Each year at Banff, a number of producers are chosen to bring their developing projects to the attention of the international television industry in the hopes of securing coproduction partners and/or broadcaster interest. Playback went back to the 1998 pitchers to find out whether any of their projects have been greenlit for production since last year’s Banff Market Simulation.

The day after producer Mary Armstrong pitched her six-part docuseries The French in America at last year’s Banff Market Simulation, she met up with pbs, which has joined forces on the project with Montreal-based Pixcom Productions.

Although the budget for The French in America remains at an estimated $2.7 million, and the series is still in development, a number of things have changed over the year.

‘We didn’t get Telefilm [Canada] money and we’ve taken a few turns since Banff,’ says Armstrong, who looks forward to returning to the festival this year with new outlines and an eagerness to ‘start working the finance.’

Although Pixcom signed on with Cinetv in France last year, Armstrong says they didn’t begin working together until Christmas.

Since then, Toronto-based Norflicks Productions has been signed off the coproduction deal and writer Jean Lebel has been replaced by Jefferson Lewis, who has just finished the treatment for the series.

The project is now being written in English (as opposed to French). ‘And with the addition of History Television and pbs,’ says Armstrong, ‘we’re not taking as much of a global perspective and we’re looking for ways to underwrite the show. We’re looking for as much private funding as possible.’

Because Armstrong believes the project will be ‘very important for French living in America,’ she says, ‘it would be very interesting to get families like the Duponts involved.’

Although the doc is still about the settlement of North America and the Caribbean from the perspective of the French, a new angle has been reworked since last year’s pitch.

‘We’ve gone from taking a political approach and telling the story from the perspective of kings, queens and generals to telling it from an historical and economic perspective. We’re now painting more portraits of people,’ says Armstrong.