CaribbeanTales Media Group (CTMG) CEO and founder Frances-Anne Solomon is in the director’s chair for the first of two planned CTMG projects inspired by the 2017 memoir of Jamaican-Canadian entrepreneur and civil rights activist Denham Jolly.

Production has started in Toronto on the Caribbean-Canadian comedy web series Garvey’s Ghost, created by Solomon, who serves as showrunner, co-writer and director, according to a news release.

The 6 x 10-minute series will be followed by the feature film In the Black from Toronto-based CTMG, which is also slated to go to camera this year and will detail Jolly’s (pictured) 12-year struggle create Canada’s first Black-only radio station: Flow 93.5 FM.

Supported by the Bell Fund, Ontario Creates and the Canada Media Fund, Garvey’s Ghost will feature a young Jolly as he arrives in Toronto in 1955 and rents a room in a boarding house that also houses the “Lady President” of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the ghost of her mentor, Jamaican political activist Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

CTMG’s Stephanie Tablizo is producer and Mary Wells is co-writer on Garvey’s Ghost, which stars Richard Walters (Degrassi: Next Class), Melanie Nicholls-King (The Wire), Mary Walsh (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Peter Williams (Stargate: Continuum); Valerie Buhagiar (Carmen) and comedian Owen “Blakka” Ellis. The web series will premiere on CaribbeanTales TV, a spokesperson tells Playback Daily.

Solomon is also slated to direct In the Black, which is funded by Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, CBC, Afroglobal Television, Feva TV, Hollywood Suite, and Rogers Cable Network Fund, said the release.

Based on Jolly’s memoir, In the Black: My Life, the film is being produced by Nikole Brooks and co-written by Andrews Burrows-Trotman.

Sphere Media’s Jennifer Kawaja is co-executive producer with Jamie Gaetz as development executive, said the release.

According to a post on Solomon’s Instagram account from last month, production also started on the documentary FLOW, about Jolly’s journey in creating the radio station.

“I trust Frances-Anne Solomon to tell my story with honesty, integrity and the directional creativity she always brings to every project that she touches,” said Jolly in a statement.

CTMG’s development slate also includes the half-hour comedy series How to be Brown, created by director Maya Bastian with Asis Sethi attached as producer.

Photo courtesy of CaribbeanTales Media Group