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A not-for-profit company whose aim is to produce educational audio-visual projects, which showcase the rich heritage of Caribbean storytelling.
- Lord Have Mercy
In 2002, Leda Serene Films produced Lord Have Mercy!, Canada's first multicultural sitcom, broadcast on Vision TV, Toronto One, Showcase Television, and the Aboriginal People's Television Network. It's a zany ensemble sitcom set in a Caribbean storefront church.
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LORD HAVE MERCY: Is Canada Ready?
By Aileen Santos
It's not
Friends or Survivor. It's called Lord Have Mercy and
it's getting very positive feedback from The Globe and Mail, My Bindi.com and
studio audience viewers alike. Canadian viewers have yet to experience
anything like it a multicultural television sitcom that takes place in
a church at the heart of the Caribbean community in Toronto. The
comedy about generational conflict is hilarious, but also covers taboo issues
in the community such as abortion and mature dating. With these and other
controversial topics, there's great potential to stir up discussion.
It's really about all the issues most immigrant communities
face: issues of adjustment, societal issues, family issues, human relationship
issues so a lot of the themes are universal, says executive producer Paul
De Silva. Though some critics deem the show revolutionary, Telefilm Canada
initially refused funding for the show. De Silva says he genuinely feels
Telefilm wants cultural diversity in their programming, but that the
system that decides which shows Telefilm funds is very disadvantageous
for the goal of diversity. It costs just under $250,000 to shoot
an episode, which is very little and because it is a revolutionary
show of sorts, the risk for return is greater. After the pilot episode was
viewed, Vision TV signed on along with Aboriginal Peoples Television Network,
Showcase and Toronto One. With several broadcasters already on board
Telefilm finally came to its senses. I've used the analogy many times of a
salmon swimming upstream, it's very hard. You might get to one
level and then get knocked out, but in the end, it's definitely worth the
struggle, explains De Silva.
The shows primary creators and
producers come from the communities that are represented and they've put a lot
of research into the characters to make them real. Paul De Silva, director
Frances-Anne Solomon and writer Vanz Chapman brought the cast to Eglinton
Street in Toronto for the actors to get a sense of their fictitious
characters. While we had an idea about the setting, we really wanted to make
sure that the stories and the characters came from reality, says De Silva.
With a cast including legendary Caribbean actors Leonie Forbes and Dennis Hall, First Nations actor Gary Farmer, comedians like Rachel Hall, Arnold Pinnock and Russell Peters, this show has a cast of many faces and races. Before Lord Have Mercy,
actor Shawn Singleton who plays Kent, the hip-hop grandson, followed his
passion for emceeing at nightclubs. He sees the show as an opportunity to open
doors for many young, talented people of colour. Even the crew boasts
diversity including Weyni Mengesha, the assistant director who says, It's a great opportunity to work amongst all these actors and to see
all the cultural backgrounds, I feel honored to work here.
Multicultural programming is slowly reaching Canadian audiences thanks to
stations such as OMNI and Toronto One and shows like Lord Have Mercy. Will
there be more to come I hope so. It's about time.
Lord Have Mercy airs: Tuesday, Feb. 11, at 9 pm and 12 am; Wednesday Feb. 12, at 9 pm and 11:30 pm; Thursday, Feb. 13, 9 pm and 12 am on Vision TV, cable 60, as a part of Black History Month. The series is also scheduled to run in a regular weekly slot beginning in April 2003.
All Lord Have Mercy: Reviews
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