It took more than a village to create Julián. Filmmakers from Ireland, Luxembourg, Denmark and Canada lent their talents and expertise to this animated feature about a boy who learns to embrace his inner mermaid. We talked with producer Anthony Leo, chairman of Canadian production company Aircraft Pictures, about his team’s pivotal role in getting this project off the ground.

When managing a co-production like Julián, an animated feature that employed more than 150 artists around the world, experience matters.  

Having worked on youth-oriented projects like the feature film Youngblood, hit Netflix series Geek Girl, CBC Gem’s Gangnam Project and the Oscar-nominated animated feature The Breadwinner, producer Anthony Leo and the team at Toronto-based Aircraft Pictures could offer that experience in areas like getting funding and working on distribution.  

Based on Jessica Love’s bestselling children’s picture book Julián is a Mermaid, the film tells the story of a young boy who spends a summer learning to express himself, ultimately deciding to dress as a mermaid for Coney Island’s annual Mermaid Parade.  

Julián is rendered in gorgeous, hand-drawn 2D animation by an army of artists from studios including Cartoon Saloon (Ireland), Melusine Studio (Luxembourg), Sun Creature (Denmark) and Canada’s own Guru Studio. An interesting note, in January of this year Leo became CEO of Cartoon Saloon while maintaining a role as chairman of Aircraft Pictures. 

The film — which received funding through the Canada Media Fund’s Distributor Program (now the Distributor Envelope Program) — has its world premiere this month at the Annecy Animation Festival. Leo was in France, where the festival takes place, when we met by Zoom to chat about making Julián, joining forces with actor Zoe Saldaña, and why he thinks animation can survive AI.

Julián is Aircraft Pictures’ first animated feature since 2017’s The Breadwinner. What brought you back to animation? 

Right. About 10 years ago we approached Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon about a project that we had developed called The Breadwinner as a co-production and it went really well, getting a lot of acclaim and awards. In that instance we had optioned the book and adapted it and took it to them.  

This time around they had a book that they were adapting and they came to us and said, “Hey, let's see if we can capture lightning in a bottle again, and would you guys be interested in co-producing with us?” We were immediately in because it was a great book, and we love working with those guys. 

Can you give us a quick synopsis of the film? 

Julián is a young boy who goes to stay with his grandmother for the summer in Brooklyn and he doesn't really know her that well. He discovers that every summer there's a parade called The Mermaid Parade. This is a real event. And he meets these three girls who treat it like it’s the epitome of their summer, planning what they're going to wear. So he decides that he wants to become a mermaid too. 

Over the course of the summer he encounters some challenges, but it's really a chance for him to discover what it is to express himself, and in turn helps his Abuela [grandmother] express herself as well.  

The film’s directors are Ireland’s Louise Bagnall and Mark Mullery, as well as Guadeloupe-born Guillaume Lorin. Why the need for three directors? 

Louise Bagnall, who is the lead director, this is her first feature film and so we wanted to surround her with as much support as possible. She’s an Academy Award-nominated director for her short Late Afternoon, so she didn't need that much help. However, because this is a story about a young boy of Dominican descent, and although Julián is not necessarily LGBTQ, we wanted Guillaume Lorin to be involved because he is from that part of the world and is queer himself. And then Mark Mullery has a lot of experience as an assistant director on some high-end Cartoon Saloon projects, so it was great to have him for the technical side of things. 

How did Zoe Saldaña and her production company Cinestar Pictures get involved? 

We’d started conversations very early on with them. Zoe and her sisters, Cisely and Mariel, are mostly from the Dominican Republic, heritage-wise, and Zoe Saldaña has also been very supportive of the LGBTQ community, specifically in support of her nephew who is non-binary. As soon as we put it in front of them they automatically took to the material and loved the way we were telling the story and just wanted to do whatever they could to help get the message out there. 

Did you have any trepidation about collaborating with them in that they could exert some influence on the project?  

We’d worked with Angelina Jolie on The Breadwinner and people at this level of their career, this level of celebrity, they have their choice of projects that they could get involved in. So it must be something that's aligned with what they want to do, and in this case, it ticked all the boxes. It took a long time to get them to focus on the project because they have so many things in their lives that are pulling them in all directions. But once they read it, and saw an early cut of the film, they were into it immediately. 

What’s the state of animation now in terms of creating and selling projects?  

I think globally we're in a bit of a correction. It’s definitely slowed down after the boom that started with COVID when all this animation was happening. Then on top of that you have the rise of AI-generated content, so it is a challenging time. But I think we're very fortunate to be collaborating with people at the top of their field so there's always going to be a demand for very high-quality animation. 

Does the emergence of AI in the animation space keep you up at night?  

What I'm encouraged by is what seems to be happening especially with Gen Z. There’s a bit of a backlash against AI-generated content, especially with young people. It feels like it’s a bit of a novelty, but I believe that flooding YouTube and the airwaves with AI-generated content is going to get old very quickly and people are savvy. 

Yes, it’s going to become higher in quality the more people invest in it — and it’s not going away — but people are not going to ingest more content for the sake of content. It has to be something special for people to spend their valuable watch time on.  

The Breadwinner focused on a young girl in war-torn Afghanistan and with Julián we spend time with a boy who struggles with feelings that he’s different. How important is it for Aircraft Pictures to create meaningful films for children? 

Very. It’s interesting with a project like Julián, we have come across some distributors internationally who say, “I love the movie, but I can't show this to my seven-year-old, or I can’t show this to my nine-year-old.” You are going to run into people who feel that way. But I know from my own experience…in some ways I am Julián. There were no movies when I was a kid saying, “Hey, don’t worry that you are a little loud, different, it's okay to go through this.” 

We need kids who are like that, who are expressive. We need somewhere for them to go 

The post Aircraft Pictures Helps Animated Pic “Julián” Take Off appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

The horror video game Dead by Daylight celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. Since its creation, the title has amassed more than 70 million players, and Behaviour Interactive, the Montreal studio that developed it, has seen its team grow from 300 to 1,260 employees.

A little more than 10 years ago, the Canada Media Fund financed a video game called Dead by Daylight. At the time, Montreal developer Behaviour Interactive, creator of the asymmetrical horror game that pits one player, the killer, against four other participants, had no idea it would become a global success. 

To explore the game’s history and achievements, Now & Next interviewed Behaviour Interactive’s CEO, Rémi Racine, and two of Dead by Daylight’s original developers, Dave Richard, creative director, and Mathieu Côté, director of partnerships. 

Let’s go back in time. Tell us about the beginning of Dead by Daylight. 

Mathieu Côté: Dead by Daylight started as a love letter to horror films from the ’70s and ’80s. We were a really small team, just about 35 people [working on this specific title]. To give you an idea, we now have nearly 400 people working on the game. 

Rémi Racine: We presented the game at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in March 2015, a little more than a year before its launch, after about six months of production. We were looking for a publisher, and we got more than a dozen offers. We chose Starbreeze, which was the smallest of the group, because, at the time, I wanted to develop our publishing services internally, and they were the only ones who would allow us to do it. When we released the game in June 2016 we didn’t have a big machine behind it. 

How did the public respond back then? 

Dave Richard: It was incredible. We were surprised. We knew we had something interesting on our hands, but not to that extent. 

MC: There were indications it could really take off, though. Right before the release, at the PAX video game conference, our booth was next to Twitch’s, the streaming service. Content creators who walked by tried our game and we saw it was a perfect genre for them — an infinite source of thrills and jump scares. It quickly got a lot of buzz. 

RR: We made good on our investment very fast. In two weeks we’d sold 400,000 copies, which allowed us to earn a small profit. 

You didn’t expect Dead by Daylight to stick around for such a long time. How did the game become what it is today?   

