Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 free movies to screen in celebration of National Canadian Film Day, April 21

Christopher Plummer to sci-fi, offerings abound

By Janet Smith

Christopher Plummer in The Silent Partner

James Vs. His Future Self

FREE MOVIES fill the airwaves today for National Canadian Film Day, a massive one-day, coast-to-coast-to-coast celebration of Canadian cinema.

This year’s event is more festive than ever, with a theme of “light at the end of the tunnel”—a nod to the fact we’ve all been through pandemic hell and could use a cinematic lift.

Below, find some of the best offerings, but there are way more at the NCFD site—which also includes a suggested list of Spotlight Films, including some beloved classics. (Hello, Meatballs!)

#1

The Silent Partner & Christopher Plummer: A Memoir

(VIFF Connect)

Late, great Canadian actor Christopher Plummer is perhaps best known for his stern but dashingly handsome Georg von Trapp in The Sound of Music. That’s why it’s such a treat to see the Oscar winner show his range in a polar-opposite part, as a psychotic villain in the cult 1970s heist movie The Silent Partner, directed by Vancouver-born director Daryl Duke. VIFF Connect is streaming the film for free for 48 hours, along with the new documentary, Christopher Plummer: A Memoir; in which the late actor reminisces about work in radio, theatre, and film—yes, including a certain musical set in the picturesque Alps—alongside his friend, and fellow Canadian, director Atom Egoyan.

#2

Remember

(Vancouver Jewish Film Centre)

And speaking of Christopher Plummer and Atom Egoyan, watch them join forces in Remember, one of three free screenings from the folks at the VJFC. Egoyan helms the contemporary story of Zev (Plummer), an elderly Holocaust survivor with dementia who sets out for vengeance on the Nazi guard who murdered his family long ago. Thanks to Plummer’s considerable chops, it’s a psychological thriller for the ages, and a riveting meditation on memory and justice. It screens for free on April 21 and 22 and includes an interview with Egoyan.

Heater

#3

Heater

(The Cinematheque)

Amid its two free virtual programs running for a full two weeks starting today, The Cinematheque marks the occasion by bringing back a new 4K restoration of writer-director Terrance Odette’s affecting  Heater (1999), about two homeless men desperately trying to stay warm on one freezing cold night in Winnipeg. The title derives from the unopened space heater they carry around. The only problem? In this fable-like look at the poverty trap, there’s nowhere to plug it in. Gary Farmer and Stephen Ouimette star.

#4

James vs His Future Self

(Whistler Film Festival)

Toronto director Jeremy LaLonde puts his own unabashedly dorky spin on the Back to the Future premise, mixing sci fi and rom-com in wonderfully awkward and self-effacingly funny ways. The film stars Jonas Chernick as James, a scientist whose life is turned upside down when his older self (Daniel Stern) arrives from 17 years in the future to demand that he stop his time-travel research. It originally premiered at the Whistler Film Festival in 2019. The film and a Q&A will be available free online from midnight April 21 to midnight April 22.

#5

Lights at the End of the Tunnel

(REEL Canada and VIFF Connect)

To capture a snapshot of the weird, suspended moment we are all living through, REEL Canada and Netflix asked some of the nation’s emerging young filmmakers to interpret this year’s #CanFilmDay theme: Light at the End of the Tunnel.

This program of the result—15 new short films—spans animation and documentary to live action, from one to eight minutes in length. 

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