Best movies like Beans

Elizabeth Alison Gray is just your average suburban 11-year old waiting for adolescence to arrive when she finds out her whole life has been a lie. With only her imagination to guide her, she runs away to find the truth.

An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.

The new film from celebrated documentarian Alanis Obomsawin (Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance) chronicles the events following the filing of a human-rights complaint by a group of activists, which charged that the federal government's woefully inadequate funding of services for Indigenous children constituted a discriminatory practice.

A Road-Movie on rails, Ocean offers both a journey between Montreal and Halifax, as well as a sensory evocation of the intimate experience of travelling.

The 12 years old well-bred Lonnie meets the impudent Karen on the street. They spend some time together and Karen teaches Lonnie some of her favorite occupancies, like make-up, shoplifting, skipping school and lying to the parent about it, but confessing to the priest later. But Karen also learns some honesty from Lonnie. A film about social differences and growing up.

Based on a novel by Mordecai Richler, allegedly his autobiography, it tells the story of a Jewish writer, from his life as a young boy in Montreal to his more complicated grown-up life.

Two friends meet after 15 years. They have a complicated and intimate past that becomes impossible to deny in spite of intentions to the contrary.

Canadian director Catherine Annau's debut work is a documentary about the legacy of Pierre Trudeau, the long-running Prime Minister of Canada, who governed during the 1970s. The film focuses particularly on Trudeau's goal of creating a thoroughly bilingual nation. Annau interviews eight people in their mid-30s on both sides of the linguistic divide. One tells of her life growing up in a community of hard-core Quebec separatists, while another, a yuppie from Toronto, recalls believing as a child that people in Montreal got drunk and had sex all day long. Annau has all of the interviewees discuss how Trudeau's policies affected their lives and their perceptions of the other side, in this issue that strikes to the heart of Canada's national identity.

A long and thoughtful look at those desperate days of October 1970, when Montréal awaited the outcome of FLQ terrorist acts. This film puts the October Crisis in the long perspective of history. Compiled from news and other films, it shows independence movements past and present, and their leaders; it reflects the mingled relief, dismay, defiance, when the Canadian army came to Montréal; and it shows how political leaders viewed the intervention.

A Hungarian family forced to flee the Communist country for the United States, must leave a young daughter behind. Six years later the family arranges to bring the absent daughter to the United States where she has trouble adjusting. The daughter then decides to travel to Budapest to discover her identity.

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

A documentary recounting the kidnappings of British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Vice-Premier & Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte by the FLQ on October 5, 1970 in Quebec.

When the body of the executive of hockey Benoit Brisset is found on the billboard of the border of Quebec and Ontario, the jurisdiction of the crime is shared between the two police forces and detectives David Bouchard from Montreal and Martin Ward from Toronto are assigned to work together. With totally different styles, attitudes and languages.

After destroying his older brother's motorbike in retaliation for his constant bullying, 11-year-old Krishna is sent to a traveling circus to earn money to pay for the bike's repairs, but soon winds up in the streets of Bombay's poorest slums. There, he befriends the drug dealer Chillum and young prostitute Sola Saal, while trying to make enough money at a neighborhood tea stall to repay his debt to his family.

When danger threatens her camp, the fierce and highly skilled Comanche warrior Naru sets out to protect her people. But the prey she stalks turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal.

A troubled veteran gets a chance at redemption by protecting a girl from an assassin after she witnesses a murder. Holding a shotgun with a single shell, he engages in physical and psychological warfare in a desperate fight for the girl's life.

Ray Eddy, an upstate New York trailer mom, is lured into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Broke after her husband takes off with the down payment for their new doublewide, Ray reluctantly teams up with Lila, a smuggler, and the two begin making runs across the frozen St. Lawrence River carrying illegal Chinese and Pakistani immigrants in the trunk of Ray's Dodge Spirit.

The three surviving daughters of a murdered moonshiner band together with a racecar driver to run high-test shine behind the corpulent backs of the local crime syndicate.

Ward and Bouchard must face an important car theft ring that turns out to be a lot more than they bargained for: one where the stolen cars will serve as bombs in a well planned terrorist attack.

