Tag Archives: AMI

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Get ready to laugh again! AMI’s second All Access Comedy special debuts February 7 on AMI-tv and AMI+

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From a media release:

After a successful first All Access Comedy, Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) and Pilot Light Productions, in association with Ha!ifax ComedyFest, are excited to announce the second special—hosted by international comic superstar D.J. Demers—debuts Friday, February 7, at 9 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv and AMI+.

All Access Comedy is a stand-up special like no other, with comedians from the disability community coming together to celebrate their unique outlook on life for a packed audience of all abilities.

What is it like to use hearing aids? What are the challenges associated with cerebral palsy? What is it like to navigate the world when you are blind? What is it like to process life on the Autism Spectrum? All Access Comedy answers these questions and many more. The performances are observational, insightful and laugh-out-loud funny.

All Access Comedy is hosted by JUNO-nominated stand-up comedy veteran D.J. Demers (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Conan), who starred in his own AMI/CBC series One More Time, currently available on AMI+, in 2024. When he’s not busy with TV projects, Demers tours extensively on the comedy club circuit in both Canada and the U.S.

All Access Comedy features performances by Ontario comic and motivational speaker Michael McCreary, who started performing at 12 years of age, channeling his experiences on the Autism Spectrum into comedy gold; Toronto-based comedian Joze Piranian, originally from Lebanon, who jokes that as a child, his speech impediment obliged him to stutter in four different languages; Toronto writer and performer Dan Barra-Berger, who knows what it’s like to navigate Canada’s biggest city using a white cane; and New York City-based American comedian Tina Friml, who started her career at small-town comedy clubs in Vermont and now tours extensively, including appearing on network late-night shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

All Access Comedy was recorded in front of a live audience at the Spatz Theatre in Halifax as part of the 2024 Ha!ifax ComedyFest. Arrangements were made to meet the needs of the diverse audience in attendance. Rows of seats were removed to create prime viewing spots for wheelchair users. A simultaneous subtitling system (CART) was provided on-site to assist Deaf and/or hard of hearing audience members. To accommodate American Sign Language users, a live ASL interpreter was on stage. The live production was overseen by a professional Accessibility Coordinator at both the planning and execution stages.

All Access Comedy debuts Friday, February 7, at 9 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv and AMI+.

Stream the first All Access Comedy special anytime, for free, on AMI+.

All Access Comedy is produced by Halifax-based Pilot Light Productions.

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Featured, Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

AMI-tv announces 2024-25 production slate

From a media release:

Accessible Media Inc. (AMI) is pleased to announce its 2024-25 production slate for AMI-tv and AMI+. Telling a wide range of authentic stories about Canadians in the disability community through positive portrayal, these new and returning projects promise to be favourites with viewers.

AMI is currently in production on new scripted and docuseries from Big Time Decent Productions, Canadian Content Studios, Flow Video, Summerhill Media Inc., Border2Border Entertainment, Prairie Cat Productions, Bone Vault Inc. and Catapult Pictures.

“We are thrilled to offer over 100 hours of programming to Canadians of all abilities,” said Cara Nye, Director, Content Development and Production at AMI. “The upcoming broadcast season sees the expansion of our scripted stable of shows and provides, for the very first time, a children’s series to our schedule.”

New Series

After Dark (working title) – 8 x 30 digital series
After Dark is a documentary digital series exploring sex, love, dating and relationships relevant to people with disabilities. From sex surrogacy, virginity, manufacturing ergonomically designed sex toys, and sex parties to navigating online dating and the sharing of romantic/sexual wants and needs with family and friends, After Dark dares to illuminate your world of possibilities. After Dark is produced by Border2Border Entertainment (Womb Envy, Avocado Toast, Drag Heals).

