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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Hosted by Paralympian Greg Westlake, the AMI original series Level Playing Field debuts September 7 on AMI-tv

From a media release:

Everyone deserves a level playing field. Debuting Monday, September 7, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv, the AMI original production Level Playing Field highlights and celebrates the power of sport by introducing audiences to the athletes, community groups, healthcare professionals and grassroots innovators who demonstrate a desire to help drive positive social change through sport.

Hosted by Paralympian Greg Westlake, Level Playing Field‘s eight half-hour episodes travel across the country, following the stories of athletes and organizations.

In the premiere episode on Monday, September 7, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv, we meet Rob Shaw. The 30-year-old para-athlete from North Bay, ON, has been playing tennis competitively from a young age and coaching, including coaching wheelchair tennis. After sustaining a spinal cord injury that resulted in C5-C6 level paralysis in all four limbs, Rob has limited mobility but has not stopped playing the sport he loves.

Future Season one episodes focus on Paralympic hopeful Anthony Lue, boxer Debbie Haryett, Para Triathletes Jon Dunkley and Jessica Tuomela, Para Judo star Priscilla Gagné, Wheelchair Rugby Canada team members Shayne Smith and Eric Rodrigues-Furtado, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

Season one of Level Playing Field was developed following the broadcast of two 2019 pilot episodes featuring Para Ice Hockey and Para Cycling. Stream the pilot episodes on demand on AMI.ca and the AMI-tv App.

In keeping with AMI’s mandate of making accessible media for all Canadians, Season one of Level Playing Field features Integrated Described Video (IDV) making it accessible to individuals who are blind or partially sighted.

Host Greg Westlake
Para ice hockey team captain Greg Westlake helped Canada to the silver medal at the PyeongChang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.

At the World Para Ice Hockey Championships in Gangneung, South Korea, in April 2017, Greg, a forward, helped Canada defeat arch-rivals U.S.A. to win a record fourth world title for the Canadians. The win marked his third world championship gold: Greg was on teams that won in 2008, 2013 and 2017.

Greg competed at his third Paralympic Games in 2014, in Sochi, and collected a second career Paralympic medal as Canada won the bronze. Greg finished the Sochi Paralympic Games tournament with four points in five games, including an assist on Billy Bridges’ insurance goal in the bronze medal game 3-0 victory over Norway.

In addition to Para ice hockey, Greg is developing a successful career as a broadcaster. He worked as a reporter for CBC at the Toronto 2015 Parapan American Games and the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.

Greg had both legs amputated below the knee at age 18 months. When he was born his feet were malformed and were never going to be fully functional. The technical term is congenital bilateral below knee amputee. He began playing Para ice hockey with the Mississauga Cruisers in 2001 and made his debut in 2003 with Team Canada at age 17.

Level Playing Field debuts Monday, September 7, at 8:30 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv. Stream episodes post-broadcast on AMI.ca or using the AMI-tv App.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Third and final season of Tribal Police Files in production

From a media release:

Steve Sxwithul’txw of OCM3 Productions is pleased to announce the start of production of Season 3 of Tribal Police Files, a documentary TV series on APTN, July 25 – August 15, 2020. Safety protocols for motion picture and television production will be in place to ensure a safe return to production. All reasonable precautions will be followed to protect the community, cast and crew.

This new season will be filmed in the Tsuut’ina Nation, located outside of Calgary, Alberta.  This season’s thirteen half-hour episodes will take us into the heart-stopping and challenging world of tribal police officers on the frontlines of the Tsuut’ina Nation Police Service.

Steve Sxwithul’txw is a First Nations director, producer and executive producer. As a former police officer from B.C., Sxwithul’txw also has a unique perspective and unprecedented access to the community of the Tsuut’ina Nation.

Tribal Police Files follows the tribal police officers as they put their lives on the line to keep their communities safe, healthy and proud. The series will also be translated into Tsuut’ina, the language of the Tsuut’ina Nation.

Unlike traditional cop shows, Tribal Police Files will uniquely balance police interaction with community members, showcase the police officers’ personal lives, and highlight the beauty of Indigenous culture and traditional lands. Viewers will ride along with the officers as they respond to calls, not knowing the challenges that lie ahead. Tribal Police Files recognizes the police officers’ incredible work and instills pride, healing and strength in its communities.

OCM 3 Productions
Tribal Police Files is produced and directed by Steve Sxwithul’txw. His previous series, Warrior Games, won four Leo Awards for, Best Information/Reality Series, Best Host, Best Screenwriting and Best Cinematography.

