INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY COLLECTION
20th CENTURY WOMEN (118min, Drama, directed by Mike Mills, USA)
Begins streaming Friday, March 8
The story of a teenage boy, his mother, and two other women who help raise him among the
love and freedom of Southern California of 1979. Starring Oscar nominees Annette Bening (American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right) and Greta Gerwig (Barbie, Lady Bird), and Emmy nominee Elle Fanning (Super 8, Maleficent).
“a funny, emotionally piercing story about a teenager and the women who raise him”
Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
COCO CHANEL: UNBUTTONED (90min, directed by Hannah Berryman, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, March 8
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
This is the definitive portrait of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel; the original influencer whose iconic designs – the little black dress, the tweed suit and Chanel No 5 perfume – remain symbols of luxury, style, sexuality and power in the 21st century. She gave women freedom and, in a male-dominated world, they rewarded her with adoration, wealth and celebrity. But Coco remained an enigma, masking her poor childhood and complex affairs including a wartime romance that led to accusations of Nazi collaboration. Weaving together the truth in Coco’s own words – voiced by Braveheart and Bond actress Sophie Marceau – the film utilises exquisite animation and unprecedented access to House of Chanel archives. As Coco explained: ‘I’m not a heroine but I have chosen the person I wanted to be.’
“it paints a detailed and often complicated portrait of the woman behind the powerhouse brand.”
QUEEN OF THE DEUCE (90min, a documentary Channel original, directed by Valerie Kontakos, Canada)
Begins streaming Wednesday, March 13
From the ’60s to the ’80s, Greek-born Jewish grandmother Chelly Wilson built a porn cinema empire and a reputation as a savvy operator in the Times Square vicinity known as the Deuce. With cigarette in hand, Chelly held court in her apartment above the legendary 8th Avenue Adonis theatre, summoning a lively cabal of associates—with confidantes and grandchildren nearby. Yet few in her circle knew of the risks she took to get there. QUEEN OF THE DEUCE reveals Chelly’s origins as a taboo-breaking entrepreneur and traces the fraught events that lead to her departure from Europe on the eve of war, and the unconventional trajectories of her American business ventures and personal life. With the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution, and gay pride in frame, QUEEN OF THE DEUCE is an alternate take on cultural history as seen through Chelly Wilson’s deal-making story of survival.
FEATURE FILMS
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (120min, Action/Adventure, directed by Ang Lee, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and USA)
Begins streaming Friday, March 1
A legendary warrior's stolen magic sword becomes the centrepiece of epic intertwining love stories, set against the breathtaking landscapes of ancient China. Starring Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All At Once, Crazy Rich Asians), Zhang Ziyi (The Grandmaster, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Chow Yun-Fat (Curse of the Golden Flower, The Replacement Killers), CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON won four Academy Awards including Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.
QUICKENING (90min, Drama, directed by Haya Waseem, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, March 15
Sheila, a Pakistani-Canadian teenager, struggles to define her identity as she is pulled between her newfound social life at university and her family’s traditional values. After starting a secret relationship with her classmate, Sheila discovers that keeping these two worlds separate comes at a great cost.
DONKEYHEAD (106min, Drama, directed by Agam Darshi, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, March 22
Mona Ghuman was always the black sheep of the family. When her unhealthy and rebellious life comes crashing down by a serious car accident, Mona moves back into her traditional South Asian father’s house. What was meant to be a few months of rent-free sobriety turns into seven isolated years caring for her cancer-stricken father. When her father suffers a severe stroke Mona’s three successful siblings, Rup, Sandy and Mona’s twin brother Parm, return back to the family home with a mission to fix and to help, causing Mona’s insecurities about her own unfulfilled life to deepen.
THE FAREWELL (98 min, Comedy/Drama, directed by Lulu Wang, USA)
Begins streaming Friday, March 29
A Chinese family discovers their grandmother has only a short while left to live and decides to keep her in the dark, scheduling a wedding to gather before she dies. The film received its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, and it went on to be nominated for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Awkwafina, Crazy Rich Asians, The Little Mermaid) at the 2020 Golden Globes.
***** “it’s one of the best films of the year.”
Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
DOCUMENTARIES
I AM SIRAT (87min, directed by Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja, Canada)
Begins streaming Sunday, March 3
Caught between duty and self-determination, Sirat Taneja is a transgender woman who must act as her mother’s son when at home in New Delhi, but can be the woman she really is with her friends and at work with the Government of India. A collaboration between director Deepa Mehta and Sirat, the film has been constructed around Sirat’s lens. Shot on smartphones, Sirat controls her narrative.
SAVING THE ANIMALS OF UKRAINE (51min, Short Docs, directed by Anton Ptushkin)
Begins stream Tuesday, March 26
The story of the everyday heroes from all walks of life risking their lives under fire to save innocent pets, farm animals, zoo animals and wild creatures from becoming casualties of war.
MY PET ASSASSIN (17min, Short Docs, directed by Gavin Andrews)
Begins streaming Wednesday, March 27
Can we take the killer out of our kittens? Should we even try? Take a deep dive into the raging debate over free-roaming felines and their cat-astrophic impact on urban wildlife.
