Bell Fund approves funding of $4.4 million for 26 short-form digital and tv series, including supporting its first series for TikTok.
Montreal and Toronto, June 16, 2022:
The Board of Directors of the Bell Fund has announced its decisions for the April 24, 2022 Short-Form Digital Series Program deadline and the April 11, 2022 TV Selective Program deadline. Bell Fund has committed over $2 million to the production of 12 short-form series (7 English and 5 French), including 1.6M for production and 600K for audience development and $2.4 million to support the production of 14 TV series (6 English and 8 French).
The Fund remains committed to supporting Indigenous, racialized, and underrepresented communities enabling all producer/creators, emerging and established, to tell their original stories.
Among the 7 English-language digital series is the finger fighting, action comedy Five Fingers of Fury: Idle Hands produced by Chickadee Creative Works of Vancouver, helmed by Josh Aries, Daniel Irving, and Alex Love Kink. This is Bell Fund’s first scripted series with TikTok as the distribution platform.
Two Indigenous scripted series are going to APTN’s lumi. D dot H produced by Bottom of my Shoe Productions of Winnipeg, and helmed by burgeoning Creators Meegwun Fairbrother and Cynthia Murdock in partnership with Eagle Vision, is an exciting new series about interdimensional travel. Coming-of-age series, Jason, is co-produced by Sir Perphoulous Films of Chilliwack B.C. and TDEP Productions, of Peace River Alberta. It is a collaboration between Indigenous creator Andrew Genaille (writer/director/producer – Sir Perphoulous ) and Tanis Parenteau (producer/actor – TDEP Productions).
Bell Media’s Crave has licensed My Dead Mom from Loco Motion Pictures and CBC Gem has licensed Macy Murdoch from Shaftesbury and How To Fail As A Popstar from Sphere Media, a coming-of-age series about a queer brown boy with a huge voice trying to become a pop star, as told by the queer trans feminine woman that boy becomes.
Non-fiction series include the Instagram sensation, Ainara’s Bookshelf, with 12-year-old host and show creator, Ainara Alleyne, produced by Kat Kelly Hayduk and Cam Hayduk of Turtlebox Productions. The series, set to launch on You Tube channel, marbleKids, showcases Ainara’s incredible enthusiasm and passion for BIPOC authors and stories.
Among the 6 French-language digital series is Ça prend pas la tchas à Papineau. This is the first series written by and starring Lex Garcia and produced by Trio Orange, engages viewers with the complexities of parenthood, masculinity, and free will.
Les Mal-Aimants from St-Laurent TV is set to launch on Télé-Québec’s streaming platform, and 20h30 chez Mathieu produced by Bien Joué on Noovo.ca.
French-language non-fiction series include Talent d’icitte, a lifestyle series that introduces viewers to up-and-coming talents from diverse cultural communities as well as established Quebec personalities. Post cuisine, a documentary series, will delve deep into the harsh post-pandemic realities faced by Quebec’s restauranteurs.
Among the 6 English-language tv series is Wong & Winchester, produced by Productions Pixcom of Montreal, a fun and light procedural, directed entirely by women with two women leads, Grace Lynn Kung and Sofia Banzhaf for Rogers Citytv.
Gespe’gewa’gi: The Last Land Season 2, from Rezolution Productions, for APTN, offers a fun and exciting look at Mi’gmaq commercial fisheries and their connection to the people, their traditions, and their homeland.
Mission Unexplained, for Blue Ant’s T&E Channel, from Blue Ant Studios with Executive Producers Julie Bristow and Heather Findlay of Content Catalyst Fund, explores mysterious, military events. Searching with Chef Sang Season 2 from Riverbank Pictures for TLN, follows Chef Sang Kim as he embarks on a broader quest across Canada. The Dig Detectives from Yap Films for Blue Ant’s Smithsonian Channel Canada is an archaeology and true crime series. The Porter Season 2 from Sphere Media for CBC is based on true events, and tells the story of black Canadian men who worked as train porters in the 1920’s.
UGO Média was previously supported by Bell Fund’s Slate Development and Short-Form Digital Series Programs and now they are among the 8 supported French-language tv series with the fiction series, Chromosome Y.
Société Radio-Canada has licensed Les Yeux Fermés from Aetios as well as Fragments, written by Serge Boucher and produced by Amalga Créations télé. Série Plus has licensed Les Bombes from Sovimage.
Bell Fund has supported 4 French-language documentaries in this round of the TV program : Être Ado produced by KOTV for Télé-Québec, PVP’s Les origines de notre médecine, helmed by actor and director Karina Marceau, and the second season of Urbania’s Louis T veut savoir III – both set to launch on Savoir Media – and Iprod’s La clé Deschamps, that will be hosted by Martin Deschamps for AMI Télé.
