THE CANADIANA PROJECT

PROJECT MANDATE

The Canadiana Project is a web series and virtual hub for all things Canadian history. Our mandate is to encourage greater knowledge and appreciation of Canadian history through the creation and distribution of Canadian history edu-tainment that is free and accessible to all Canadians.

CANADIANA WEB SERIES

Canadiana is a documentary series on the hunt for the most incredible stories in Canadian history. Featuring playful animations and scenic footage, the series follows host Adam Bunch as he travels across the country, exploring the tales that have made Canada the unique place it is today. From scandalous love triangles to secret experiments, from rebels and freedom fighters to pirates and assassins, we uncover the fascinating and the unexpected. This isn’t the history you learned in school.

Canadiana was created out of a desire to do Canadian history the right way, and in doing so bury the phrase "Canadian history is boring," because it's anything but. Too often history is crammed (or stretched) into an arbitrary broadcast length—we want each story to take the time it needs, and no more. We passionately believe that Canadians actually are interested in their history. They’re eager to learn more about it — the good and the bad — as long as it’s told in an innovative and engaging way. And that’s what we’re dedicated to doing.

HISTORY

The Canadiana Project is produced by Unlikely Pear Productions, a Canadian studio dedicated to exploring and promoting Canadian history through digital content accessible to all Canadians. The Canadiana series began filming in early 2017 and now consists of over a dozen short documentary films, available free on the Canadiana website and YouTube channel.

In 2018, Unlikely Pear was awarded The Bell Fund’s short-form digital series grant for Canadiana’s second season. The team has been nominated for best documentary series by numerous festivals; their work has screened at Yorkton Film Festival, National Screen Institute’s Online Film Festival, NYC Web Fest, Miami Web Fest, HollyWeb Festival, Sicily Webfest, T.O. Webfest, and also in schools across the country thanks to representation by McIntyre Media, Canada’s leading educational distributor.

In 2019, the team won a Golden Sheaf Award for Best Research, a Canadian Cinema Editors Award for Best Editing, and the IWCC Canadian Story Spotlight Award.

SPONSORS

Episodes of Canadiana are made possible by audience donations on Patreon. Canadiana Season 2, which premiered in 2018 and consists of eight episodes, is supported by a generous grant from The Bell Fund. For information on how to contribute or become a sponsor, please visit our SUPPORT page.

TEAM

Featured

Ashley Brook

Ashley Brook is an award-winning filmmaker with 10 years of experience in the documentary film and factual television industry. She is president at The Canadiana Project and co-creator/producer of the Canadiana series. Aside from her own work, she has credits on a variety of internationally-renowned projects including series and one-offs for CBC, HBO, Discovery, History, ARTE, National Geographic, and VICE. She recently produced on the four-part vr documentary series Equator 360: The Line of Life as well as Jardín de la Visión, and was previously the researcher and production coordinator on Canadian theatrical documentaries Long Time Running (The Tragically Hip) and Anthropocene: The Human Epoch. Ashley holds a degree in Communications (‘09), and post-graduate diplomas in Documentary Filmmaking (‘09) and Film & Television Post-Production (‘11).

Adam Bunch (Host/Narrator)

Adam Bunch is a Canadian author and the creator of The Toronto Dreams Project. His first book, The Toronto Book of the Dead (Dundurn Press, 2017), is nominated for a 2018 Heritage Toronto Award. He writes an history column for Spacing Magazine and his articles about Canadian history have also appeared in The Huffington Post, Torontoist, and Yonge Street. In 2012, his work on The Toronto Dreams Project earned an honourable mention for the Governor General’s History Award for Community Programming; the project has been featured by a variety of media outlets, including CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail, and has been put on display by prestigious cultural institutions like the Art Gallery of Ontario. He's a former columnist for the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, and a former member of the Polaris Music Prize jury. Adam has lectured about history at the Royal Ontario Museum, The Toronto Public Library, PitchTalks, U of T, York University, Seneca College, and Trampoline Hall.

Kyle Cucco

Kyle Cucco is a Toronto-based video producer and the co-creator of the Canadiana series. Kyle has been active in the television industry for over six years, spending most of his time on the set of documentaries and factual series. As a freelancer he has worked across numerous departments including grip, camera, props, research + development, and sound. He holds a degree in Film Studies and English (2010) from Wilfrid Laurier University and a Certificate in Film and Television Production (2013) from Ryerson University in Toronto.

Josef Beeby

Josef Beeby has been working in documentary for 10 years, and is a co-creator of the Canadiana series. He has worked in television for HBO, History and Discovery channels, as well as on a variety of independent productions. He has worked as a director, director of photography, writer, editor and VFX artist.

He edited ‘Blood, Debt & Tears’ for CBC, and wrote ‘The Book of Dog’ for Topic. He was co-writer of ‘I Thought I Told You To Shut Up’ which premiered at Hot Docs in 2015, and co-writer of ‘My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes’ which was shortlisted for an academy award, nominated for a CSA, and won best documentary short at the 2018 SXSW festival.