Global has acquired the reality series Beyond the Edge, hosted by Canadian sports announcer Mauro Ranallo. The series (pictured) sees nine celebrities tackling epic adventures in the jungles of Panama for two weeks to raise money for their chosen charities.

The celebrities are country artists Lauren Alaina and Craig Morgan, Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis, NBA champion Metta World Peace, supermodel Paulina Porizkova, NFL legend Mike Singletary, actress Jodie Sweetin and reality TV personalities Colton Underwood and Eboni K. Williams. David Garfinkle, Jay Renfroe, Jay Bienstock and Greg Goldman serve as executive producers on Beyond the Edge for Buster Productions in association with Renegade, an eOne company. The series, premiering March 16, is distributed internationally by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group.

Audience Development Pilot Project gets another round

Vancouver-based Magnify Digital has renewed its Audience Development Pilot Project, supported by the Bell Fund, Shaw Rocket Fund and Telus Fund. The project is intended to support Canadian content through Magnify’s first-of-its-kind audience analytics platform ViewerCentricTM, which helps producers and media businesses collect data to increase discoverability of their projects and build audiences.

Magnify Digital is a digital strategy agency for the cultural industries. It aims to expand the ViewerCentricTM national database through the 2022 Audience Development Pilot Project and add premium features to the platform this spring.

Beloved Ontario cinema gets doc treatment

Ontario-based Door Knocker Media and Ballinran Entertainment are developing a documentary on a beloved cinema north of Toronto and how its future is under threat amid changing technology and movie-going habits. The Movie Man will feature the Highlands Cinemas in the cottage country of Kinmount, Ont., also called the “cinema in the woods” for its surrounding bush and unusual appearance of a two-storey house.

Matt Finlin of Door Knocker Media is directing the film, which will explore owner Keith Stata’s struggle to combat the impact of the pandemic and dwindling ticket sales, coupled with his advancing age and declining health. The co-production between Door Knocker Media and Ballinran Entertainment is currently being shopped to broadcasters.

Bootlegger joins Mother Tongue Film Festival 

The Canadian feature Bootlegger, about a lawyer who returns to the northern Quebec Indigenous community where she grew up, will screen on the opening night of the Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival in Washington, D.C. Produced by Microclimat Films’ Catherine Chagnon, the film won prizes at the Vancouver International Film Festival and imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto.

The annual Mother Tongue Film Festival celebrates cultural and linguistic diversity and takes place from Feb. 17 to March 4. It’s a collaborative program of the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the Asian Pacific American Center.

Bootlegger has the financial participation of SODEC, Telefilm Canada, the Harold Greenberg Fund, in association with Best Friend Forever, in collaboration with Société Radio-Canada and Super Écran. Caroline Monnet directed and co-wrote the script with Daniel Watchorn. Pierre Even is the executive producer.

NFB to preserve Truth and Reconciliation Commission recordings 

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and National Film Board of Canada (NFB) have partnered on an audiovisual preservation project. The partnership will see the NFB use its state-of-the-art equipment to preserve digital audiovisual recordings that have been entrusted to the (NCTR) from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The more than 1,500 hours of content includes including Survivor Survivor public and private statements on their Residential School experiences and the legacies.

The NFB’s team of experts will consult with First Nation, Inuit and Métis Survivors, Elders and Knowledge Keepers to best understand the significance of the content. The organizations say the partnership is made possible as a result of the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Innovation Fund.

McGillivray Group makes hires in branded content and partnership

The McGillivray Group has announced several new appointments in its branded content and partnership team. The Toronto-based company, which includes prodco McGillivray Entertainment Media (MEM), has appointed Madeline Beauregard as director, brand partnerships, and Taylor McIlwaine as director, talent development and marketing. Other appointments include Deidre Budgell as head of branded content, and Lauren Flanagan as director, strategic enterprise programs.

President Andrew McGillivray continues to manage and develop the McGillivray Group of companies, which include subsidiary MEM and its slate of linear television shows in the genres of factual, lifestyle and reality. MEM’s original and format content includes Canada’s Got Talent, premiering March 22 on Citytv with judges Howie Mandel, Lilly Singh, Kardinal Offishall, Trish Stratus and host Lindsay Ell. Stratus recently joined the McGillivray Group’s roster of clients as it announced its expansion into talent development and marketing.