1.1. The following English-language series received production funding under Bell Fund’s Short-Form Digital Series Program:
| SHORT-FORM DIGITAL SERIES (English) |
|---|
| Ainara's Bookshelf Turtlebox Productions marbleKids (YouTube) 10 x 11 min |
| Representation is important. Let’s read, learn, and grow together… one diverse character at a time. |
| D dot H Bottom of my Shoe Productions APTN lumi 6 x 15 min |
| Hannah is ready to bury her dream of completing her late-father’s research until she meets Doug, a wild-eyed stranger who knows things he shouldn’t, and claims he learned them from her. The unlikely duo joins forces to race her uncle Dr. Slate and the shadowy Severon to unlock interdimensional travel. |
| Five Fingers of Fury: Idle Hands Chickadee Creative Works DanielandJosh TikTok 6 x 5 min |
| A hand is sucked into its phone and must journey through the land of the internet, defeating the four “Idle Hands” to return to its body, before it’s lost and forgotten forever. |
| How to Fail as a Popstar Sphere Media Toronto CBC Gem 6 x 20 min |
| A coming-of-age series about a queer, brown boy with a huge voice doing everything he can to become a Pop Star - as told by the queer trans, feminine woman that boy becomes, looking back on how and why that dream was never realized. |
| Jason TDEP Productions & & Sir Perphoulous Films APTN lumi 6 x 15 min |
| Intimidated after moving to the city, a rez Indian gets romantically involved with his sister’s best friend, an urban Indian woman twice his age; against the wishes of his family and friends. |
| Macy Murdoch Shaftesbury Development CBC Gem 8 x 11 min |
| When a mysterious rival uses a time machine to frame her world-famous ancestor, Detective William Murdoch, of a murder he didn’t commit, 14-year-old Macy travels back in time to re-examine the clues and determine the real perpetrator of the crime. |
| My Dead Mom LoCo Productions Crave.ca 7 x 15 min |
| Emmy is trying to live her best life...if her dead mother would JUST. STOP. TALKING. She’s dead, but she’s still disappointed. |
1.2. The following French-language series received production funding under Bell Fund’s Short-Form Digital Series Program:
For further details on the series below, please see our French language website: fondsbell.ca
| SHORT-FORM DIGITAL SERIES (FRENCH) |
|---|
| 20h30 chez Mathieu Bien Joué Films Noovo.ca 8 x 11 min |
| Ça prend pas la tchas à Papineau Trio Orange ICI Tou.tv 7 x 10 min |
| Les Mal-Aimants Les Productions St Laurent web Telequebec.tv 6 x 8 min |
| Post-cuisine Picbois Productions Mordu.ca (Radio-Canada) et ICI Tou.tv 6 x 18 min |
| Talent d'icitte Zone3 Telequebec.tv 7 x 10 min |
2.1. The following English-language projects received production funding under Bell Fund’s TV Program.
| TV SELECTIVE PROGRAM (English) |
|---|
| Gespe'gewa'gi: The Last Land S2 Rezolution Productions APTN 10 x 30 min |
| A fun and exciting look at Mi’kmaq fisheries and their connection to the people, their traditions, and their homeland. |
| Mission Unexplained Blue Ant Studios (Saloon) Blue Ant – T&E 8 x 60 min |
| Military women and men share tales of terrifying, unexplained events from the front lines. From mystifying lights to vanishing civilians, terrifying apparitions, mechanical mysteries and more, this documentary series launches viewers into the action in a uniquely visceral way. |
| Searching With Chef Sang S2 Riverbank Pictures TLN 6 x 30 min |
| Season two follows Chef Sang Kim as he embarks on a quest across Canada, teasing out stories about the food traditions and the people allied to them, illuminating the eclectic and diverse nature of our shared culinary landscape. |
| The Dig Detectives Yap Films Blue Ant – Smithsonian Channel Canada 6 x 60 min |
| A unique archaeology and true crime series featuring renowned archaeologist Ciprian Ardelean and his team as they investigate some of the biggest murder mysteries in history, many of which have a news-making social justice dimension. |
| The Porter S2 Sphere Media Toronto CBC 8 x 60 min |
| Set in the early 1920’s and inspired by real events, this series follows train porters Junior Massey and Zeke Garrett, and their friends and families, on starkly different paths to a better life – and on a direct collision course with each other. |
| Wong & Winchester Productions Pixcom Rogers – Citytv 6 x 60 min |
| A light and fun female-driven procedural. It’s the story of the unlikely partnership between Marissa Wong (bitter ex-cop turned private investigator) and Sarah Winchester (fresh-out-of-university with the naivety to prove it). |
2.2. The following French-language series received production funding under the Bell Fund’s TV Program.
For further details on the series below, please see our French language website: fondsbell.ca
| TV SELECTIVE PROGRAM (French) |
|---|
| Chromosome Y UGO Média TV5 Québec Canada (UNIS) 13 x 30 min |
| Être Ado Productions KOTV Télé-Québec 12 x 60 min |
| Fragments Amalga Créations Télé 8 Radio-Canada (ICI Télé) 10 x 60 min |
| La clé Deschamps Iprod Accessible Média (AMI-Télé) 10 x 30 min |
| Les bombes Productions Sovimage Corus Média (Séries Plus) 6 x 60 min |
| Les origines de notre médecine PVP DOC X Savoir Média 6 x 30 min |
| Les yeux fermés Aetios Productions Radio-Canada (ICI Télé) 6 x 60 min |
| Louis T Veut Savoir III URBANIA Savoir Média 6 x 30 min |
For further information:
Fonds Bell
514-845-4418
info@fondsbell.ca
www.fondsbell.ca
Bell Fund
416-977-8154
info@bellfund.ca
www.bellfund.ca