MC: It’s true. At the time, our goal was to release the game, maybe offer downloadable content the following fall, then move on to the next project. But when we saw the response we changed our plans. We kept the team, grew it, and started to build around the existing game. 

RR: One part of the team was working to correct bugs, because the game had some, and another was already working on new content. Very quickly we understood we had to provide continuing support for the game. 

DR: And now, Dead by Daylight is a franchise. Our universe is extremely interesting, and we want it to reach as many people as possible, beyond the game itself. For example, we released The Casting of Frank Stone, a game in a completely different genre, but within Dead by Daylight’s universe. There are graphic novels; we’re in the process of shooting a film. For the next 10 years and beyond, Dead by Daylight will keep growing and expanding beyond the original game. 

Dead by Daylight is known for crossovers with other horror franchises, like Halloween, Alien and Evil Dead. Why did you choose these partnerships?   

MC: It was pretty natural to want to include famous horror characters in a genre game, I would say. We were lucky; the first character we were able to get was Michael Myers, the villain in Halloween. It’s difficult to imagine someone more iconic. After that, conversations with other rights-holders were easier. 

DR: Plus, we were used to working with partners because the DNA of the studio was to produce games for other brands. We simply applied that expertise to Dead by Daylight. 

RR: Starbreeze, our partner at the time, was also familiar with this model, and so that helped structure our approach. 

How did the success of Dead by Daylight change Behaviour Interactive?   

RR: In the beginning, we were just developers who thought about making games. The success of Dead by Daylight allowed us to go further. Today, there are whole teams supporting our projects — analytic, player engagement, product management. All these teams bring information to the creators, who can then make more informed decisions. The creative side is still there, but when we have an idea, we have the means and the time to consider it more deeply. 

DR: To the players’ benefit! 

RR: Financially, it also gives us a certain independence. For the last seven or eight years, Dead by Daylight has allowed us to be more selective in the projects we do for others. 

MC: What’s funny is that, in the beginning, it was more the work-for-hire piece of Behaviour that allowed us to have time to develop the Dead by Daylight game. Today, the game’s popularity offers us other possibilities, like helping other studios. 

Obviously, the company has also grown a lot. When Dead by Daylight was released, the Behaviour Interactive team had around 300 to 350 employees. Today, we have 1,260.

What advice would you give to studios that are just getting started in the field?   

MC: We gave a presentation at the Game Developers Conference recently, and a lot of the audience’s questions were about how to make a game as a service [a model of monetizing games via subscriptions, microtransactions, etc.]. But that’s not what we did. We made a game, then we continued to maintain it, adding content and developing a service around it. Elements like the store were added later, once the players were invested.

RR: You have to make a game that people will like. Then you can see if it can become a service. But the game, first and foremost, has to have a clientele that plays it regularly. That creates some retention. 
 

MC: What’s also important is to listen to the players and learn along the way. It’s an exercise in humility, but the players can be a part of the team, in some ways. 

Behaviour Interactive will host a celebration for fans at the Grand Quay of the Port of Montreal on June 14. Several announcements about the future of the franchise will be shared at the event.

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When the Jean brothers — writer/director Anderson and actor Fayolle Jr. — combined forces, the result was the Young Adult series Jumelles (Twins). It’s an inspiring story about family, both on screen and off.

The Jean brothers, Anderson and Fayolle Jr., witnessed the evolution of diversity in Quebec’s TV industry up close.  

Their father, Fayolle Jean, who is originally from Haiti, was one of the first Afro-descendant actors in the province. He inspired many artists, including his sons, to follow in his footsteps. Young Fayolle Jr., who loved to visit his father backstage on set, became an actor in his early 20s, while Anderson was more interested in directing. From film to drawing, poetry to acting, all five Jean children are artistic. Behind the scenes, their mother made sure each of them could follow their dreams. 

One of those dreams has now come true with the Young Adult series Jumelles (Twins), the family’s most important group project to date. It will be available online via Tou.tv Extra starting June 11.  

“It’s the sort of thing you can’t even dream of,” exclaims an excited Fayolle Jr. 

Double Standard

Produced by KOTV, with financial support from the Canada Media Fund, the series follows 14-year-old twin sisters who were born to parents of different races. An extremely rare condition sets the twins apart — one is born with Black skin, the other with white. Until now, the twins hadn’t paid much attention to this difference, but the death of a Black woman during a police stop makes them question their identity and the unequal way they’re viewed by society. 

Anderson Jean co-wrote the screenplay with Marie-Élène Grégoire and Marie-Hélène Lebeau-Taschereau, who won an International Emmy this fall for La médiatrice (The Mediator). Jean came up with the idea after seeing the same type of twins on the cover of National Geographic.

“It was around the time of George Floyd,” he recalls, “and I thought it would be interesting to start the series with an event like that — twins who have the same parents, the same background, who come from the same place, and who, despite everything, are going to have a different life just because of the colour of their skin.” 

Fayolle Jr. plays the teens’ father, an engaged parent who makes it his duty to educate his girls on equal terms. But the tragedy that’s all over the news makes them question everything.  

“He never really talked to his daughters about difference because, for him, it was important to show we are equal. When this event happens, all these discussions start up about the colour of their skin, about opportunities…. With his Black daughter, and also with his white daughter. The Black twin delves into her Haitian side, but her sister, even though she’s white, also has a Haitian side. It’s an identity we don’t see, we don’t talk about, but it’s there.”

Expanded Family

Irlande Côté, who recently dazzled in Avant le crash (Before the Crash), and Keyla Mingot, in her first major role, play the twins. 

Anderson Jean, who also directed one of the 13 episodes alongside Jean-Sébastien Lord, is delighted with the pairing. “They have the intimacy of two sisters who love each other very much. That’s important for the series. They get along really well, and they pleasantly surprised me as actresses, particularly Keyla, who didn’t have a lot of experience. Irlande also impressed me with her talent and her professionalism. I believe they are a family. There’s something magic that happened, even with the technical crew.”

And who better to contribute to this magic than the Jean family’s patriarch, Fayolle Jean, who also joined the cast. The other two Jean brothers (who happen to be twins) and their sister were also involved, working on editing, graphic design, acting or as extras. 

“It’s funny because the only father I’ve had, in life and on TV, is my father,” exclaims Fayolle Jr., who’s always happy to play opposite his dad. “I also have a lot of admiration for my little brother. Acting in a series he wrote and created is truly extraordinary. I hope there will be many more.” 

The Importance of Representation

The Jean brothers appreciate the increase in representation on major series over the past few years. Like many actors of African descent, both father and son have played criminals or taxi drivers. 

“It’s wonderful to see series like Jumelles or Lakay Nou [which stars Fayolle Sr.] with actors of diverse backgrounds in leading roles,” says Fayolle Jr. “It allows young people to see themselves without necessarily having to go on Netflix. We need to see ourselves, all of Quebec, from diverse backgrounds. It’s important.” 

And for the Jeans, seeing such representations early in life is even better. That’s why Jumelles was developed for kids aged 9 to 12, though it has appeal for all ages. “We have a tendency to underestimate the emotional maturity of young people,” Anderson explains. “Even if the concept is serious, it’s a really sunny series in terms of sisterhood, friendship…. We talk about racial challenges and the search for identity, but in a positive way.”

Fayolle Jr. agrees. “What I find different from other Young Adult series is that we’re talking about racism, police violence, identity, parenting.… We find the right words and the right way to talk to young people, while keeping it light. There’s a lot of talk dividing us at the current moment, and we have to showcase that we are one single, beautiful country. We need to be able to talk about our differences, listen to each other, and learn from other people.” 

