‘Festivale’ billed as Canada’s first bilingual, Black-focused anthology series

TORONTO – Bell Media and a bilingual team of Black executive producers are developing a TV anthology series about what it means to be “Black, and becoming” in Canada.

Producers are billing “Festivale” as Canada’s first bilingual anthology series by and about Black Canadians.

The project, which is being produced for Crave, is backed by francophone executive producers Marie Ka and Richard Jean-Baptiste, and anglophone executive producers Damon D’Oliveira and Clement Virgo.

The series is set to consist of six stand-alone episodes following characters as they grapple with themes of appropriation, identity and belonging against the backdrop of a Montreal heat wave.

There will be episodes in both English and French, and some will feature multilingual dialogue.

The project also serves as a pre-development incubator, supported by the Black Screen Office, to cultivate emerging creative talent.

Showrunner Adam Pettle will oversee a team of writers who will develop episode outlines to be pitched to network executives, Bell Media said Tuesday in a release.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2022.