BANFF – VisionTV and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) will team up to fund production of the six-part drama series “Rabbit Fall”, Canada’s multi-faith and multicultural broadcaster announced Monday at the Banff World Television Festival.
The six half-hours, produced by Angel Entertainment of Saskatoon, star Andrea Menard (Moccasin Flats) as a small-town police officer who discovers that malevolent supernatural forces are at work in her picturesque community.
APTN will premiere the series this fall; VisionTV will follow suit on May 1, 2008. SCN and SaskFilm are also providing financial assistance.
“VisionTV has enjoyed a longstanding friendship with both APTN and SCN. We share with them a strong commitment to the development of programming that reflects Canada’s diversity, and are delighted to support what promises to be a unique and compelling new series,” said Mark Prasuhn, VisionTV’s Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Programming.
Joan Jenkinson, VisionTV’s Director, Independent Production, says the network has made the creation of culturally diverse drama programming one of its prime objectives.
In 2005, VisionTV partnered with the National Screen Institute – Canada to launch the DiverseTV program, which offers visible minority and Aboriginal writers the chance to develop drama projects for broadcast.
Two DiverseTV projects, the MOW Rising Sun: The Asahi Baseball Story and the series The Mahalia Story, are currently in development.
“Investment in Rabbit Fall offers a wonderful opportunity to further our commitment to diverse drama. The talented creative team at Angel Entertainment has developed a very exciting concept: a blend of crime drama and the unexplained, with strong characters and powerful themes,” Jenkinson said in a statement.
Angel Entertainment’s Bob Crowe said that “from the outset, [producer] Wally Start and I were driven to make this series unlike anything else on Canadian television. Our creative team has risen to the challenge, and we’re very gratified that APTN, VisionTV and SCN have backed our vision for Rabbit Fall.”
APTN Chief Executive Officer Jean LaRose said joint efforts such as this have far-reaching benefits.
“I am always quite encouraged when the productions supported by APTN find new and exciting venues beyond our own that allow the work of our production community to be seen by greater audiences. APTN is always seeking new opportunities to ensure that our stories are heard by wider audiences and shared with all Canadians,” LaRose said.
Rabbit Fall will be filmed in Saskatoon and a variety of northern locations in Saskatchewan.