The post French-Language series about twins “Jumelles” is a true family affair appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

This Pride Month, Now & Next explores the best ways to approach the realities of trans life today, behind the scenes and on screen. We asked two trans artists, Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, who co-wrote the film François.e, and director Luis De Filippis, for their thoughts.

Ten years ago, the Toronto International Film Festival awarded the prize for Best Canadian Film to Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n'ont fait que se creuser un tombeau [Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves]. A few months later, the Quebecois feature received a special mention from the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival. At the time, one of the characters — a young trans revolutionary played by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay — received particular attention.  

“I think about it every year,” recalls actor/writer Boulianne-Tremblay, who was dropped into a media frenzy from her very first acting experience. “I didn’t have any training, I sort of threw myself into the unknown, like jumping into the void. I didn’t know if the parachute was going to open, but I really hoped it would.” 

The interest surrounding the film, including a noteworthy appearance on the Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle, helped awaken audiences’ awareness and empathy toward the trans community, while giving the film industry an updated perspective and promoting wider reflection. 

“When I was growing up there wasn’t a good perception of trans people on screen,” recalls Boulianne-Tremblay. “We laughed at them a lot, they were often treated as ridiculous. They were either made to be spectacles, or they suffered and died.” 

The Story of François.e

The team behind the new movie François.e, produced by KO24 with financial support from the Canada Media Fund, absolutely wanted to avoid these mistakes. That’s why, after having read Boulianne-Tremblay’s book, Dandelion Daughter, producer Louis Morissette and screenwriter Jean-François Léger asked her to co-write the screenplay for François.e, which opens July 1.

“I often say it was written with four hands,” says Boulianne-Tremblay, “and also with two hearts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team of screenwriters made up of a cisgender man [Léger] and a trans woman in Quebecois cinema. Already, that is growth and very evocative of where we’ve gotten to in our society.” 

François.e tells the story of François (played by Morissette), a writer in the midst of a midlife crisis who falsely pretends to be a trans woman to obtain financing for his new series. As one might imagine, his plan quickly falls apart. 

Several weeks before the film’s release, its poster, which depicts Morissette as a woman, and trailer have provoked a reaction from the trans community, especially in France. Some people are upset to see a cisgender actor in the title role of a trans woman. 

Boulianne-Tremblay says it’s important to grasp the intention behind the film’s story.  

“Our mission with this film is to take the viewer, with all their preconceived ideas, and bring them elsewhere,” she says. “This is a film that speaks about the cisgender perspective on trans life; how the character of François is going to be confronted by his own preconceptions, by a reality he is completely unfamiliar with, and question himself, but never using mockery.” 

Taking Up Space

The heated reaction speaks to the growing consensus that, despite Christian Bégin’s brilliant performance in M'entends-tu? [Can You Hear Me?] or John Lithgow’s in The World According to Garp, the trans community believes trans characters should henceforth be played by trans people.  

Boulianne-Tremblay agrees wholeheartedly, as does Ontario filmmaker Luis De Filippis, whose films place trans protagonists centre stage. 

“As much as I believe in non-trans filmmakers making trans stories, because no one owns any story, I don’t believe non-trans actors should be taking trans roles,” says De Filippis, who’s been winning awards since her first films at the prestigious Sundance, Toronto, Rotterdam and San Sebastián festivals. “You might not find a classically trained trans actor, you might have to do more of a grassroots approach, but that doesn’t mean the person that’s right for that role is not out there. You just have to put a little more work in the casting process.” 

The heroine of De Filippis’ first feature film, Something You Said Last Night, was played by Carmen Madonia, who wasn’t a professional actor. De Filippis says that didn’t prevent Madonia from delivering an incredibly moving performance. To put her star at ease on set, De Filippis used an approach that could catch on — mentorship. 

“I didn’t want us to be the only trans people on set,” says De Filippis. “So, Carmen knew in the morning that when she had to get dressed, there was a trans woman dressing her and there was a trans girl doing her makeup. She knew there was a trans girl behind the camera. She gives a very honest performance in the film and it’s because she knows she is supported and she is surrounded by people who understand her and know both what her character is going through and what she is going through.” 

Principles to Follow

De Filippis’ approach delights Boulianne-Tremblay, who plans to use it for future projects.  

Already excited that François.e brought 11 trans actors together on screen — one of the most beautiful moments of her life — she offers several additional ideas to foster positive representation of her community on screen and assure their well-being on set. 

First, make the whole team aware of a trans person’s presence and the realities of their lived experience before they arrive. Then, following De Filippis’ example, include trans people in different production roles. When it comes to storytelling, focus on positive, diverse narrative models so audiences don’t associate trans identity solely with situations of suffering or stories about transition. Also, whenever possible, donate a portion of revenue to organizations that support the community. Finally, as was the case with François.e, vary the dramatic genres by alternating between funny moments and deeper scenes.  

Boulianne-Tremblay is well aware that the more a film reaches people outside the community, the more it has the opportunity to increase people’s empathy and broaden horizons. 

“All my life, even before I was famous, I’ve tried to bring people together,” she says. “My proudest moment with this project was that we see a new side of our communities, positive representation of trans men and women in situations of power and autonomy. We’re opening people’s hearts up to another reality than what the majority of the population is familiar with, even today. At a time when bridges are burning, if a film like François.e can extend a hand towards the other, towards both sides, if it can inspire people and be a useful work, all the better.” 

The post Bringing trans realities to the screen appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

As Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie heads to the Canadian Screen Awards, viewers are seeking out the original TV series. Unfortunately, they can’t find it.

From its Midnight Madness screenings at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival to its theatrical run this past February, to its sold-out merch pop-up and eight Canadian Screen Award nominations, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie has become one of the year’s buzziest Canadian screen stories.

It also did what most filmmakers who create films spun from TV series hope for — sent viewers back to the original show. Sixteen episodes of Nirvanna the Band the Show aired over two seasons on Viceland in 2017 and 2018, and were then available on CBC and CBC Gem, but have since disappeared.

For Matthew Miller, who produced both the series and film, the renewed interest has been obvious. “The movie really connected and resonated with people and they want more,” he says.

However, in Canada, the series is almost impossible to find.

A New Generation Finds Matt and Jay

Created by Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, Nirvanna the Band the Show follows fictionalized versions of the pair — two best friends in Toronto who call themselves Nirvanna the Band and are intent on a single, absurd goal: play a show at the famed Rivoli, even though they’ve never written a song. The mission becomes a string of escalating stunts designed to get the venue’s attention, usually with disastrous results. The movie expands on the premise by turning their long-running quest into a time-travel story about friendship and ambition set in 2008.

Viewers looking for the show go beyond those who watched on Viceland or CBC. Miller says the movie has brought in some who were too young to have encountered the series when it first aired.

“There’s a whole new generation of fans who weren’t really cognizant when we were making that other show,” Miller says of the series that received funding from the Canada Media Fund (CMF) in its second season.

The film’s 2008 setting has helped. For viewers in their early 20s, that period is close enough to recognize and far enough away to feel strange. The clothes, the streets, the phones, the pre-algorithm texture of the world — all of it has become part of the appeal.

“What they’ve connected to in the movie, which we were not really anticipating, is this kind of nostalgia for this bygone era,” he says.

Miller says viewers in their early 20s have responded to the simplicity of that world, before social media and surveillance culture changed the way people behave around cameras.

The producers receive messages every day from fans trying to find the show but there is no clean, legal pathway for Canadian audiences to watch it right now, says Miller. The team is working on options, though, including a physical release of the series that’s scheduled for later this year and will be released by the team’s distribution partner, NEON.

