DiverseTV

TV series development training for underrepresented writers in Canada.

Program status:

Past program offered by the National Screen Institute

History

DiverseTV was created by VisionTV and the National Screen Institute to train writers from diverse communities that were (and still are) typically underrepresented in the broadcast system, and to tell stories that more accurately reflect Canada’s cultural mosaic.

Participants learned from a team of experts who taught writing skills needed to create a development package and help land an executive producer, prepared them for a pitch-of-a-lifetime to senior industry executives and broadcasters at the Banff World Television Festival, and helped participants wow executives at VisionTV to put their projects at the top of their ‘must-do’ list.

In 2006 two projects from the program were slated for development: movie of the week Rising Sun: The Asahi Baseball Story, and six-part dramatic series SOUL which went into production and was broadcast on Vision TV in 2009.


Alumni

2005

Nigel Hunter (Toronto, ON)
SOUL (formerly Mahalia)

Abi Marshall (Toronto, ON)
SOUL (formerly Mahalia)

Andy Marshall (Etobicoke, ON)
SOUL (formerly Mahalia)

Jari Osborne (Toronto, ON)
Rising Sun: The Asahi Baseball Story

Tihemme Gagnon (Hope, BC)
Broken Knives

David Morgan (Calgary, AB)
Dabbers

Mieko Ouchi (Edmonton, AB)
Saffron

Christina Sang-St. Catherine (Aurora, ON)
Full of Grace