TORONTO — Bell Media announced today it is partnering with an all-Black executive production team to develop Festivale, what it calls Canada’s first bilingual anthology series by and about Black Canadians.
The four executive producers collaborating on the six-part series are francophone executive producers Marie Ka (above, second from left) and Richard Jean-Baptiste (second from right) and anglophone executive producers Damon D’Oliveira (left) and Clement Virgo (right). D’Oliveira and Virgo are co-founders of the Black Screen Office (BSO) and Ka and Jean-Baptiste are BSO board members.
Produced for Bell Media’s Crave, Festivale is a collaboration between Crave’s French and English development teams, “and an answer to the lack of Black francophone stories on mainstream television,” reads a Bell Media press release.
“This breakthrough series also serves as a pre-development incubator administered by the BSO, supporting creative teams who have not had the opportunity to produce content for a large network. This initiative aligns with BSO’s talent development mandate to build bridges between broadcasters and content creators; connect participants with resources; and foster relationships to cultivate strong pipelines of talent,” the release says.
The incubator will also serve “as a hybrid story room for writers to develop episodic ideas,” with the assistance and experience of showrunner Adam Pettle.
“By the end of the process, the writing team will have completed six outlines for the proposed anthology series, and have the opportunity to pitch it to Bell Media network executives,” the release explains.
In addition to Pettle, the writing room will be staffed with Black francophone writers Kimberley Ann Surin and Josiane Blanc, along with the writing team of Kadidja Haïdara and Seydou Junior Haïdara, and three Black anglophone writers, Adeline Bird, Andrew Burrows Trotman and Anika Jarrett.
In addition, four Black francophone producers, Maeva Montemiglio, Malcom Odd, Sabrina Roc and Jephté Bastien, and two Black anglophone producers, Mansa Chintoh and Jose Holder, are also involved in the incubator.
“Festivale is a groundbreaking experience where Black Canadian writers, both French and English, get the chance to finally work together on the same project,” said executive producers Ka, Jean-Baptiste, D’Oliveira and Virgo, in a statement in the press release.
“We can’t thank Bell Media enough for bridging the language gap, and lending their support to this timely creative journey. Our hope is that this project will be the starting point for future collaborations with Bell Media, for all our participants.”
Now in pre-development, the anthology series is financed by Bell Media, with development funding from the Canada Media Fund’s Pilot Project Racialized Communities (PPRC) fund. Incubator funding is supported by the BSO-TD Bank Mentorship Program.
“We are thrilled to provide support to this important initiative, and applaud Bell Media and Crave for its openness to engage in the work to accelerate system change,” said Joan Jenkinson, BSO’s executive director and co-founder. “The collaboration among this array of talented Black writers and producers is wonderful to see, and we look forward to the outcome.”
“As Bell Media continues to work on creating equitable creative space and opportunities, collaborations like this are vital to our collective success,” said Karine Moses, senior vice-president of content development and news at Bell Media.
“Thank you to this visionary executive production team, and the BSO, for bringing Festivale to Bell Media, and partnering with us to help develop and champion incredible Black talent.”
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Photos provided by Bell Media.