Collar of Duty Kids – 8 x 30 children’s docuseries
Collar of Duty Kids takes young viewers into the lives of amazing kids who’ve been matched with extraordinary service animals. It’s all about these brand-new partnerships and the adventures they get up to. If you are thinking just dogs, you’re in for a surprise because we are talking about creatures from parrots to pigs! Collar of Duty Kids is produced by Summerhill Media Inc. (There’s Something You Should Know, Collar of Duty) in association with Fifth Ground Entertainment.

The Crip Trip – 6 x 60 docuseries
The Crip Trip is a punk-rock, gonzo, road trip comedy following the misadventures of artist, filmmaker, and quadruple amputee Daniel Ennett and his producer/friend/caregiver Frederick Kroetsch as they drive from Edmonton to Toronto. Their goal: to secure employment for Daniel in the television industry thereby saving him from long term care. Along the way, the duo will meet with other artists in the disability community to hear their stories. The Crip Trip is produced by Catapult Pictures (The Secret Society, Blind Ambition: The Wop May Story).

Get Hooked – 7 x 30 docuseries
This isn’t your dad’s fishing show. In partnership with OutTV, Get Hooked is a fresh take on how members of the queer, Black, Indigenous and disability community turn the mental health benefits of fishing into pure joy. Get Hooked is produced by Heidi Lynch of Bone Vault Inc. (Avocado Toast, Finding Green) and will feature the British disability advocate and comedian Rosie Jones along with other diverse nature lovers. Other partners include the Bell Fund, Ontario Creates and CAMH.

Low Vision Moments (working title) – 6 x 30 scripted comedy
Based on the life of Jennie Bovard, the candid host of the AMI podcast Low Vision Moments, viewers are in for a blurry ride, as Jennie fumbles and finds her way through everyday life as a person with albinism and low vision—work, friendship, love, and waving at mailboxes. Low Vision Moments is produced by Jennie Bovard, Jonathan Torrens’ Canadian Content Studios (Vollies, Roll With It) Club Red Productions (Who’s Yer Father?, A Small Fortune) and Flow Video Inc. (DarkVision, Accessing Pleasure).

Underdog Inc. – 8 x 60 docuseries 
Underdog Inc. follows Dale Kristensen (Backroad Truckers), a Little Person, as he navigates life in a mountain town, juggles the ups-and-downs of fatherhood and runs a small business with his sister. Dale’s business, Underdog Inc., offers a variety of services to customers in the region, including backroad trucking, hotshot delivery of urgent cargo, salvage and rescue calls, construction and handyman services. Whether he’s transporting heavy loads up and down treacherous backroads or tackling a long list of repairs for demanding homeowners, Dale is making a name for himself as a trucker, handyman and all-around good guy. Most importantly, he’s showing his son—and the world—that life is not about first impressions… it’s about lasting connections. Underdog Inc. is produced by Big Time Decent Productions (Rust Valley Restorers, Backroad Truckers).

We Were Broncos – 6 x 30 docuseries
We Were Broncos is the story of Ryan Straschnitzki’s life beyond the horrific Humboldt Broncos bus crash in 2018. As an athlete, Ryan wanted to be a professional hockey player. But after the crash, he had to adapt to a new athletic goal of becoming a Paralympic sledge hockey player while completely changing his lifestyle. We Were Broncos is about perseverance in life and adaptive sport. We Were Broncos is produced by Prairie Cat Productions (Humboldt: The New Season, Talent).

Returning Series

Returning series include Season 2 of Access Tech Live, Season 9 of Our Community, Season 3 of Disrupt, Season 3 of Healthy at Home, Season 5 of Dish with Mary, Season 4 of Mind Your Own Business, Season 6 of Postcards From… and a brand new All Access Comedy special.

All AMI-tv originals are available post-broadcast on demand at AMI+.

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Featured, Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Big Time Decent Productions in production on four new unscripted originals, launches new scripted division Bread & Better Films

From a media release:

Vancouver-based production company Big Time Decent Productions has announced that it is in production on four new docuseries and is expanding its unscripted slate to include a feature documentary, an IMAX nature documentary, and a new automotive vertical for YouTube including flagship channels Rust Bros and Wildman Garage. The company has also shared details on the launch of its new scripted division, Bread & Better Films, and a new partnership with Verve Talent and Literary Agency out of Los Angeles.

