Free Streaming: You Don’t Need to Spend Cash to Watch Well During Self-Isolation
With theatres shut, we at Original-Cin are doing what you’re probably doing, watching movies at home. We’ll be reviewing films that would have opened in theatres, but are now streaming, plus other worthy watches on cable and streaming services.
By Kim Hughes
Conventional wisdom holds that ample discretionary income equals a better life. But lots of cool things are available to people with limited means. You just need to know where to look. And paradoxically, limited options sometimes spark wider exploration.
A scene from the Oscar-nominated Pain and Glory.
As the planet cocoons at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, gorging on myriad paid streaming services such as Netflix and Apple TV+ — while the U.S. box office records its first-ever zero takings week — those facing tough choices about spending needn’t miss out on binge watching if they have a public library card.
Toronto Public Library members (among others across the continent) can access two completely free content streaming services: hoopla and kanopy, both curiously rendered in lower case, both worth a look for those unable or unwilling to shell out extra money for bonanza viewing choices. Both offer a wide range of movies, documentaries, children’s programming and, with hoopla, music, comics, and TV.
There are some restrictions. TPL members accessing hoopla can access eight titles a month but those titles may be kept for 72 hours. (Or at least, I could borrow eight titles this month; others seems to top out at four and that’s the official count as of last July.) Ditto for kanopy which offers eight “play credits” per month with a three-day unlimited viewing window. (And of late, a small, eclectic collection of “credit-free viewing” options.)
The content on both platforms is highly varied. A topline browse of movies on hoopla— which might be characterized as the younger-skewing of the two — includes the brilliant, Oscar-nominated Pedro Almodóvar drama Pain and Glory, Robert Eggers' surreal festival favourite The Lighthouse, the Gerard Butler actioner Angel Has Fallen, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton: One Shot to Broadway, and the 1968 classic, The Thomas Crown Affair with Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway.
Kanopy, meanwhile, goes deep with world cinema (Poland’s Ida, Iranian vampire western A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Zambian director Rungano Nyoni's 2019 TIFF favourite I Am Not A Witch) and documentaries (the James Baldwin-inspired I Am Not Your Negro, Michael Apted’s UP series, Frederick Wiseman’s Monrovia, Indiana).
This complements the usual assortment of rom-coms (including LGBTQ stories), comedies, dramas, war films, Oscar winners, classic titles and sundry other categories you’d expect to browse.
Both services are easy to navigate, with content grouped into highly granular (and snappily titled) buckets: “feel good flicks,” “directed by women,” “autism awareness,” “art-house classics,” and “diverse romance” on hoopla and including "instructional films and lessons," and films about "social sciences," "global studies and languages" and "health" on kanopy.
Brand new titles and exclusive content remain the domain of Netflix and Amazon but it’s not like there’s nothing to watch for free. Combined, hoopla and kanopy offer access to 16 (maybe 12) titles a month. It could also be argued that one’s likelihood of stumbling on something they might not otherwise see is higher when menu options are arbitrary and limited. Surely, it’s a good thing if a die-hard horror fans dips a toe in sci-fi or drama for a change. Who knows what new avenue of interest may be tapped?
To paraphrase my dear grandmother, who weathered the Great Depression and never, ever forgot the value of money, life doesn’t have to suck because you’re poor. And quarantined. Just be inventive.