’s deadliest natural predator had already arrived in the sleepy town of Nanaimo, BC. When a group of dedicated beekeepers discovered a nest — the first in North America — they quickly hatched a plan to eradicate it, save their honeybees and stem the invasion of the murder hornets.
- The Million Dollar Baby Eel Deal (dir. Stephanie Joline)
Every Spring, in streams and estuaries in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, small groups of fishers fan out across the region to harvest one of the richest catches per kilogram in the world: baby eels, also known as elvers. A kilogram of elvers can sell for as much as $4,500, largely because it’s virtually impossible to breed eels in captivity and catch limits are strictly regulated to protect the species. In Spring 2018, fisheries officers received a tip about a poacher trying to sell 100 kilograms of baby eels illegally. Knowing they had a chance to lay serious charges, officers set-up a sting operation to stop the person taking hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of elvers out of the river. But to put them away, officers would need to catch them in the act.
- Missing Mare (dir. Alexandra Lazarowich)
When Rachael Bakker was struck by a sudden illness and unable to care for her two horses, a friend in the equine community introduced her to a woman who agreed to lease the animals. But when Rachael sought to retrieve her horses a year later, they were nowhere to be found. Instead, she discovered a chain of horse theft, illegal sales, and broken promises that stretched from Southern Ontario to Nova Scotia.
- Canola Caper (dir. Maya Annik Bedward)
No crop has done more for Canadian farmers in the last half-century than canola. Developed in the 1970s by two scientists at the University of Manitoba, canola has become a $26 billion-dollar industry, making it Canada’s most valuable crop. In 2010, Killarney, Manitoba RCMP Cst. Luanne Gibb received a tip about some suspicious canola sales at a grain elevator. The sales had come from an individual who was a suspect in a canola theft years earlier that Gibb was unable to crack. The new case gave Gibb a second chance at finding justice for the victim farmers. But to solve the crime, she would need the help of an innovative grain scientist to put an end to the suspect’s reign of thefts.
- The Lobster Looting at Long Cove (dir. Geoff Morrison)
In late winter 2018, the price of lobster reached an all-time high, and Nova Scotia fisherman Ken Wyatt and his colleagues along the South Shore had every reason to expect a season of unprecedented profits. But a rash of brazen lobster thefts in their community undermined their earning expectations — as well as their faith in the sanctity of an honest catch.
- My Father’s Horses (dir. Conor McNally)
Sykes Powderface raises paint horses on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation on the Rocky Mountains’ foothills. In Spring 2020, three of his horses went missing, so he turned to his daughter, Corleigh, for help. Corleigh posted on social media about the missing horses, spoke with local horse dealers and brand inspectors, and eventually involved an RCMP livestock investigator. The search for the missing horses unveiled the original thief and a string of buyers — as well as a moral dilemma for the family who, unwittingly, ended up in possession of the stolen animals.
For updates on Farm Crime, follow along on:
Instagram: @FarmCrime
Twitter: @FarmCrime
Facebook: @FarmCrime
Hashtag: #FarmCrime
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About Big Cedar Films:
Big Cedar Films is a non-fiction film & television company headed by Toronto-based producer, Geoff Morrison. The company’s projects include the CSA and Banff Rockie Award-nominated doc series, Farm Crime (CBC Gem), genre-bending doc anthology, Brand Canada (CBC Gem), top-rated mystery doc, The Missing Tourist (CBC POV), and acclaimed social justice doc, No Visible Trauma / Above the Law (CBC POV). Previously, as a founder of FilmCAN, Morrison won a Genie Award for producing Zacharias Kunuk’s short doc, Sirmilik, and a Gemini Award for producing and co-creating the Gord Downie-narrated, National Parks Project doc series (Discovery).
About CBC Gem
CBC Gem is Canada’s streaming service, offering more than 5000 hours of live and on-demand Canadian programming and a curated selection of acclaimed, best-in-class content from around the world, including more than 750 documentaries, 400 hours of ad-free content for kids and tweens, and a collection of over 120 Canadian feature films. CBC Gem is available free as an app for iOS and Android devices and online at CBCGem.ca, and on TV screens via Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Samantha Chater
samanthachater@gmail.com | 647-782-4443
Teaghan Hawke, CBC PR