Big Time Decent Productions is currently in production on new docuseries with Corus Entertainment, as well as Bell Media. Underdog Inc., which has been greenlit by AMI, is a new docuseries following the life of Dale Kristensen, a little person raising a child while running a trucking business in small town BC. The company has also had a fourth docuseries recently greenlit by a Canadian broadcaster with a formal announcement coming soon.

“After a lot of hard work from our talented team, we are thrilled to be announcing some major company milestones. Since our launch in 2020, we have had the incredible opportunity to share fascinating stories of remarkable characters with global audiences through our unscripted content. Off the heels of this success, we look forward to continuing to expand our unscripted offering while ramping up our scripted development slate with Bread & Better Films,” said Matthew Shewchuk, Founder and Head of Production, Big Time Decent Productions. “Despite the overall state of the industry, we’ve experienced steady growth in our first four years and will continue to build on that foundation to position ourselves as a key Canadian content producer.”  

Bread & Better Films, Big Time Decent Production’s new scripted division will focus on developing and producing feature films and scripted series. The new arm launched in partnership with Big Time Decent’s René Brar and Jeff Kinnon. The company is also bringing in industry veteran Robert Vroom as Producer. Vroom has produced a wide range of feature films including Blood Quantum (2019), You Can Live Forever (2022), and several TV movies. Bread & Better Films also welcomes writer, producer, and actor Juliana Wimbles to serve as Development Producer for the new label. Bringing 20 years of industry experience, Wimbles appeared as a regular on ABC’s The Good Doctor (2019) and is a familiar talent with the Hallmark Channel, having written six feature films for the broadcaster.

“We’re incredibly excited to announce the launch of Bread & Better Films and to have Rob and Juliana joining us. Our team has deep roots in the scripted world, and we look forward to expanding that side of the business and building a robust scripted slate together,” said René Brar, Head of Development, Bread & Better Films.

After building a successful foundation in unscripted television, Big Time Decent Productions is diversifying their unscripted offering, producing a feature documentary that will take part in a festival run in the fall, as well as their first IMAX nature documentary targeting a 2025 distribution. Following the enormous success of their highly acclaimed show Rust Valley Restorers (above), the production company is finding innovative ways of bringing automotive programming to a loyal fanbase with a collection of talent-driven YouTube channels, including Rust Bros and Wildman Garage, among others. Together these channels have accumulated over 100 million views across platforms in the first half of 2024.

The company has also signed with Verve Talent and Literary Agency, one of the fastest-growing and most-reputable talent agencies in Los Angeles.

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: Christa Couture ups the adventure on AMI-tv’s Postcards From…

Christa Couture is no stranger to AMI or storytelling.

She hosted AMI-audio’s Live from Studio 5 and has been featured on an episode of AMI-tv’s Fashion Dis. On the storytelling side, she has written, sung and spoken of her life, including the childhood cancer that led to the amputation of her left leg, abortion, divorce and the tragic deaths of two infant sons.

Couture’s way of weaving a story is what makes the newest season of Postcards From… so engaging.

Returning for Season 5, Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on AMI-tv and AMI+, Couture is the newest host to take over for the channel’s veteran series. The program, which was previously hosted by AMI talent in Alex Smyth, Laura Bain, Beth Deer, Shelby Travers and Dave Brown—and Season 4 by poet Therese Estacion—features Couture visiting eight communities across Canada. Focusing on the senses, Postcards From… spends equal time presenting the locales as Couture witnesses them via taste, touch, smell, hearing and sight like never before.

