The 2023 drama film Brother “was the embodiment of a huge risk,” explains Damon D’Oliveira of the award-winning project he produced with director Clement Virgo under their shared banner Conquering Lion Pictures.

How was it a risk? Well, for starters, D’Oliveira says the duo hadn’t made a feature film together since they teamed up for Poor Boy’s Game (2007). Plus, Brother required provincial consent to film inside an out-of-use hydro field for the movie’s ambitious opening shot of two brothers — played by Emmy-nominated Lamar Johnson and Aaron Pierre — climbing a hydro tower. All while filming during a global pandemic.

But, despite all this risk (or maybe because of it), Brother – also produced by Aeschylus Poulos and Sonya Di Rienzo of Hawkeye Pictures – took home 12 trophies at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards (CSAs), a historic sweep that includes Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction for Virgo. “It felt like the risk we took was paid off with the recognition,” says D’Oliveira.

Both D’Oliveira and Virgo say the largest risk was telling the story in the first place, which was based on David Chariandy’s book of the same name. They weren’t sure how the public would respond to a tale that centred on the lives of two Black brothers living with their strict Jamaican mother while they explore their identity and masculinity in Scarborough, Ont. in the ’90s.

But Virgo says he felt too connected to the story not to make it. He also has a Jamaican mother and grew up in Toronto. He even feels that Brother is a companion piece to his 1995 film, Rude, which follows three Torontonians navigating life over the course of an Easter weekend.

Though he had focused on directing and producing television for over a decade (including The Wire and The Book of Negroes), he wanted to return to filmmaking. “I thought: if this was going to be my last movie, I’m going to make a film that I want to make,” Virgo explains.

He wrote the movie with Chariandy’s blessing, and the story drew in the cast, many of whom came from similar backgrounds to the characters, according to Virgo. The actors — Johnson, Pierre, Marsha Stephanie Blake and Kiana Madeira — became the “A-team” when it came to promoting Brother, says D’Oliveira.

The cast, as well as Chariandy, attended the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of the film. They also did press junkets across Canada and internationally. Johnson, who is nominated for an Emmy for his supporting role in The Last of Us, even flew in from London, U.K. to be at the CSAs with everyone.

“Part of the major success of the film is the magnificent performances,” says Virgo. “It’s great to see young, Canadian, Black actors get their due.”

Thanks to the promotion push, D’Oliveira says Brother saw good turnouts for both the Canadian theatrical release via distributor Elevation Pictures on March 17 (which occurred during the initial post-pandemic cinema openings), and the U.S. theatrical release via Vertical on Aug. 4 (which occurred during the actors’ strike). The film has also been sold to Netflix in the U.S. and the BBC in the U.K., and is currently streaming on Crave in Canada.

Clement and Virgo are currently working on their new film, Steal Away Home, which D’Oliveira describes as “a mashup of Rosemary’s Baby meets Get Out.” Their accolades have given them “wind in their sails” for this new project, not to mention a pre-buy from Crave and CBC, and financing from Telefilm Canada.

But even with their Brother wins, D’Oliveira and Virgo are far from slowing down. They have a combined 15 project in the works, all of which need financing, casting, sales and distribution.

“The independent film world is a really challenging one at the moment,” says D’Oliveira. “Don’t let the money stuff interfere with the vision.”

Image courtesy of Elevation Pictures

This story originally appeared in Playback‘s 2023 Winter issue