Zarqa Nawaz, Chris Robinson, George Canyon receive CBC Creative Relief Funding
Today the CBC announced the recipients of the CBC Creative Relief Fund, which was launched in April in response to COVD-19. 119 original Canadian projects from comedy, drama, podcasts, and youth programming will a receive portion of the $2.2 million in funding for development and/or production.
The full list of recipients can be found here, but we have selected a few highlights featuring Canadian comedians - and even a Canadian country star and his dog.
SCRIPTED - COMEDY
THE BIG SMOKE
Morgan Jones Phillips - Toronto
Jeff, a cocky young Cree paramedic from an isolated Native community, and Matt, a cocky young paramedic from Toronto, swap jobs for a year as part of an exchange program between ambulance services.
BOWL AND SPOON CAFÉ
Louise Lalonde Productions - Charlottetown
The Bowl and Spoon Café is a fresh, contemporary workplace comedy where disparate people come together, including two women struggling to make ends meet who find a sense of independence and selfhood they never had before.
THE BUZZKILLS!
Katharine King So - Montréal
A mockumentary-style half-hour sitcom in which a high school trivia team battles to win their high-stakes televised National championship. Four unique young geniuses know all there is to know about capital cities, the periodic table, and Canadian Prime Ministers...yet realize they have a lot to learn about life.
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
Zapruder Films Inc. - Toronto
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE is a pandemic-oriented comedy series centred around a psychiatry call-in show that was broadcasting as the quarantine was announced. With no other shows to fill the broadcast, they are forced to stay on the air…
CÉLINE & DEAN
Chris Locke and Jessica Holmes - Toronto
A quirky Waiting For Guffman-style comedy that follows a Céline Dion impersonator and her obsessed fan/manager as they try to navigate the boundaries of success and failure…and also just boundaries in general.
END OF THE ROAD
Copper Quartz Media Inc - Yellowknife
When you are this far North, things are bound to go South. END OF THE ROAD is a disaster-workplace comedy that follows the Kuliktana family's outfitting business as they navigate the North, business and family dynamics.
ESSENTIAL SERVICE
Zarqa Nawaz - Regina
While delivering food during a pandemic, a lonely Muslim woman accidentally hits a stranger, changing the fortunes of her life and business forever.
THE FAMILY BUSINESS
Any Other Name Productions
An all-business big dreamer is forced to work with his estranged, hard-partying mom when she unexpectedly inherits her ex-husband’s half of the family business - a bowling alley.
INTERNATIONAL CINEMA ACTION THEATRE
Andy King - Toronto
The greatest public-domain genre films from around the world, rewritten, redubbed and recut into hilarious 10-minute mini-movies.
LANDED
Take the Shot Productions - St. John’s
When Fanta Nange (20) leaves her home in Cameroon to start a new life in Canada, she’s prepared herself for every curveball she can think of… except for the clerical error that sends her to the wrong town. Forced to stay for a couple of years before she can move on, Fanta gets a job and tries to navigate this new home in a Western country with its foreign customs and colourful cast of characters.
MAROONED
Dream Square Productions - Toronto
When an astronaut is left behind on a space station that is designated for decommission, he must find a way to keep himself sane in isolation while jury-rigging repairs to the station. At his disposal are powerful telecommunications and scientific gear that he can use to watch the doings of those below.
MAYBE A MURDERER
Pat Thornton and Eric Toth - Toronto
An inexperienced husband and wife podcast team attempt to create a hit true crime series with a suspected murderer but set off a chain of events that upend an entire town.
NEROTICA
LoCo Motion Pictures - Toronto
Two inexperienced, horny teenagers write erotic fanfiction to endure their religious high school, but when one of their stories goes public, they gain a following that threatens their suburban sheltered community’s old-school values. With their newfound popularity, it’s going to take more than a Rabbi and their parents’ guilt to shut them down.
READ MY LIPS
Stephen O’Keefe and Barbara Lee - Vancouver
In a fast-paced world where effective communication has never been so important, Stephen, a deaf comedian, finds humour through his communications with family, friends and complete strangers. Stephen's story was the subject of the NFB documentary BETWEEN THE LAUGHTER.
SADIE EXPOSED
Damon Vignale - Vancouver
SADIE EXPOSED follows the ups and downs of late-night radio host Sadie Hillis (30s), a biracial, quirky-cool Vancouverite, trying to make it through at least one day unscathed.