Demand Outstrips Access

According to data compiled by global research company Parrot Analytics and provided by the CMF, Nirvanna the Band the Show generated average audience demand 16 times higher than the Canadian market average between May 10, 2025, and May 10, 2026, making it the fifth most in-demand Canadian-originated comedy series during that time period. Leandra Greenfield, a CMF data analyst, says that level of demand is surprising because sustained demand at that scale is usually concentrated among long-running, widely distributed Canadian comedies with strong platform support.

In the Parrot data, during that same period, Nirvanna the Band the Show sits just behind some of the country’s biggest comedy show standouts, like Shoresy, and only slightly below CMF-funded hits such as Schitt’s Creek and Letterkenny. Those shows benefited from broad exposure, strong distribution and years of cumulative audience awareness. Nirvanna is different in that it’s more of a cult hit with a fanbase that’s doing most of the heavy lifting.

Greenfield describes the series as “overperforming” relative to its accessible footprint. In terms of demand, it is behaving more like a widely available Canadian comedy than a hard-to-find one.

Greenfield says demand for the series rose around the film’s theatrical release in February 2026. Shortly after the release, audiences began “talking about, watching and actively seeking out the series,” she says.

The data can’t tell us whether those people were new viewers or returning fans, but Greenfield believes it was likely a mix. The film’s theatrical release and visibility from the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film & TV Festival, where it had its world premiere in March 2025, also helped push the property beyond its core fanbase.

Greenfield notes that demand spikes for Schitt’s Creek and other Canadian comedies were largely driven by expanded distribution, streaming access and audience awareness. Nirvanna’s surge is likely tied to the change in format. The movie created fresh attention and viewers started looking for ways into the comedy’s larger universe.

However, we should note that Parrot’s demand figures are not viewership numbers. They measure audience interest through signals such as search, social activity, ratings, open streaming activity and peer-to-peer activity, then express that demand as a multiple of the market average.

Keeping Canadian Titles Available

Miller says the show’s current lack of availability was not a deliberate scarcity play. The rights lapsed.

For him, the situation points to a larger challenge facing older Canadian titles after their first window. If shows are going to remain available, he thinks broadcasters need to see value in licensing them again, and producers need a clear reason to pursue second-term deals.

The other challenge is rights literacy. Once a show has aired, producers still need to understand what rights they control, what has expired and what can be relicensed.

“What honestly happens so often is that producers don’t fully understand the rights that they have or don’t have, or the scope of the rights or the terms of their original distribution agreements,” Miller says. “People are sitting on rights that they don’t even know that they have.”

For smaller producers, the work of staying on top of their rights can pile up quickly. “Companies come, companies go, they close, they go bankrupt, the terms lapse,” Miller says. “It’s almost like a full-time job just keeping up with the library of titles.”

Canadian Comedy and the Outside-In Effect

Nirvanna has never tried to sand down its Canadian identity. The show was built around Toronto, with the Rivoli as the prize and Queen Street as a key part of the story’s backdrop. Matt and Jay’s schemes depend on the city feeling grounded and specific.

That specificity has not stopped the title from travelling. Parrot’s data shows interest outside Canada, including in the U.S., Australia and the U.K., now that the film has created potential new viewers.

Asked whether there is a gap between audience interest and platform appetite for Canadian comedy, Miller points to Canada’s long history of exporting funny people and shows, such as Trailer Park Boys, Letterkenny and Schitt’s Creek.

But he says Canadian comedy often gets a domestic boost once it has been embraced elsewhere. “Canadians are way more likely to watch content made in Canada when they know Americans are watching it, which is a pity,” he says.

Part of that comes down to marketing. U.S. platforms and distributors can spend at a scale Canadian companies usually cannot. “The Americans market the material, and they can pay to market it in ways that maybe we can’t in Canada, just based on the numbers,” Miller says.

The show has done the difficult part of becoming relevant again. Now the business side has to catch up.

The post The Second Life of “Nirvanna the Band the Show” appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Aman and Kamal bring their backgrounds in business, consulting, history, and economics to the explainer videos they upload to their YouTube channel, 2 and 20, which has racked up millions of views. As one of 21 creators selected for the Canada Media Fund’s Digital Creators Pilot Program, they plan to use the money to increase their output and build their media brand.

At the end of 2023, Aman, a Vancouver-based investment professional and former consultant and investor, started making videos about finance, economics and global affairs and posting them on YouTube. “It was just me talking in front of a low-res camera,” he explains. “It was very low fidelity.” 

The videos were a hobby that complemented his nine-to-five job. “My work is a lot more numbers-oriented, and I’ve always loved being more creative,” he says.  

His first two videos were about the signals pointing to a housing crash and recession in the U.S. — topics he was interested in and knowledgeable about.

He showed the videos to his brother Kamal, who studied history and economics at the University of British Columbia and now works as a business strategist and investor. “Kamal was like, ‘We can make this a lot cooler and more entertaining,’” recalls Aman.

Kamal started helping Aman edit the videos, adding elements like music, graphs, animation and video footage. “I learned how to edit and animate myself, just from YouTube tutorials,” explains Kamal, who was also interested in starting a YouTube channel. “I was trying to figure out how Johnny Harris, who is a big YouTuber and has about 6 million subscribers, animated his videos to look so pretty. That upped our production level quite a bit.”  

Meanwhile, Aman adapted his writing style to be more approachable. He admits his prior work in consulting led him to write scripts that were dense and heavy at first. “I started to change it to be more narrative-driven,” Aman says.

A Channel is Born

They named their channel 2 and 20 after the structure of investment funds that charge a two percent management fee and a 20 percent performance fee on profits above a minimum threshold.

With their new formula and identity, the duo started to see more success. In September 2023, they released a video about the Canadian economy that got about 37,000 views. That was followed by a video in February 2024 called “Why Brexit Failed the UK,” that got nearly 140,000 views. Then came a string of viral hits — a video about the housing and affordability crisis in Canada, followed by a similar video focusing on housing and affordability in Australia, each of which now has around 3 million views.  

“Our subscriber count went from 5,000 to 40,000 in weeks,” Kamal recalls. “We started getting sponsors reaching out and famous YouTubers reacting to our videos. It was an insane amount of exposure.”

The brothers started to take their channel more seriously, seeing the potential for it to become something more. Kamal hired editors, animators and thumbnail artists to take over some of his duties, in part because the workload at his day job was increasing. He moved into more of a production role. “I will write up production guidance for the editors and animators, line by line, for the entire video,” he explains.

Aman, too, got help with researching and writing the scripts, which usually take one to two weeks to complete. At the end of 2024, Andrew Hayley, a former Reuters journalist who now works in finance, reached out to the duo to offer his help. “That's been really cool, too, because he brings something to the table with his perspectives,” says Aman.  

Sponsors and CMF Support

The brothers now have a strong following of 230,000 subscribers. Since they still work their day jobs, they can be picky about their sponsors, ensuring they’re a fit with their brand and audience. Finding a balance between sponsorship opportunities and maintaining their audience is something Kamal says is a challenge. “We want to keep a close-knit community but not inundate them with sponsorships.”  

Another challenge is how to grow the channel while meeting the demands of their day jobs. Kamal and Aman hope hiring more outside assistance can help them find the balance they need. Their goal is to increase their output from about one long-form video per month to one every two weeks.  

They also want to release more short-form videos on platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram — something they’ll be able to accomplish with the funds they’re receiving from the Canada Media Fund’s Digital Creators Pilot Program. The program, now in its third year, distributes a total of $394,000 among 21 creators who make short-form video content on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

“We've always put off shorts just because of money and people resources,” Kamal says. “[The fund] will help us tremendously. Scaling our shorts strategy is important for bringing a new set of viewers to our long-form content, which we think is more valuable.” 

Hopes for the Future

Aman and Kamal see 2 and 20 as more than just a video platform. “We want to build a media group focused on economics and geopolitics,” Aman says. “We want to not only do long-form videos but also go to different countries and speak with people, adding on a podcast as well.”