Couture’s enthusiasm, curiosity and wit make for a winning production. In Wednesday’s return, she heads to Drumheller, Alberta, where she gets hands-on with dinosaur bones, hops on the back of a motorbike for a ride into town and scarfs down a local delicacy called “prairie oysters.” An emotional scene features Couture recalling visiting Drumheller as a child with her mother—and showing off a smiling photo of herself, then unaware of the cancer in her left leg that had returned and would ultimately take it below the knee—before she gets a tour of the area and gets up close with some dinos.

What sets Postcards From… apart from other travel series is that time is spent focusing on accessibility. Couture, for instance, describes and utilizes the paved path and wheelchair the Tyrell Museum offers guests to traverse the rocky terrain. And her description of what it was like to swing her prosthetic leg over a motorcycle before going on her first-ever ride was as fun as watching the smile on her face.

Future destinations in this season include Fredericton, Dawson City, Salt Spring Island, Niagara Falls, Montreal, Edmonton and Whistler.

Postcards From… airs Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.

Image courtesy of AMI.

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Awards, Featured

AMI’s That Sex Show and Bell Fibe’s Vollies among Screen Nova Scotia 2024 award winners

From a media release:

Screen Nova Scotia hosted its tenth anniversary awards gala on Saturday, May 11th, in the Bruce Guthro Theatre at Casino Nova Scotia in front of a sold-out crowd of industry members and supporters. The annual event celebrates the incredible talent, creativity, and passion that are the trademarks of Nova Scotia’s screen industry. Awards handed out included the ACTRA Maritimes Awards for Outstanding Performances, the Film Crew Excellence Award, the Women in Film & Television – Atlantic Award, the Community Recognition Award, and the Screen Nova Scotia awards for best television, film, and animation. New 2024 awards included the Screen Nova Scotia award for Outstanding Achievement in Screenwriting and the addition of a new category from ACTRA Maritimes for Series Ensemble.

The night’s finale was the Screen Nova Scotia Award for Best Feature Film, sponsored by the Director’s Guild of Canada, which went to The Queen of My Dreams from writer/director Fawzia Mirza and producers Marc Tetreault and Jason Levangie (Shut Up & Colour Pictures) and Andria Wilson (Baby Daal Productions). Filmed in Pakistan and Nova Scotia, the film tells the story of a mother, Mariam (Nimra Bucha) and her daughter, Azra (Amrit Kaur) coming of age in two different eras while exploring the characters’ complicated relationships to their home countries and each other.

The third season of the Bell Fibe TV1 series Vollies from Canadian Content Studios was crowned the winner of the Best Scripted Television Series Award. The fresh, funny comedy follows the Essex-West-Essex Fire Department, a small town volunteer fire department that never has any actual fires to fight. The cast of Vollies (Jonathan Torrens, Mary Austin, Brian George, and James Faulkner) also took home the inaugural ACTRA Maritimes Award for Series Ensemble.

Meanwhile, the Best Unscripted Television Series Award went to That Sex Show (featured image above) from Ocean Entertainment. The AMI series, hosted by sex educator Rachele Manett, features experts and members of the disability community discussing the myths and misconceptions surrounding the sex lives of people with a disability.

The Best Documentary Film Award went to Cold Dip from Amy Mielke and Brittany Gavin (A+B Roll Films). The film follows Jessica Wiebe, a Canadian veteran and artist, who practices cold dipping in Nova Scotia as a way to heal physical and emotional trauma. Mielke and Gavin also took home the Best Nova Scotia Director Award from Women in Film & Television – Atlantic.

The new award for Outstanding Achievement in Screenwriting went to writer/director Taylor Olson for his 2020 award-winning micro-budget feature Bone Cage, while Best Animated Production was awarded to Toopy and Binoo: The Movie, animated by HH Animation.

Locally filmed TV series proved to be a showcase for N.S. talent, with Kristin Howell (Moonshine) and Shelley Thompson (Sullivan’s Crossing) both taking home ACTRA Maritimes trophies for Outstanding Performances. Britt Loder also won an Outstanding Performances award for her role in the Hallmark movie Christmas Island, while David Rossetti won for his performance in the short film Remnants, which was made in the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative’s Film5 Program.

