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Firsthand tries to solve a mystery in “Looking for Mike”

In 2002, filmmaker Dylan Reibling’s friend, Michael De Bourcier, died under mysterious circumstances. Reibling has a copy of the death certificate from the province of Ontario and has been to his unmarked grave in Vaughan. Trouble is, De Bourcier wasn’t who he said he was, something Reibling uncovered over a decade ago and is the topic of this week’s Firsthand documentary.

“Looking for Mike,” airing Thursday at 9 p.m., begins at the beginning, with Reibling describing when and where he first met De Bourcier. They worked at a tech startup and bonded over their small-town upbringing. They had drinks, hung out and stayed in touch even after they’d been laid off. When De Bourcier asked Reibling to witness a new passport application so the former could jet to Berlin, the latter didn’t hesitate. De Bourcier never made the flight; instead he was discovered dead in his apartment.

The circumstances surrounding the death were strange and information found in his wallet were suspect. Shocked by what the authorities had uncovered, Reibling began his own investigation and discovered the man he thought was Michael De Bourcier wasn’t at all. “Looking for Mike” is engaging as heck. Reibling’s narration, coupled by barely-lit reconstructions and spare music score, is like a visual season of Serial, complete with play-by-play delivered by the filmmaker and highlighted by interviews with their old co-workers, private investigators and  police. And, like Serial, you can’t help but be sucked in. Why did De Bourcier create a persona and manufacture forged documents? Why did he lie about where he grew up, yet know intimate details about that area of the province?

Who was Michael De Bourcier? Tune in to “Looking for Mike” to discover what Reibling uncovered. You won’t be disappointed.

Firsthand airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Cottage Life opens the spring season with Season 3 of Cabin Pressure

From a media release:

Cottage Life is celebrating the first signs of spring by inviting audiences to enjoy an eight-week free preview full of returning favourites and new episodes. Beginning Tuesday, March 15, the cottage season will be in full swing with fresh premieres including Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure Season 3, Cabin Truckers Season 2 and What’s for Sale? With a View Season 2. The channel will also premiere two new series including Brojects in the House, a spin off of the popular DIY series Brojects, and Burger Bar to Gourmet Star.

What’s For Sale? With a View (Season 2, Original Series, World Premiere) debuts on Tuesday, March 15 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. This popular spin off of What’s For Sale? has brand new episodes, in which potential buyers are presented with three dream homes with incredible views that include a private Muskoka lake, a beach on Georgian Bay, a Niagara vineyard, Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the San Francisco Bay, Big Sur and more.

Burger Bar to Gourmet Star (New Series, Canadian Premiere) debuts on Wednesday, March 16 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. In each episode a fast-food cook with kitchen experience, limited to burger joints and food trucks, gets one-on-one training with one of Britain’s most respected chefs. The newbies then pose as seasoned professionals in world-class kitchens in an attempt to get by as five-star gourmets.

Brojects in the House (New Original Series, World Premiere) launches on Thursday, March 17 at 9 p.m. ET/9 p.m. PT. A spin off of Cottage Life fan-favourite Brojects, Brojects in the House follows everyone’s favourite brothers, Andrew and Kevin, as they take their fun-loving, creative DIY cottage projects indoors. With their wives and children now involved in the fun, the brothers transform a century-old lodge into a clubhouse with the most unexpected interior builds, inventions and games they’ve ever created. In the first episode, the bros build a bar out of reclaimed materials that tips a cap to the past.

Cabin Truckers (Season 2, Original Series, World Premiere) debuts on Friday, March 18 at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT. The second season finds Wade and his crew of professional house movers up against even more challenging and exasperating situations as they relocate entire homes to remote locations on the back of a truck. New episodes see torrential storms, steep mountain tracks, stressful nighttime moves and narrow city streets threatening to bring the moves to a halt, all while the crew races against time and permit schedules. Viewers will find out if Wade has bitten off more than he can chew, with one of the biggest, most complicated and exhausting moves to date that tests everyone’s capabilities, emotions and patience.

Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure (Season 3, Original Series and Webisodes, World Premiere) debuts on Sunday, March 20 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The highly anticipated, new instalment of Cottage Life’s top-rated series returns with a brand new high-profile project. This time, the gregarious designers have taken on the task of transforming a dilapidated cottage into a welcoming income property. Infusing the lakeside estate with rustic charm and elegant modern comforts, the Scottish lads have a ball as they create the ultimate rental retreat.

Coinciding with the Season 3 television premiere, Colin & Justin’s Cabin Pressure webisodes will launch 13 new, exclusive short digital videos on Sunday, March 20, giving viewers an additional peek into the pair’s experience renovating their new rental property.

Cottage Life’s free preview will also include new episodes of several series including the third season of What’s For Sale?, Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT, Escape to the Wild, Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT and Ultimate Homes, Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Link: CBC’s Girls’ Night Out is a patronizing, fact-adverse travesty

From Leah McLaren of The Globe and Mail:

CBC’s Girls’ Night Out is a patronizing, fact-adverse travesty
Vaguely based on the book Drink: The Deadly Relationship Between Women and Alcohol by Ann Dowsett Johnston, the documentary takes a complex and multilayered topic and reduces it to an episode of Girls Gone Wild narrated by church ladies. Girls’ Night Out is a patronizing, fact-adverse travesty, the broadcast equivalent of TMZ’s never-ending gallery of D-list actresses staggering out of nightclubs, lipstick and bra straps askew. Continue reading. 

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Link: Wolverine Documentary: A CBC-TV First

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From Jim Bawden:

Wolverine Documentary: A CBC-TV First
I freely admit I knew next to nothing about wolverines.

And then I watched the preview tape of CBC-TV’s Nature Of Things documentary: Wolverine: Ghosts Of The Northern Forest. For the very first time anywhere wolverines are shown in their native habitat and these are not the quick, blurred  shots usually glimpsed in other documentaries. Continue reading. 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Jade Fever strikes in Season 2

Watching a series like Jade Fever—returning Tuesday to Discovery—you can’t help but ask one question: why? Why do folks like Claudia and Robin Bunce trek 120 kilometres from their home in Jade City, B.C., to hunt for jade every summer?

The ride to their camp—named Wolverine—is a mud, water and rock-filled trail heavy diggers and trucks must traverse at a snail’s pace. We’re talking a days-long expedition. Equipment breaks down, biting bugs are a constant, and mud and cold envelop all. Again, why do they do it? One word: jade. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s nephrite jade is in the area and countries like China are willing to pay big for it.

Back for Season 2 on Bell Media’s specialty network, the Bunce’s and their crew—including hot-headed son Josh—are constantly on the hunt for what they call “the million-dollar” rock; the chunk of jade that will be a windfall for the company. Unlike gold, which must be mined, jade is found near the surface, deposited by glaciers millions of years ago. Still, finding the stuff—especially the deep, green gem prized most—is a crapshoot. Unlike the rookie season debut that introduced everyone and got digging right away, Tuesday’s back-to-back instalments hop into the cabs alongside everyone and documents the slow, methodical trip to Wolverine. It takes just one kilometre into the ride for warning beeps to halt the conga line, and just a little bit more before an overheated engine stops everything.

Over in China, meanwhile, company CEO Alan Qiao meets with investors, putting the final signatures on a $500,000 budget. Those investors lost money last year and threaten to pull out if the Bunces don’t produce more jade.

Episode 2 is plagued by a faulty rock truck, but some quick-thinking—and some luck—things eventually take a turn for the better. A nail-biting crossing of the Turnagain River and some expletive-filled track bolt adjustments and the squad is, as Claudia says, “cooking with corn flakes.” Well, most of them, anyway.

A quick teaser hints at the drama to come: rolled over vehicles, injured folks being flown out via helicopter, staff stranded in the bush and endless boulders with nothing inside. Yup, it’s going to be a long season. Luckily, the payoff is worth it.

Jade Fever airs Tuesdays at 10 and 10:30 p.m. ET on Discovery.

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