Hollywood Suite has acquired the Canadian TV rights to the U.K. documentary The Contestant (pictured).

The film is directed by Clair Titley, narrated by Fred Armisen, and follows the true story of a Japanese reality star in the 1990s who spent one year naked in a room, with the challenge to survive on food and clothing won via contests. It is currently available on Hollywood Suite On Demand and will make its broadcast debut on July 20.

The Contestant had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. It was produced by Misfits Entertainment and MRC Television.

Arte Distribution

CBC/Radio-Canada has acquired two documentary projects in a deal with France’s Arte Distribution. The pubcaster has pre-bought the 52-minute documentary A History of Abortion in the U.S., about the implications of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the 2 x 52-minute French doc The Curse of Sugar, about the sugar industry’s ties to the slave trade and colonization. 

PBS

PBS Distribution has launched the subscription streaming service PBS Documentaries in the Canadian market through Amazon’s Prime Video Channels.

The channel is available for $5.99 via Prime Video, and offers access to PBS’s library of documentary and factual programming, including its strands American Masters, Independent Lens, Frontline and Nova. Programming also includes documentaries from renowned filmmaker Ken Burns.

Image courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival