Drama series is based on Que.’s first black female police officer

Montreal: Yet more confirmation of the intrusion of social realism and the contemporary on Quebec tv has arrived in the form of Jasmine, a 10-and-a-half-hour police series dramatizing the experience of Quebec’s first black female police officer.

Jasmine (working title) is being produced by Pierre Gendron of Bloom Films and Lyse Lafontaine of Verseau International under the direction of Jean Claude Lord.

The story, named after the lead character played by actress Linda Malo, is based on a script from Lord and Pierre Pelletier, a pioneer in Quebec advertising and a cofounder of ad agency bcp.

The series is budgeted at $8.2 million and will be shot from April 17 to Aug. 21 at some 100 locations in the Montreal area.

Producer Gendron says Jasmine is both dramatic entertainment and futuristic sociology. The narrative follows the day-to-day experience of a black female cop, her struggle for acceptance with the folks at home and in the tres macho police department, all set against a backdrop of the strained relations between Montreal’s growing but ghettoized minorities and the Quebecois majority.

Lord, who has been working on Telescene’s Sirens, yet another lady cop story, has a solid reputation for style and fast-paced action, and plans to use two hand-held 16mm cameras on the 95-day shoot.

Gendron says Quebec Human Rights Commission director Maryse Alcindor and Tele-Metropole executives Andre Provencher and Jocelyn Deschenes played key roles in bringing the complex and gutsy package to production.

Leading players include Isabelle Richer, Valerie Valois, Genevieve Brouilette, Francoise Robertson, Julien Poulin, Michel Barette, Nadia Paradis, Raymond Bouchard, Cas Anvar and Karina Aktouf.

Craft specialists on Jasmine include dop Pierre Gill and cameraman Georges Archambault, art director Jean-Baptiste Tard, special effects co-ordinator Louis Craig, music composer Richard Gregoire, costume designer Lyse Bedard, sound recordist Yvon Benoit, editor Yves Langlois, first ad Frank Ross, casting director Lucie Robitaille and pm Mychele Boudrias.

Funding sources include Tele-Metropole, the Quebec tax credit program, Telefilm Canada (which has invested about $2.2 million), the Maclean Hunter Television Fund, the new Cable Production Fund, the Canadian tax shelter, and both production companies.

What’s that number again?

A first in the annals of Quebec feature film marketing: millions of Internet users are being solicited online with selected scenes and the sound track from the highly anticipated Charles Biname Gen-X film, Eldorado.

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