Their future goals represent a vision for how news-driven content creators, like 2 and 20, could gain more popularity and importance than traditional media outlets with the right funding and support. “Our generation, millennials and Gen Z, aren't watching mainstream media,” Kamal says. “It's important that you're on the platforms [that] people are headed towards.”

The post Meet the Vancouver brothers behind the finance and economics channel 2 and 20 appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

After two hit films, the Bon Cop, Bad Cop franchise comes to TV in a six-episode series, partially shot in Gesgapegiag with the Mi'kmaq First Nation community. Meet Mi’kmaq screenwriter Quentin Condo, who inspired his friends Patrick Huard and Anik Jean to tell this particular story, and helped them get it right.

To find the source of the new Bon Cop, Bad Cop TV series, you have to act like a salmon and swim upstream. Specifically, to the Cascapédia River, which flows into Chaleur Bay, between Maria and New Richmond, on the Gaspé Peninsula, or Gaspésie.

It’s there, while learning to fish, that director/singer Anik Jean came across an old classmate, Quentin Condo, a Mi’kmaq Nation artist who was working as a fishing guide. Jean and Condo crossed paths while attending secondary school together in Bonaventure but they didn’t really know each other. Over time, during the summers, they developed a strong friendship. And since our friends’ partners often become our friends, Condo and Jean’s husband, Patrick Huard, star/writer of both Bon Cop, Bad Cop movies, also got along extremely well.

It was while fishing, and sometimes sipping scotch, that the idea of creating a Bon Cop, Bad Cop storyline that takes place in the neighbouring Gesgapegiag community emerged. “We started talking about it 10 years ago, after the second film,” says Condo, now 47, at a café in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.

“Patrick and I clicked as friends, but he didn’t really know the people in our community,” Condo recalls. “When I told him what was happening, he asked questions and said it would be cool if, one day, we did a Bon Cop, Bad Cop with a First Nations plot.”

Knowing How to Navigate

Much water flowed downstream before the creative team finally got a bite. Then, about two years ago, the telephone rang. The project was going to move forward with financial support from the Canada Media Fund. First hired as a consultant, Condo quickly joined the writing team and later helped with casting and scouting locations.

For the idea to work, it needed to have the full approval of the First Nations peoples, including in Gesgapegiag. The son of a former chief and himself the former vice-chief of the area, Condo became a key player in the project’s success.

“The first thing we did was meet all the Quebec chiefs,” he says. “There are 43 communities in the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL). I called Ghislain Picard, [who was then] the regional chief for Quebec. I wanted to be sure everyone was in agreement, because we wanted to have an AFNQL scene in the series. I wanted everyone to have a role, and I didn’t want to have any problems with any other nations.”

Condo then went to Gesgapegiag to get the green light from council and go door-to-door through the community to make sure its members were behind him. “That’s how it works. You have to be really open because if something doesn’t work, everything can shut down.”

He quickly felt the community’s enthusiasm.

“I thought it was going to be more difficult, but they were really happy to participate. Bon Cop, Bad Cop is very well known with the First Nations peoples. Patrick didn’t know that. There are several Mi’kmaq guides on the river, and everyone knew Pat. He saw the potential to do something with our community.”

A Nation in Action

Any good screenwriter’s first concern is that their story is believable. And when a franchise rests on clashes between cultures — like the Bon Cop, Bad Cop franchise, which was initially about the clash between Canada’s French and English cultures — it’s essential that everyone recognizes themselves.

“The most important thing for me was that the dialogue was as Indigenous as possible,” says Condo. “We have ways of saying things, a different style, like the Quebecois compared to other Canadians. We say a lot with silence. If a Quebecois person doesn’t like something, you’ll know it right away, but that’s less so with the Indigenous. They’re just going to respond with silence. We call that the ‘silent no.’”

Truth is also relayed through performance. There were close to a hundred Gesgapegiag Mi’kmaq people on set, who brought their community to life on screen with pleasure and pride. Many had never acted in front of a camera before, but according to Condo, finding good Indigenous actors isn’t difficult because they’re born storytellers. The hard part is choosing who to cast.

Prominent Quebecois actor Joshua Odjick (It: Welcome to Derry), from the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Nation, near Maniwaki, stars as the Gesgapegiag police chief opposite Patrick Huard, Henry Czerny, Christine Beaulieu and Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse. Nathaniel Arcand from the Plains Cree, who’s had success in both Canada and Hollywood, also plays a role, as does Condo’s son, Liam, who has acting experience.

“We’re starting to see a lot of Indigenous talent, actors from everywhere,” says Condo. “For people from the community, it’s natural to become actors. They’re so good, it’s incredible!”

Changing the World, One Project at a Time

Having a collaborator like Condo is a precious asset for a production team, but not all projects are so lucky. That’s when creators turn to the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO).

“The ISO is pleased to see the audiovisual sector making use of available resources to collaborate in meaningful ways with First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities,” says Jean-François D. O’Bomsawin, ISO’s Director of Marketing & Communications. “The publication On-Screen Protocols and Pathways serves as a reference guide, accessible to all on [our] website.”

In the Eastern Townships, productions can also consult the Gaspé Film and Television Council. As a member of the group’s board of directors, Condo is familiar with the impact a series like Bon Cop, Bad Cop has on the region, which he estimates to be approximately $600,000 — a significant contribution for hotel and restaurant owners and other retailers, especially in the off-season.

Condo continues to advocate for his people and his culture, as he did when he was vice-chief, but he does it differently today. When he’s not collaborating on collective projects, he’s showcasing his talent, social activism and Mi’kmaq heritage on stage as a hip-hop singer under the pseudonym Q052. “With the arts, we’re able to change the world,” he says. “Not necessarily with politics. Artists possess a truth that politicians will often conceal.”

Although he now lives in Hatley, in Quebec’s Estrie region, having followed his partner there, Gesgapegiag will always be his true home. (“Mala,” he says, his hand on his heart. It means “where I’m from” in Mi’kmaq.) In mid-April, the production rolled out the blue carpet in Gesgapegiag for an advance screening of the series that will be available to all on Crave starting May 7.

Condo is delighted that, all over Canada, audiences will be able to see his community from the inside, demystifying what happens there, giving a peek into various families (often large ones) so viewers can better understand their reality and the way they view society. All while entertaining people.

“We live in the same country and rarely speak to each other,” notes Condo. “I think in the end, the series shows more of the things we have in common. That’s what’s fun. We realize we’re all human beings, and we all have the same emotions.”

The post The Mi’kmaq man behind the “Bon Cop, Bad Cop” series appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

We catch up with the creative team behind the six-part series Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story, which takes a comedic look at the life and legacy of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. Find out why the story of Johnson’s fall from grace is told from his point of view, and why the team leaned into the laughs to tell this story.

Hate the Player. It’s a bio-pic. It’s a sports show. It’s an outrageous comedy. It’s a love letter to Jamaican Canadians. It’s a series that takes big swings and hits it out of the park.

The six-part production (currently streaming on Paramount+ Canada and GameTV) chronicles the life and career of Canada’s most revered, and then reviled, sprinter Ben Johnson, who won gold in the 100 metres at the 1988 Summer Olympics only to have it stripped away when he tested positive for steroids.

“[The show] is about putting some shine back on Ben's name,” says Hate the Player’s creator and showrunner Anthony Q. Farrell, “and talking about how we put him on this pedestal and then we knocked him off it. And then we started to beat the crap out of him with it. It’s about telling his story from his point of view.”

