About a year ago, we were excited about the Heritage Classic with the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets at Mosaic Stadium in Regina. Saturday nights in the autumn are now for Canadian films on CBC instead of Hockey Night in Canada.
As we noted earlier, CBC will run Canadian film doubleheaders at 9 pm and 11 pm local time (add 30 minutes in most of Newfoundland) until the NHL season starts up again.
October 17
9p American Woman (2019)
11p Mean Dreams (2016)
October 24
9p Red Snow (2019)
11p Unclaimed (2016)
October 31
9p Incendies (2010)
Midnight Rebelle (2012)
The inability to copyright movie titles can lead to some confusion. CBC is likely showing the 2019 film American Woman, the directorial debut from Semi Chellas, who also wrote the screenplay. The film takes on a fictionalised version of what happened to Patty Hearst. Sarah Gadon plays the role of someone who resembles Hearst. The CBC schedule lists a 2018 film that is definitely not Canadian.
Mean Dreams is a boy-meets-girl who run away from her father. The primary cast is a split of Americans Josh Wiggins and Bill Paxton and Canadians Sophie Nélisse and Colm Feore. Paxton is the mean part of this story, a truly scary character. This was one of Paxton's final roles before his untimely death. Nélisse is also very good. Wiggins was also the lead in Giant Little Ones.
Canadian film notebook: Making Canada look like Afghanistan
Canadian film review: The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
We wrote about Red Snow since the film made us think we weren't in Canada but we were. The story is compelling: an indigenous Canadian solider gets captured in Afghanistan. The idea of indigenous in Canada vs. Afghanistan is key to the plot of the film.
Unclaimed aka On the Farm is a TV film about women in Vancouver's infamous Downtown Eastside area. The film focuses on events leading up to the arrest of Canadian serial killer Robert "Willie" Pickton. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers stars in this film. You might recall that The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open also takes place in that neighbourhood. Tantoo Cardinal is in both Red Snow and Unclaimed.
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Canadian film review: Ginger Snaps
Canadian film review: Cannibal Girls
As we noted some time back, CBC had scheduled Incendies (2010) and Rebelle (2012) for August 1 before the NHL postseason schedule was announced. These films were bookends on the 3-year run where Canadian films made the Top 5 cut for what then was the Best Foreign Language Film category. They were Canadian films that took place mostly outside Canada; Rebelle was completely outside Canada. Incendies provides a chance to see Denis Villeneuve's work before he went south to the United States.
We aren't normally critical of CBC schedules for Canadian film but having October 31 on a Saturday should have been horror films. Ginger Snaps might not be available but our official best Canadian horror film of all time. Canada has a lot of great horror films for possible selections.
CBC Saturday night Canadian film schedule for early October 2020
A recap of CBC Saturday night Canadian films in spring and summer 2020
When CBC showed Canadian films in previous summers, the potential numbers might have been low since people were enjoying the limited summer weather. This might have been true even in the summer of 2020.
Now that Canadian films will be part of the autumn schedule, we will see if that changes Canadians and their TV/film habits.
CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
The Canadian films are available in Canada on CBC Gem.
photo credit: Mean Dreams film
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