(December 19, 2016 – Toronto, ON) White Pine Pictures has been giving us slices of Canada for years. From documentaries about Emily Carr, Glenn Gould or The Group of Seven and Lawren Harris, to more weighty issues addressed in films like Beyond Trauma or Guantanamo’s Child: Omar Khadr. Now this multi-award-winning production company has set its sights on a far more ambitious project. Thanks to a grant of $500,000 from the Government of Canada through the Canada 150 Fund, White Pine has embarked on a 6 part bilingual CBC and Radio-Canada documentary series and digital media project titled, boldly, We Are Canada.
Slated for broadcast on CBC, ICI Radio-Canada Télé and ICI RDI during Canada’s 150th Celebratory year (2017) and recently announced by CBC as part of their official Canada 2017 programming, We Are Canada is based on the idea that we define ourselves as a nation by what we do, and where we’re going. The mission of the series is to make known to Canadians the Chris Hadfields, Naheed Nenshis, Sarah Polleys, Robert Lepages, and James Orbinskis of the future.
“As part of the 150th anniversary celebrations, communities all across the country will get to know the stories of exceptional Canadians who aren’t afraid to push boundaries. This documentary series by White Pine Pictures is sure to touch all Canadians with these inspiring life stories,” said Adam Vaughan (pictured above, second from the right), Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister (Intergovernmental Affairs) and Member of Parliament (Spadina–Fort York).
Peter Raymont, President of White Pine Pictures added; “We are very thankful to all our partners in WE ARE CANADA that have made it possible to tell these remarkable stories on the occasion of Canada’s 150 anniversary and make them accessible to all Canadians through the tv series and digital platforms.”
We Are Canada is a marquee prime time six part English and French language documentary series telling the stories of a new generation of passionate change-makers. Their work is shaping and defining the future of this country in inspiring and imaginative ways.
With 18 stories selected from across the country this high profile series celebrates the accomplishments of young Canadians who are ground breakers, innovators and visionaries within their respective fields of endeavour. Each hour long episode includes three profiles of young Canadians, like 17 yr old Maya Burhanpurkar; a brilliant young scientist, inventor, and explorer with multiple ground breaking discoveries in medicine and physics under her belt. Maya is working at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace studies, on the development of a fully autonomous self-driving robotic wheelchair. She hopes 
to set an example for other young girls to get them interested in the male-dominated fields of physics and other areas of math and science. In Montreal, 34 year old Khalil Baker founded Taking Root, providing long-term income opportunities for farmers in the poorest parts of the world who are the most vulnerable to the effects of industrialization and climate change. And then there are the 26 yr old cousins, Andrew Hall and Jeremy Bryant who said, “We kept asking ourselves, what are we going to look back on and be proud of?” It turns out they have quite a lot to be proud of. They both left lucrative dream jobs in the corporate sector to found Mealshare, which has provided 928,117 meals to hungry children in need across Canada and is aggressively targeting its first major milestone: One Million Meals Served.
Working in collaboration with Ryerson University’s Transmedia Zone and the Faculty of Communication and Design, We Are Canada Digital will host a wide variety of original and interactive digital content introducing the show to Canadian millennial audiences on various social platforms. The digital component of the series will reach across Canada with a “Virtual Studio” that works with young changemakers across the country to get involved and tell their story. It will also showcase the ‘making of’ of the series as well as mini profiles of the characters in We Are Canada. Interactive live online events will also be a part of We Are Canada Digital.
No specific broadcast dates have been announced and Northernstars will publish that information when it becomes available.