Songs of Unama’ki (Ruby Tree Films) was the winner of the Best Short Film Award. Directed by Mi’kmaw filmmaker Dawn Wells and Jeff Miller, the film details how the Mi’kmaq of Unama’ki (Cape Breton) are turning to the musical traditions of their ancestors in a race against time to revive their dying language and culture.

The Groundbreaking Performance Award, which celebrates a performer who identifies as being from an underrepresented community and does not yet meet the eligibility criteria for the ACTRA awards for their work in a film or television/web series, went to drag performer Deva Station (Steven MacLeod) for their role in the series Apocalyptic Kitchen. The award recipient is determined by an online voting process, to better engage the wider community outside of the screen industry.

This year’s Film Crew Excellence Award went to art director and production designer Ewen Dickson. A skilled carpenter and member of DGC Maritimes, Dickson has worked in the Nova Scotia film and television industry for over 25 years on countless productions of all sizes, genres, and budgets. A mentor to many, Dickson is known for his skill, generosity, enthusiasm and professionalism. His credits include Kids vs Aliens, Books of Blood, Moonshine, Diggstown, and Hobo with a Shotgun, as well as countless short films.

The 2024 Community Recognition Award recipient was Janet Hawkwood, a former lead instructor of the Screen Arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC). Hawkwood was recognized for her dedication to nurturing, promoting, and elevating the local film scene through mentoring hundreds of emerging filmmakers over her 20 year tenure at the college. She was pivotal in the development of the two-year filmmaking diploma at NSCC that has since served as a launching pad for many individuals who have gone on to create impactful and critically acclaimed work.

This year’s prestigious Industry Champion Award was awarded posthumously to visionary television producer David MacLeod. A passionate industry advocate and a pillar in the local production community for over 30 years, MacLeod will be remembered for mentoring and encouraging an entire generation of Nova Scotian filmmakers. MacLeod was a true trailblazer and instrumental in the early success of Screen Nova Scotia as a founder and long-time board member.

The Screen Nova Scotia Awards were made possible this year due to the generous support of many sponsors, including Platinum Partners at the Directors Guild of Canada, Support4Culture, the Canadian Media Producers Association, and William F. White International Inc. Special thanks to 902 Post, Narrative Environment Studios, and The Hideout Studios for their continued work to ensure another successful event in 2024.

2024 Winners:

– Best Feature Film: The Queen of My Dreams (director Fawzia Mirza / producers Shut Up & Colour Pictures) 

– Best Documentary Film: Cold Dip (directors/producers Amy Mielke and Brittany Gavin, A+B Roll Films)

– Best Scripted Television Series: Vollies S3 (Canadian Content Studios)

– Best Unscripted Television Series: That Sex Show S1 (Ocean Entertainment) 

– Best Short Film: Songs of Unama’ki (Ruby Tree Films)

– Best Animated Series: Toopy and Binoo: The Movie (HH Animation) 

– Outstanding Achievement in Screenwriting: Taylor Olson, Bone Cage 

– Groundbreaking Performance: Deva Station (Steven MacLeod), Apocalyptic Kitchen 

– ACTRA Maritimes Awards for Outstanding Performances: Britt Loder (Christmas Island); David Rossetti (Remnants); Kirstin Howell (Moonshine S3); Shelley Thompson (Sullivan’s Crossing S1)

– ACTRA Maritime Series Ensemble: Vollies (Jonathan Torrens, Mary Austin, Brian George, and James Faulkner)

– WIFT-AT Award for Best Nova Scotia Director: Amy Mielke and Brittany Gavin (Cold Dip)

– Film Crew Excellence Award: Ewen Dickson, Art Director/Production Designer

– Community Recognition Award: Janet Hawkwood, NSCC Screen Arts Program (retired)

– Industry Champion Award: David MacLeod, Producer 

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