Farrell is speaking at the Black Screen Office (BSO) Symposium in Toronto, where Hate the Player’s creative team recently gathered to chronicle how the show came together and why it stands out in the media landscape. Farrell was joined by the now 64-year-old Ben Johnson, Hate the Player’s stars Shamier Anderson, who gives a stellar turn as Johnson, Karen Robinson who plays Johnson’s mother, Gloria, and executive producer and New Metric Media CEO Mark Montefiore.

Montefiore reveals it’s taken six years for Hate the Player to reach screens, and that it was originally conceived as a drama. However, telling the story as a drama wasn’t working, which is why he sought out comedy writer/director Farrell (The Office, Shelved).

Finding the Comedy

“We really wanted it to be funny,” Farrell explains. “Find the comedy, find the jokes. It's a Canadian story, it's a Black story, and one of the things that those two cultures know how to do is find comedy in things.”

The humour veers from subtle jabs at sports media and racist track officials to slapstick to all-out ridicule. Johnson’s archrival, American sprinter Carl Lewis, is skewered unmercifully, which posed a problem for the show as it could be construed as libelous. That’s where the character of Walter the lawyer, played by Mark McKinney, entered the picture.

“We were dealing with the legal team who didn't want us getting sued while we were making the show,” says Farrell. “One of the things they said was you need a counterpoint; someone who is telling the other side to the story that's not just Ben’s. So, we came up with this idea: What if I just take the stuff the lawyers are sending me and just put it in the show? What was funny is the lawyers, once they got the hang of Walter, they started writing for him. I was like, is that a legal note, or are you pitching? They said, ‘We're pitching,’ and I was like, ‘No, you do the legal thing. I'll decide what goes in,’” he says with a chuckle.

Becoming Ben Johnson

The weight of the show rests on the brawny shoulders of Anderson, who had only six weeks to get into shape to resemble the extraordinarily fit Johnson. Another challenge was portraying Johnson throughout his entire life, from childhood to a man in his 60s.

“I think it’s important to mention I chose not to meet Ben until 48 hours before going to camera,” reveals Anderson. “The reason for that is because Ben's a very different person now than he was back in his 20s, his 30s, his 40s. Thankfully, with YouTube and Google, there's a lot of resources out there for me to pull from. And then when I sat down with him it was less about me being a journalist interviewing him, but just connecting with his heart and seeing the human today.”

Johnson, a self-effacing and soft-spoken panelist, chimes in on their meeting.

“[Shamier] invited me to his house to have a meal and get to know each other. I know his Jamaican background, and we were looking at each other and we smiled. We smiled at each other because we have a connection. He played me perfectly — the way I speak sometimes, the way I move, and what I say. And like he said, it was short notice for him to get back in shape very quickly.”

A New Perspective

For veteran actor Karen Robinsion, Hate the Player was a unique comedic project that also allowed her to reflect on her past as a young Jamaican woman who moved to Canada as a teenager.

“Reading the script, my first reaction was this is absolutely bonkers,” she says, smiling. “It was just so completely unexpected and off the wall and ballsy. I thought they're really taking a chance with this one and I really need to be a part of it. In terms of why I thought it was an important story to tell, is because [when Johnson was stripped of the medal] I'd only been in this country for four years and I was in Calgary, and I remember white people coming up to me and saying, ‘So, how do you feel about what happened?’

“As a 20-year-old, my critical thinking skills weren’t developed enough to address that question in the way that I would now, and I realize I never asked myself what Ben's side of the story was. It was only about what I was reading and what I was hearing and how people were approaching me as the only Jamaican they knew and asking me how I felt about it. So, I feel like being asked to join the project I’ve been given an opportunity to explore that side of the story.”

Despite a tight budget and production window that meant Farrell had to make some cuts to the script, Hate the Player found its narrative tone and stayed true to it. It was a challenge but, as he tells us, the key to getting things made lies in being open to what comes your way.

“I think a lot of times as artists, we get to a place where it has to be this, it has to be that, it has to be this. No, be open. If you understand what the core of your vision is and you know what story you're trying to tell, there are a lot of different ways to tell it. Be open to the way the universe is aligning.”

The post Spinning Ben Johnson’s story into comedic gold appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

His videos have millions of views and have been shared by actors Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Now social media star Frank Moyo is one of 21 creatives selected for the Canada Media Fund’s Digital Creators Pilot Program. The singing teacher explains why he makes videos that teach kids Italian, and how the money may help take his content to the next level

Frank Moyo’s Italian roots run deep. His parents and grandparents immigrated from Calabria, in Southern Italy, to Canada in the early 1970s. Moyo was born in 1993 and grew up immersed in Italian culture and language. He was close to his grandparents, especially his maternal grandmother, whom he calls Nonna. “I was speaking Italian when I was a kid and grew up eating Italian,” he says. 

When he was 11, young Moyo developed an interest in music. “I saw a guitar in the window and asked my dad for it for Christmas,” he says. “It’s a cliché story, but it's true, I promise.” He started writing music and developed his skills as a singer-songwriter while studying Italian and archeology at the University of Toronto, followed by a stint at teachers’ college. 

Moyo has been a music teacher since 2018, working at two primary schools in Toronto. But it wasn’t until six years into his teaching career, around 2024, that he started merging three of his passions: music, teaching and Italian. He soon added a fourth passion to that list, content creation, posting as @frankmoyomusic to a million Instagram followers and as @FrankMoyo on YouTube.      

The Birth of a Digital Content Creator

While he’d sung in Italian before, mostly covers, Moyo was inspired by how some language teachers use beats to help with pronunciation. “I kind of did it based on rhythm,” he says, using the word “parmigiano” as an example. He breaks the word down by its syllables, then works it into a beat. “Then we put it to a song,” he explains.  

He treated learning Italian as an icebreaker for music students to do something new together. “They were less shy and less worried about judgment as they were all learning together,” Moyo says.

Moyo wrote what he calls “The Cheese Song” and sang it for a Grade 2 class, propping his phone up on a projector stand. He wanted to capture video of his performance and post it online so that more people could learn from it. It was one of the first Italian instruction songs he posted on his Instagram account, and it became a viral success.

“It got 15 million views within the first week or two,” he recalls. “It was reposted by Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Love Hewitt and all these huge A-list people. I think it was just something really brand new and no one else was doing anything like it.” 

Moyo’s Popularity Grows

Moyo continued to write Italian educational songs, singing them for his classes then uploading them online. First came “The Pasta Song,” then a song about how to express your love in Italian, along with songs about fruits, vegetables and colours. The songs were a hit in and outside of school. “The Buongiorno Song,” which introduced different Italian greetings, hit 12 million views. “Parents would come to school and say how much they loved the songs and how their kids were singing them all day and night,” Moyo says.  

Seeing the potential for his songs to become something more, Moyo made a shift from Instagram to YouTube. He worked with an editor to create videos and thumbnails reminiscent of popular educational channels like Ms. Rachel and Super Simple Songs.  

Then, another big breakthrough for Moyo — a song that he wrote about his nonna went viral, which led to an appearance on Canada’s Got Talent in April 2025. An illustrated children’s book called Nonna, written by Moyo, followed that May. “She’s an online celebrity in her own right,” Moyo says of his nonna. “She loves it.”  

Is There a Children’s Show in the Future?

While he’s still focused on creating educational Italian song videos for children, and still teaches full-time, Moyo hopes to develop a full-fledged children’s show one day. He’s starting to experiment with more advanced video features like performing in front of a green screen and has hired illustrators and animators to enhance the production value of his content.  

As one of 21 digital creators selected for the third edition of the Canada Media Fund’s Digital Creators Pilot Program, Moyo gets to share in the total $394,000 handed out this year. The program’s goal is to support the growth of mid-career Canadian digital content creators making short-form video content exclusively on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok or Facebook. The funding will help Moyo amp up the quality of his videos and grow his channel. “Eventually, down the road, I want to be doing full-on kids’ concerts,” Moyo says. “I really take a lot of inspiration from Robert Munsch and Raffi and what they've been able to accomplish with their careers.” 
 