Inspired by true experiences of grief, girlhood, and growing up, Jessie Barr’s SOPHIE JONES provides a stirring portrait of a sixteen-year-old. Stunned by the untimely death of her mother and struggling with the myriad challenges of teendom, Sophie (played with striking immediacy by the director’s cousin Jessica Barr) tries everything she can to feel something again, while holding herself together, in this sensitive, acutely realized, and utterly relatable coming-of-age story.

A coming-of-age tale centered on Hannah, a young girl who is living a troubled family life. Set in 1963, Hannah develops a fascination with Jean-Luc Godard's then-recent film "Vivre sa vie". As she begins to model herself after the film's lead role, Hannah slowly begins to explore the confusing nature of her sexuality.

One summer, Jay finds four chimps on the prairie who have fallen off a circus cart.

During a hot and hazy summertime in northern Ontario, 13-year-old Bea wants a best friend more than anything else, but when she meets boisterous Kate, she gets more than she imagined. A story of bravery, small-town summer love, and the secret world of girls.

Camille wanders through the countryside talking with frogs and chickens: she sails through life as a carefree soul. But for her older sister, the introverted Mylia, things are more complicated. Mylia is lost between the uncertainty in her family life, the superficial atmosphere at her new school and her first experiences at house parties. It is Camille who eventually introduces Mylia to Jimmy. The boy from the nearby Abenaki reserve is different and he encourages her to break free.

This suspence drama begins when two ordinary women falls on evil times when the car wreckage happens. One is a single mother of a handicapped son; another is a careerist trying to combine her high-pressure career and her family demands. When the police is involved, it becomes clear that the car crash was not a simple coincidence after all. But however it may be, each woman's life spirals out of co

In 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army, made up of impoverished Mayan Indians from the state of Chiapas, took over five towns and 500 ranches in southern Mexico. The government deployed its troops and at least 145 people died in the ensuing battle. Filmmaker Nettie Wild travelled to the country's jungle canyons to film the elusive and fragile life of this uprising.

On a summer day in the 1950s, a native girl watches the countryside go by from the backseat of a car. A woman at her kitchen table sings a lullaby in her Cree language. When the girl arrives at her destination, she undergoes a transformation that will turn the woman’s gentle voice into a howl of anger and pain.

A gang of thieves break into a top secret government research centre and steal a deadly virus. Mach 1, a top secret special operations team, is called in to recover it. The team, lead by Commander Bill McNeil (Steve Guttenberg), boards the thieves' plane midflight and recovers the virus. When two members of the team are subsequently murdered, McNeil suspects that the thieves might have inside help. In an attempt to track down who was responsible, the team steals the virus in a hope that the thieves will come after them.

Set in the late 90s, Rustic Oracle is a dramatic feature about Ivy, an 8-year-old girl trying to understand what happened to her big sister who has vanished from their small Mohawk community. With minimal clues, Ivy and her mother Susan embark on an unwelcome journey to find Heather which will ultimately bring the pair closer together despite challenging circumstances. Behind the story of desperation, told through the eyes of a child, lies one of hope, growth, awakening and love.

Set in the 90s, a Korean single mother raises her young son in the suburbs of Canada determined to provide a better life for him than the one she left behind.

In Montreal, the teenagers Manon, Anne, Isa, Claudie and Sophie are friends since their childhood. While spending a couple of days in the cottage of Sophie's parents nearby a lake, the girls decide to give a party, and Manon and Sophie hitch for a ride to the town in a jeep to buy some beers and supplies and they invite the driver to the party. On the return, the same driver stops the car and later Sophie is found stabbed, raped and covered of blood. Fifteen years later, Manon sees the guy in a car-wash and she invites her former friends to return to the house nearby the lake, where wounds of their traumatic loss are disclosed.

Follows the life of Native Canadian Saul Indian Horse as he survives residential school and life amongst the racism of the 1970s. A talented hockey player, Saul must find his own path as he battles stereotypes and alcoholism.

In this tense and immersive tour de force, audiences are taken directly into the line of fire between powerful, opposing Peruvian leaders who will stop at nothing to keep their respective goals intact. On the one side is President Alan Garcia, who, eager to enter the world stage, begins aggressively extracting oil, minerals, and gas from untouched indigenous Amazonian land. He is quickly met with fierce opposition from indigenous leader Alberto Pizango, whose impassioned speeches against Garcia’s destructive actions prove a powerful rallying cry to throngs of his supporters. When Garcia continues to ignore their pleas, a tense war of words erupts into deadly violence.