THE NATURE OF THINGS 101 (8x10, Short Doc Series, Zipline Productions)
Begins streaming Friday, March 29
Why do we use toilet paper? Do we actually know what dinosaurs looked like? And why do we hate the sound of our own voices? Sarika Cullis-Suzuki and Anthony Morgan explore the burning questions we all have but might be too afraid to ask.
KIDS AND TWEENS
THE ADVENTURES OF PADDINGTON Season 3 (48x11, Kids, HeyDay Films and StudioCanal, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, March 1
In Season 3, Paddington’s world is getting a lot bigger! He is bursting out of the confines of Windsor Gardens and going on bigger and more exciting adventures, both physically and metaphorically! The Brown Family is going on a seaside beach holiday and inviting viewers on amazing adventures through magical realism and imagination via wonderful new locations like dinosaur island, and the inside of a black hole. And a very special visitor arrives from Peru to stay with Paddington for a while: Aunt Lucy!
RUSTY RIVETS Season 3 (52x12, Kids, Spin Master, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, March 1
Let’s MAKE something GREAT! Rusty Rivets, a 10-year-old inventing genius, is ready to COMBINE and DESIGN all of the pieces and parts in his junkyard into incredible MACHINES to SAVE THE DAY! Along with his best friend and computer expert, Ruby, they’re ready to FIX any problem in Sparkton Hills and beyond! A robotic dinosaur, a huge drill that walks like an ant or a flying school bus – if they can dream it, they can build it!
THE NEXT STEP (Tween, Temple Street Productions and Boat Rocker Studios, Canada)
Season 6 (26x30) begins streaming Friday, March 1
(Season 7 is streaming now)
Season 8 (26x30) begins streaming Friday, March 8
In Season 6, The Next Step has another shot at Regionals. The dancers face some tough decisions as they decide whether their own aspirations are more important than that of A-Troupe as a whole. In Season 8, despite the odds being stacked against them, some dancers at The Next Step want nothing more than to continue on the road to Nationals, while others learn dreams can grow and change into something totally new and unexpected.
GANGNAM PROJECT (10x30, Tween, Pillango Productions and Aircraft Pictures, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, March 8
GANGNAM PROJECT tells the story of Hannah Shin (Julia Kim Caldwell) a spirited Canadian/Korean teen with dreams of becoming a K-pop star and connecting with her Korean heritage. One summer, she accepts a job as an English tutor and flies to South Korea to work at an elite K-pop training school and ends up getting much more than she bargained for. Hannah is tasked with tutoring one of the school’s top students, Chan-Mi, who proves to be a little challenging. In a bid to win her and the other students over, Hannah showcases her talent with some impromptu performances, but instead her talents attract the attention of the school’s owner which leads to the opportunity to become a student herself. Along with singing, dancing and Korean lessons, there’s a lot of drama – K-drama, especially when Hannah discovers a family secret.
LIFESTYLE
CHATEAU DIY Season 6 (B) (15x60, Lifestyle,Spark Media Partners, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, March 1
The spinoff series of the primetime hit Escape to the Chateau follows the stories of various British families making the monumental decision to leave home and chase the French dream. But life in an elegant chateau can have its downsides. There is the language barrier, meanwhile everything seems to be expensive, from water bills to astronomical heating costs, not to mention the long and sometimes lonely winters. To put it bluntly, maintaining a building that's falling apart at the seams is not for the faint-hearted. Narrated by Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton).
ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY Season 30 (A2) (14x60, Lifestyle, Naked Television, UK)
Begins streaming Wednesday, March 6
When homeowners are reviewing their quality of life and questioning the need to live in expensive and polluted urban spaces, ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY’s satisfying journeys of rural property searches and lifestyle changes have never felt more relevant. Having been on screen for twenty years, this heritage brand now focuses on escaping to the countryside in its broadest sense, presenting practical lifestyle content and constructive suggestions for the viewer, all the while capturing the seasonal beauty of the British landscape. A warm and knowledgeable cast of presenters helps a broad range of property hunters with differing budgets and wish lists.
THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW Season 14 (10x60, Lifestyle, Love Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, March 8
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
THE GREAT BRITISH BAKING SHOW is the ultimate baking battle where passionate amateur baking fans compete to be crowned the UK's Best Amateur Baker. Over the course of 10 hour-long episodes, the series follows the trials and tribulations of the competitors, young and old, from every background and every corner of Britain, as they attempt to prove their baking prowess. Each week the bakers tackle a different baking skill, which become progressively more difficult as the competition unfolds.
THE BEST OF CBC
The Canadian streaming home of hit CBC original series including THE GREAT CANADIAN BAKING SHOW, HEARTLAND, KIM’S CONVENIENCE, MURDOCH MYSTERIES, SCHITT’S CREEK and WORKIN’ MOMS, plus BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW, BLACKBERRY, BONES OF CROWS, MR. D, PRETTY HARD CASES, THE PORTER, RUN THE BURBS, SKYMED, SON OF A CRITCH, SORT OF, STILL STANDING and TALLBOYZ, and classic CBC hits like BEING ERICA.
COMING IN APRIL
THE BORGIAS Season 1
BIGGEST LITTLE FARM
C’MON C’MON
CRIME SCENE KITCHEN Season 2
JAIME’S COMFORT FOOD