As Moyo goes all-in with his educational children’s content, he admits he’s had to set aside his “adult” singer-songwriter interests. “I’ve kind of pinned myself as a kids’ musician now,” he says. “It’s difficult to get back to my original music, but I enjoy it. I love seeing the kids' faces.”  

A highlight of his career was a book signing at an Indigo store in the summer of 2025. “I saw so many families there with their kids and moms and dads and grandparents and granddaughters, all together, singing together,” Moyo recalls. “It was such an incredible experience, and it made me feel like I had a purpose.” 

While online educational content for kids is already overwhelmingly popular, Moyo sees this landscape growing even more in the future. “Every kid is basically holding an iPad now,” he says. “I think more resources and more funding is going to be put into what we’re doing.”  
 
He sees a future where school boards could invest in social media programs and use them as an educational resource. “Schools can have their own YouTube,” he says. “I think it's going to grow and, at the same time, bring us together even more.” 

The post Italian + Music + Teaching = Winning Content for Frank Moyo appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

Filmmaker Michelle Mama has finally finished her documentary Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, a long-overdue chronicle of the Rough Trade singer’s life and legacy as a lesbian icon. The film opens the Hot Docs Festival later this month.

It took six years for director Michelle Mama to complete her documentary on Carole Pope.  

Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions is a labour of love — a lesbian filmmaker capturing the life and times of Canada’s first openly lesbian rock star. It’s a captivating, moving and celebratory film that sheds light on an elusive figure. It will debut as the opening-night film at this month’s Hot Docs Festival.  

We spoke with Mama as she was gearing up for the film’s premiere, and delved into the challenges of capturing the life and times of a 79-year-old queer icon. 

How did the idea for a Carole Pope documentary come about?

It was 2020 during COVID. My friend Allison Grace and I met on a bench in Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto for a chitchat. I had gotten to know Carole socially through a friend and we had been saying, gosh, we can't believe there's no doc on Carole Pope yet. How is it possible? Allison would say, “You should make it,” and we’d laugh. And then finally, on that bench, she said, “You're making this film and I'm going to help you. We're going to produce it together.” And that's what happened.

Was it difficult to convince Carole to make the film?

No. Carole was ready. Carole was waiting for someone to do it. I think there were a few attempts previously, I don't know why they didn't work out. But it’s a story begging to be told. Here we have this 79-year-old — she'll be 80 in August — icon. She's here. She's vital. She's got all her marbles. She's still running around the world with her little carry-on bag to do little shows. I couldn't believe that no one had done it yet.

It’s one thing to get Carole on board, but was it difficult to get her to engage openly with you as a filmmaker?

Carole's got a reputation for a reason, like she doesn't suffer fools. I was very conscious of that. I was a straight shooter with her from day one. You can't play schmoozy games with her. You must be direct and that's what I was. She knew I was coming at this from the right place. It wasn't about money or exploitation. I mean, God knows Canadian docs are not a way to get rich. I was a queer woman standing in front of one of my idols, saying, “Why hasn't someone done right by you?” And I always feel like, you know, time's ticking, anything could happen at any time.

Carole played with sexuality and, with her hit song “High School Confidential,” she expressed pure lesbian lust that was groundbreaking. How important is that song to queer culture?

She inspired not just queers. In the last six years I’ve talked to mechanics on Vancouver Island, to construction guys on the East Coast. When they heard I was doing this film they’d freak out. The biggest surprise for me is how much straight men are obsessed with Carole Pope. It's so interesting because if you think about the era, any song, any nod to any kind of sexuality was going to do it for guys, right? They were like, you’re hot and you're talking about sex. On the radio!

The film pays tribute to this lesbian icon, but it’s also a meditation on the aging artist.

And a woman artist.

Yes. You show how hard Carole works to make a living and ply her trade.

My point was to do this cold open where it's Carole Pope, the bee’s knees, in her crappy little apartment in L.A. The contrast was the point. It was to say everybody who thinks Carole Pope is living high off the hog of “High School Confidential” is wrong. It could not be more untrue.

And this isn’t just a film about Carole. It’s the story of Carole and Kevan Staples, who formed Rough Trade back in 1968. Was it hard for Carole to talk about Kevan?

I would argue that Kevan, and the ballad of Kevan and Carole’s love story, is the beating heart of Rough Trade and the film. We had a whole version of the film that just wasn't cutting it. The film itself worked, but Carole wasn't being forthcoming. So, we had to do a final two-day mega interview where we went deep and I had to say to Carol, listen we're going there. It was uncomfortable, and in that interview she admitted maybe my songwriting wasn't as great without Kevan in the 1990s. It's just one line.  

It's a very revealing line.

Yes, for her to admit, maybe my best work was with Kevan, is what she was saying. Going solo maybe wasn't the greatest plan in retrospect.

Has Carole seen the film?

Carole has seen it, and she likes it. It was a very emotional time when she saw it because Kevan had just passed away. I had been racing to get the film to the hospital to have Kevan see it, and it just didn't happen. So, it was just this horrible time. I invited Marilyn, Kevan's wife, and Carole to both watch it together at our edit facility. The prevailing emotions were about Kevan at that time, and it was very, very emotional. Everyone was crying.

What do you hope audiences take away from the film?

You can look at this film like a prism, see it in completely different ways. It’s a long-lost hero film; people in Canada know who Carol Pope is. Straight men will watch it and love it. The baby gays will watch it and learn something and love it. 

And when we’re talking about pop culture, we’re talking about a flame that lights another flame that lights another flame. I just went to see Peaches a couple of weeks ago, and you can draw the direct line between Carole and Peaches, but then you've got all these new kids coming out 20 years after Peaches. It's a third generation of queer kids, where we've got Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp. All these young, proud sapphic singers who are talking about women and loving women. And I just think, wow, here's a godmother of yours you can meet.  

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“I’m going to promote our culture, and that’s a promise!” Comedian Ariane Brunet, one of 21 creatives selected as part of the Canada Media Fund’s Digital Creators Pilot Program, talks about wearing many hats, and reaching her generation.

Comedian Ariane Brunet is one of 21 content creators who will share a total of $394,000 as part of the third edition of the Canada Media Fund’s (CMF) Digital Creators Pilot Program. 

Like all selected, this 23-year-old, Montreal-based francophone produces videos and shares them on social media — Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. In a funny sketch posted in March, for example, we see her buying an old, stained, and apparently smelly mattress from comedian Pier-Luc Funk. 

Brunet, who describes herself on Instagram as a “femme de blagues,” or “jokes lady,” has more than 120,000 followers on social media, an audience she expects will grow. The financial assistance from the CMF will help with that growth and support a new project — videos “that make people feel good” by addressing social themes in the form of funny sketches.

But that’s not all. 

“I’m working on a long YouTube video with my brother where we’re going to play music,” says Brunet. “These are videos that make people feel good. It’s really just that. I think the world needs to be entertained, and creators need support to be able to do it, even though we’ve been doing it for free for years.” 

A Team Effort

Brunet’s brother, Charles Brunet — who Ariane considers her best friend since childhood — is also a comedian. She began her career by working with him, both in front of and behind the camera, and they still collaborate, like in videos inspired by their Christmas together or a family vacation. “It’s really important for me to create spaces where I can work with people I like,” she says.  

Liking her collaborators is especially important since digital work is often solitary, and she considers herself a team player.  

Fortunately, for six months — from April to September 2027 — the CMF grant will enable her to add several creators to her team of one, including camera operators, directors of photography, film editors, sound engineers, writers and actors.  