SHE DELIVERS
3B Content Inc. - Toronto
As Door Dasher Hazel Lo (23) works her way through the COVID lockdown, she can't stop her inner detective from spotting suspicious behaviour. Her search for answers leads to the unravelling of a series of mysteries.
SNKRHDS
Ian Steaman - Toronto
If Seinfeld, Donald Glover and Kanye West had a baby, it would be SNKRHDS (pronounced “Sneakerheads”), a half-hour episodic workplace dramedy centred around Elite, a struggling start-up sneaker boutique located in downtown Toronto. Founded by 26-year-old Ethan, a Chicago transplant trying to start his life over, the store represents all of his hopes and dreams for that new life, if the misfits he’s hired to work there don’t sink it first!
STOODIS
Sam Bob, Dana Claxton and Courtenay Crane - Gibsons
Skeena is a single mother raising her two young children in a modest house she shares with her parents. She’s got a great job and a great boyfriend and everything is looking up until her kind but deeply flawed ex-husband sets up his teepee in her backyard and what was supposed to be a short visit turns permanent.
THIS SOUNDS SERIOUS
Kelly&Kelly - Vancouver
Adapted from the hit true-crime comedy podcast, THIS SOUNDS SERIOUS is a comedy TV series that follows the investigations of intrepid documentarian Gwen Radford as she uncovers the unbelievable crimes behind the most bizarre and captivating 911 calls you’ll ever hear.
TILL DEATH…
Carly Heffernan - Toronto
A sketch comedy show about the things we hate about the one we love.
WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
Michael Balazo - Toronto
When a global pandemic strikes, an online yoga instructor and her grumpy roommate are forced to get along if they hope to survive quarantine—and each other.
WEEKENDS
Chris Robinson - Toronto
After making a gullible mistake, a kind-hearted bank employee winds up being convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Sentenced to serve time on weekends, he struggles to find a new balance between providing for his teenage niece, winning over the love of his life, and surviving in prison.
WELLVILLE
Zoe Whittall - Toronto
WELLVILLE is a half-hour one-camera dramedy about a woman who returns to her small-town home with her city-born husband and kids – one of whom is trans – to take over her parent’s farm. The tone is funny, warm, witty and contemporary, like Gilmore Girls meets Waiting for Guffman.
WORK/LIFE
Ariel Nasr - Montréal
Single father Joel must run the gauntlet of extreme single parenting when he’s thrown together with his 5-year-old son, Tiger Boy, for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown.
KIDS & TWEENS
THE GEORGE CANYON SHOW - KIDS EDITION (Preschool)
George Canyon - Okotoks
Celebrate and sing-a-long to original children's songs and storytime reading, with special guest “Stan the Man” my French bulldog (the STAN-CAM).
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UNSCRIPTED ENTERTAINMENT
CARTOONS THAT SHAPED US (development)Fathom Film Group - Toronto
Busted gags, life lessons, and rose-tinted nostalgia - Canada’s most prolific voice actors and animation buffs take us on a deep dive into the cartoons that shaped us. Joined by comedians and celebrity friends, they watch, riff and discuss iconic cartoons with a new perspective, musing on cartoon culture as a reflection of the times now and then.
KILLJOY COMEDY (development)Shana Myara - Vancouver
Bite-sized bursts of “killjoy comedy” that punches up from Canada’s queer and racialized funny folks. We’re putting the microphone in front of our favourite Black, Indigenous, racialized, queer, fat, women and gender diverse comics—that’s right, those of us who’ve historically been the butt of jokes at comedy clubs. We’ll ask them about re-writing the old insult-comedy playbook, and what’s riotous about hilarity.
YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULT
VESSEL (development)
Ethan Godel, Filip Lee and Ryan Bobkin - Toronto
A sci-fi comedy following an enigmatic organization that manufactures cookie-cutter romances for lonely, love-hungry individuals
PLANTEMIC (production)
Betty Xie - Toronto
How do you survive a pandemic? You dig deep and stick to your roots! Plantemic is a web animated comedy series inquiring into a seldom explored point of view on the COVID-19 pandemic: that of our loyal, resilient, and vibrant houseplants.
PODCASTS
LIMITED CAPACITY
Rob Norman (Personal Best) and James Kim (Moonface) - Toronto
Strange connections through narrow bandwidths: LIMITED CAPACITY features deeply human stories twisted through imperfect technologies (Zoom, Skype), full of dark humour and surprising turns.