A group of terrorists take a radio disk jockey and his wife and child hostage in order to get their manifesto out to the world.

Tells the story of five people from the last generation of Soviet children who were brought up behind the Iron Curtain. Just coming of age when the USSR collapsed, they witnessed the world of their childhood crumble and change beyond recognition. Through the lives of these former schoolmates, this intimate film reveals how they have adjusted to their post-Soviet reality in today's Moscow.

The adventures of a group of friends who plan to recover crates full of gold from a fall in Canada.

Four best friends, on the brink of starting middle school, realize their lives are about to change forever. So on the last weekend of summer, they set out to make the most of it. Nothing could prepare them, though, for the startling discovery they make while revisiting one of their favorite haunts.

A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.

A dramatization of the abduction and murder of a Quebec government minister by a cell of The Quebec Liberation Front. In October 1970, one group from the same organization kidnapped the British Consul in Montreal. A few days later, a second group kidnapped Pierre Laporte, a minister of the Quebec Governement. The film tells the story of this last terrorist cell which ended in the death of its hostage.

Filmmaker Rob McCallum hits the road with his brother Chris Byford in search of their Mom who's been missing for almost 25 years.

Stoney Point Natives assemble at Ipperwash Provincial Park for what began as a peaceful protest.

A shy nurse is bitten by a zombie and becomes a flesh eating sex kitten. GRAVEYARD ALIVE is a cross between 1920's German Expressionism and 1960's B-horror films. Shot in and around the Montreal area, this is Bastard Amber Production's first full-length feature. The story follows Patsy, a lonely, dreamy nurse who, after being bitten by a zombie, becomes a sex-kitten. With her newfound powers, she tries to win back her old flame, the suave and handsome Dr. Dox, from Goodie , a bitchy young nurse. As the film progresses, Patsy must also learn to deal with her new affliction and to live her life, no longer in her romantic dream world, but in a harsher yet ultimately more satisfying reality. Shot in Techniscope with a 1:2.35 aspect ratio, an old process used in many 1960's films such as Dario Argento's "The Cat O' Nine Tails", GRAVEYARD ALIVE promises to invigorate the horror genre stylistically as well as with its audacious and thought-provoking content.

Highly fictionalized early history of Canada. Trapper/explorer Radisson imagines an empire around Hudson's Bay. He befriends the Indians, fights the French, and convinces King Charles II to sponsor an expedition of conquest.

When Rosie's Mom dies she needs somewhere to live. The only relative to be found is Fred (Frédérique) - tough, street-smart, and currently working in a sex shop, though not for long. Her two best friends - who refuse to be restricted by gender - are Flo and Mo; they are loyal to the core and Fred's own chosen family. When the adult store goes up in flames the colourful foursome must do what they have to to survive. A quirky family of fringe dwellers is born!

Laurie, a professional downhill racer gets fired because of her slight overindulgence in irresponsibility. She returns to Montreal where she is welcomed by her geeky but cute brother. She meets Lorenzo, a cranky, ex-racer who owns a bike shop. The two become friends. Laurie gets a job with a local bicycle courier company, but a member of the group is intent on shutting her out of their circles, making her life difficult and sad. After a bonding truth-revealing discussion between Laurie and Lorenzo, Laurie begins to see what she has to do to make things better for herself.

In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet and her spellbinding nature. In her solitary moments, Lacy inhabits an inner world so extraordinarily detailed that it begins to seep into the outside world.

South of the Moon is the story of a young boy and his uncle, one dealing with the complexity and confusion of adolescence, the other with the pain and torment of regret.

Mavis Dogblood is a Mohawk painter from Canada haunted by the tragic death of her husband, who was hit by lightning. She paints the stories he used to tell her, but she can’t come to grips with her loss. It is only after she drives to New York City for an art opening, traveling across what were her ancestors’ tribal lands, that Mavis reconciles herself to her new life.

A young Ojibwa girl from 1770 marries a Scottish fur trader and leaves home for the shores of Georgian Bay. Although the union is beneficial for her tribe, it results in hardship and isolation for Ikwe. Values and customs clash until, finally, the events of a dream Ikwe once had unfold with tragic clarity.