Generalizing Generation Z

Brunet earns the bulk of her living as a TV content strategist. She isn’t planning to put her career on the back burner to become a full-time comedian. Instead, she prefers to wear several hats, including as a TV writer and an actor. Brunet also participated in the reality-TV series Big Brother: Le Piège (The Trap) in 2025. 

“Digital content creator” is one of the many hats she wears, but she doesn’t love the title. She thinks “content creation” is a catch-all term.

“It doesn’t really fit me,” she says. “I’m a comedian, and it just so happens my format is digital. I don’t really like that way of categorizing it, even if I understand that we sometimes need to explain things by putting them in boxes.” 

There are many ways to categorize her work. Brunet is part of the young Quebecois culture that avoids traditional media, and part of Generation Z, since she was born between 1995 and 2012. She laments that other generations think her life boils down to smartphones and the pandemic. She thinks generalizing a whole generation, her whole generation, is a form of snobbery.

“I can just be an artist,” Brunet says. 

“We wouldn’t say France Castel is a boomer, you know what I mean,” she adds, referring to the 81-year-old French-Canadian actor. 

Quebec Culture and Young People

Brunet has a lot to say about the traditional media available for her generation. 

In an October 2025 Instagram post she denounced the meagre offerings for young people in traditional media, especially on TV. She insists we need works by and for young people, and to make them accessible, having herself grown up watching a wide variety of comedy, including the sketch show Les Appendices, the satirical soap opera Le cœur a ses raisons (Sins of Love), and the educational comedy series Les pieds dans la marge. 

Brunet says people her age consume and produce Quebecois culture, but traditional media offerings are simply not sufficient or even interesting. 

“There’s only one show for young people, and if young people don’t watch it, they say, ‘Well, that’s it, we tried.’ The rest of the TV programs are geared towards an age group that’s not ours. And then they accuse us of going online. Yes, because there’s something there for us,” she says. 

With her CMF funding, Brunet wants to produce funny, accessible cultural commentary for all generations, as long as they know how to navigate a smartphone. Videos that make people feel good, “so the days don’t feel so long.” 

“I’m going to promote our culture, and that’s a promise,” she insists. 

The post Ariane Brunet wants to do good, and make you laugh appeared first on Canada Media Fund.

How an Edmonton production studio that creates Muslim-oriented entertainment for kids turned a story about the Silk Road from an e-book to a game, web series and full-length feature film.

In 2017, producer, writer and director Flordeliza Dayrit started writing Time Hoppers, a children’s e-book about the history of the Silk Road and the Islamic Golden Age. She was fascinated by the era, which spanned from the 8th to the 13th centuries, and knew she had something special on her hands. “It’s just never-ending history that’s sort of unknown,” Dayrit explains over the phone from Calgary, where she’s visiting her daughter.  

Dayrit was curious about the scientists of the Islamic Golden Age, in particular. There was Al-Khwarizmi, a mathematician born in 780 who is credited with popularizing algebra while travelling along the Silk Road. Astronomer Maryam al-Asturlabi also piqued Dayrit’s interest. Al-Asturlabi was born in 10th-century Syria and invented an instrument used to measure the altitude of celestial bodies above the horizon. Then there was Ibn Al-Haytham, who is known as a pioneer of optic science.  

“I would ask my friends, both Muslims and non-Muslims, ‘Do you know about the Silk Road and these people?’” Dayrit recalls. “Ninety-five percent of the time they had no idea what I was talking about.”  

The Expansion of Time Hoppers

It didn’t take long for Dayrit and Michael Milo, her husband and co-founder at both the Edmonton-based production company Milo Productions and Muslim Kids TV (muslimkids.tv) — a children’s entertainment platform for Muslim audiences — to envision a series and brand around Time Hoppers that would showcase the adventures of four time-travelling children, with their first stop being a trip back to the Islamic Golden Age.

“We saw the potential for something more,” Dayrit says. “History is so vast, so they could go anywhere, anytime.” 

The show’s lead characters are four students from a gifted school — Abdullah, Aysha, Khalid and Layla. They represent the diversity of Muslim cultures, including multiple hijab-wearing characters, Aysha among them.  

For Dayrit, working on Time Hoppers wasn’t just about creating a fun show for kids, it was about seeing herself represented on screen. “As an immigrant, I watched CBC before and after school and I thought it’d be nice to see someone like myself on that TV one day,” she says. “My goal has been to showcase stories that are relatable to my community.”  

They received funding from the CMF and Shaw Rocket Fund to create the Time Hoppers web series, which they began to develop while producing other programs for Muslim Kids TV.

Then, in 2021, Dayrit and Milo came across Canada Media Fund’s Innovation & Experimentation Program, which funds the development of interactive digital media, such as video games, and thought developing a game alongside the TV series would be a great way to build the brand. “We were able to really create the world,” Dayrit says. “We had the possibility of expanding it more.”  
 
They developed a game prototype and demoed it at schools and conferences like the Kidscreen Summit. “We saw incredible interest,” says Dayrit. “People would line up and wait for the whole day to play the game.”  

The game was released in 2024 and downloaded more than 100,000 times in three months.  

Pivoting From Series to Movie

Meanwhile, Dayrit, Milo and their team of animators and producers were busy working on their 13-episode series which, unfortunately, received a lukewarm reception from distributors. “The past years have been really tough,” Milo says. “Sales and interest of the different platforms and broadcasters has really dwindled. The only thing that they’re interested in is ancient IPs that are really risk-free. They weren’t interested in new ideas.” 

But based on the game’s positive reception, by the end of 2024 Milo and Dayrit had pivoted to creating a feature-length animated film, which would become Time Hoppers: The Silk Road. “The movie space is less crowded,” Milo explains. “We thought perhaps there’s a bigger appetite for an indie kids’ movie.”  

It took the animation team a year and a half to complete the film. “We had all the assets already, so we could repurpose them into a movie without an incredible amount of cost,” Milo explains.

The historical figures that fascinated Dayrit became characters in the film as the four students travelled back in time to prevent a villain from sabotaging the scientists’ discoveries. Milo Productions contributed their own money, and sought funds from private investors.  

Getting the Film to Theatres

Milo says they took a risk in pivoting to a movie, but it paid off. First, they received interest from Italia Film International, which distributes movies from Disney, Pixar and Marvel in the Middle East. On October 30, 2025, Time Hoppers had its Middle East premiere, including an Arabic-language version that screened in Saudi Arabia.  

That premiere was followed by a limited North American release on February 7 and 8, 2026. In the U.S., Fathom Entertainment screened the film in 660 theatres, while in Canada Landmark Cinemas showed it in 26 theatres, making Time Hoppers the first widely released children’s film by Muslim producers and creatives with a cast of predominantly Muslim characters. 

Cineplex is planning a small re-release in Canada to coincide with Eid celebrations after Ramadan later this month. There will also be a U.K. release in April, and plans are in the works for releases in Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia and South Asia. Vision Films will do post-theatrical distribution on TVOD and pay-per-view.  

Dayrit and Milo would love to get a major streamer interested, too. “We're hoping that in the digital space, that's where we'll be able to have a much broader general audience appreciate the movie,” Milo says. 

Meanwhile, Milo Productions is finishing the last two episodes of the Time Hoppers series this spring and summer, with a goal of releasing it in September 2026. Once that’s complete, it’ll be on to the next movie. Dayrit says there’s already demand for a Time Hoppers sequel, thanks in part to the film’s cliffhanger ending. “Everyone’s asking me, ‘When is the next movie coming out?’”  

She’s excited about the franchise’s potential. “This is an untapped market that we need to reach, and we know that we can do it right,” she says. “We’re confident that we can open up more markets and continue to do this work.”

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