Tribal Police Files is produced with the support of the Canada Media Fund, APTN and the National Bank of Canada.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Auntie Jillian joins CTV’s summer schedule beginning July 25

From a media release:

AUNTIE JILLIAN is coming to CTV. Featuring YouTube ™ and social media personality Jillian Danford (a.k.a. “Auntie Jillian”), her husband Warren, and adult children Myles and Milan, AUNTIE JILLIAN brings Canada’s self-proclaimed first Black family reality show to viewers across the country Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT beginning July 25 on CTV and everywhere CTV content can be found. The six-episode season, airing over three weeks on CTV, centres on the Danford family in their Ajax, Ont. home as Jillian and Warren do their best to raise, entertain, and inspire their millennial and Gen Z kids. It’s not always pretty. It’s not always in control. But it’s always funny.

When cultures collide, hilarity often ensues and in AUNTIE JILLIAN, the Danford family and their extended fun-loving cast of friends encounter clashes and laugh-out-loud moments, keeping audiences excited to see what fun the family will encounter in each episode. Jillian is originally from Trinidad and Warren from Jamaica, and the two do their best to mold, entertain, and inspire their kids by nurturing and celebrating their Caribbean roots and embracing Canadian culture. From their first camping trip, to a Generation X vs. millennial cook-off, and Warren’s first time going for a new chest hair removal technique, AUNTIE JILLIAN keeps viewers wondering what hysterical shenanigans this family will encounter next.

Known by millions as “Auntie Jillian”, Jillian Danford is a YouTube ™, television, and social media personality who creates lifestyle vlogs about her outgoing and hilarious family. Her YouTube channel (@AskAuntieJillian) has more than 13 million views and more than 100,000 subscribers from a culturally diverse and international audience.

Promoting positivity, education, and empowerment, Auntie Jillian is known in the community as a youth advocate and has spoken at school assemblies as well as government programs for youth and anti-violence. Jillian is also a regular contributor on CTV News Channel’s Mind The Gap panel, which pits millennials against boomers on hot button topics.

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Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Production underway on Thunderbird’s Mud Mountain, a second spin-off from the hit Highway Thru Hell franchise

From a media release:

Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV: TBRD) (OTC: THBRF) (Thunderbird or the Company) announced today that production is currently underway on  the new original factual series, a second spin-off of the global hit Highway Thru Hell franchise. Bell Media’s Discovery has ordered eight one-hour episodes of Mud Mountain (working title).

Mud Mountain (wt) is set in the high mountains of British Columbia, just down the road from the Highway Thru Hell, where giant logs and bigger pay days beckon men to take huge risks. And no one is willing to go deeper in the mud than the Lebeau brothers, Craig and Brent, who are third generation family loggers, with very different styles, and separate operations. Now, wicked weather, and an even more frigid economy, has forced the brothers to bury the hatchet, and work together to survive road building, logging and brotherhood on the steepest, muddiest mountains anywhere.

Thunderbird has implemented strict health and safety cultures on all of its shows, which has enabled the Company to remain fully operational throughout COVID-19. These protocols and measures were key to the safe development and production of the new Mud Mountain series.

Mud Mountain will be distributed around the world by Bell Media.

The series is produced by Great Pacific Media, Thunderbird’s factual division, and Bell Media Studios. Executive Producer is Mark Miller. The Series Producer is Jeff Kinnon.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Smithsonian’s Hell Below heads for new waters in Season 3

Hell Below is heading to new heights in Season 3.

The documentary series from Parallax Film Productions Inc.—the crew behind Hitler’s Last Stand, Battle Castle and two previous seasons of Hell Below—has added CGI aircraft to its toolbox. The Vancouver company’s storytelling sets it apart from other projects in this genre with its grittily realistic filming, achieved through as much in-camera filming as possible, including explosions.

The purpose of Hell Below continues to be tracking submarine warfare throughout the course of the Second World War, and Parallax always hit the mark.

Returning Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Smithsonian Channel Canada, “Killer Strike” spotlights U-47 and its commander, Günther Prien, who is credited with the first official U-Boat kill of the Second World War when he sinks the SS Bosnia. Prien is recalled from patrol early and offered a secret mission to strike the British Royal Navy at its home port of Scapa Flow, in Scotland’s Orkney Islands. Used as far back as the Vikings, Scapa Flow has served as the Royal Navy’s base of operations since the First World War. Fighting heavy currents and dodging blockships, Prien breaks into Scapa Flow, but there is no guarantee he will make it out again.

Expert analysis, re-enactments, stock footage and always-impressive CGI help tell these tales.

Future episodes cover the true stories of German U-Boat Commander Fritz Julius Lemp and the sinking of the SS Athenia, attacks on Allied shipping off the coast of Australia, and the rescue of George H. W. Bush by a submarine after he was shot down.

Hell Below airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on Smithsonian Channel.

Image courtesy of Parallax Film Productions Inc.

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