Season One now available on KindaTV
TORONTO, November 18, 2019 – Babe Nation Films, Shaftesbury’s KindaTV and WhoHaha announced today that the Canadian Screen Award-nominated web series Ghost BFF has begun production on Season Two (8x5min). Created and written by star Vanessa Matsui (The Handmaid’s Tale, Shadowhunters, The Smurfs 2), Ghost BFFfollows two best friends – one alive, one dead – across space, time and the suburbs as they struggle to find themselves and right past wrongs following a suicide. The series will film in Toronto this November and will be available for streaming on Shaftesbury’s YouTube channel, KindaTV (worldwide, excluding the U.S.), and in the U.S. on the Elizabeth Banks co-founded platform, WhoHaha, and Whohaha channels.
Season Two of Ghost BFF sees Amy, a twenty-something painter who struggles with her mental health, newly single, broke, and trying to find her footing in life after her best friend, Tara, came back from the dead in Season One, throwing her life completely upside down. Amy is offered a huge opportunity to regain some of her old independence and finally find success as a working artist when an ad firm hires her for a lucrative project, but the pressure leaves her creatively blocked and severely anxious. A trip to the ER reunites her with Tara, who is back on Earth to confront her deep-seated anger with her mother in a desperate attempt to stay out of purgatory. Both Amy and Tara find themselves at a major crossroads in their lives (or afterlife, in Tara’s case) and needing each other more than ever to become the people they want to be. Season Two asks the question: Can a person really change? Or are we destined to stay forever stuck in a purgatory of our own making?
“We’re thrilled to be shooting the second season of this important series which promotes mental health awareness, and couldn’t ask for better partners in distribution than KindaTV and Whohaha” said producers Katie Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott.
“I feel thrilled and privileged to be able to explore these complicated characters further and help break barriers surrounding mental health. My hope is that Ghost BFF Season Two makes you want to hold your best friend close, be gentle with yourself, and if you have been affected by suicide, make you feel a little less alone,” said creator and star Vanessa Matsui.
The series will continue to challenge the stigma surrounding mental health and further the conversation by building on the foundation set in Season One. The second season of Ghost BFF promises to bring even more light, laughter and openness to rather taboo topics like depression and suicide.
Season One is now available on KindaTV.
Ghost BFF stars Matsui, Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk, Man in the High Castle), and Dan Beirne (Fargo, Reign, Flashpoint). The second season will see a bevy of guest stars including Steve Lund (Street Legal, Schitt’s Creek), Jean Yoon (Kim’s Convenience, Orphan Black), Dani Kind (Workin’ Moms, Wynonna Earp), Angela Asher (Bad Blood, Hard Rock Medical), Yani Gellman (Dynasty, Pretty Little Liars), and Gwynne Phillips (Kim’s Convenience, Sensitive Skin).
Created and written by Vanessa Matsui, the series is produced by Katie Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott of Babe Nation Films, and is directed by Lindsay MacKay (Wet Bum, Running with Violet). Matsui also acts as Executive Producer of Season Two and will direct one episode. Produced with the assistance of the Ontario Creates Interactive Digital Media (IDM) Fund, the Telus Fund, the Canada Media Fund and the Bell Fund. Shaftesbury holds worldwide distribution rights, excluding the U.S.
Ghost BFF Series Social Channels:
Facebook: facebook.com/GhostBFF
Twitter: @ghost_bff
Instagram: ghostbff
To download this release, and for more information on this and other Shaftesbury series, please visit the Shaftesbury media site at shaftesbury.ca/media.
About Babe Nation Films
Babe Nation Films is a Toronto-based boutique production company that champions female voices and stories. Producers Katie Bird Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott specialize in the hands-on creative development and production of character-driven narratives from a diverse slate of international filmmakers. Babe Nation’s debut feature, The Rest of Us, premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival; the film was written by Alanna Francis, directed by Aisling Chin-Yee, and stars Heather Graham, Sophie Nélisse, Jodi Balfour and Abigail Pniowsky. Babe Nation’s other projects include Calvin Thomas’s and Yonah Lewis’s feature White Lie, which also premiered at TIFF 2019; a contemporary adaptation of the famous Françoise Sagan novel Bonjour Tristesse, written by Durga Chew-Bose (Too Much and Not the Mood, FSG Originals); Alice, Darling, the second feature from Alanna Francis (The Rest of Us, TIFF 2019); and a limited television series adaptation of the Kit Pearson YA novels The Sky Is Falling, Looking at the Moon and The Lights Go On Again. Katie is an alumna of the 2016 TIFF Producers Lab and 2018 TIFF Accelerator Lab, where she studied under veteran producer Cassian Elwes, and Lindsay is an alumna of the 2019 Rotterdam Producers Lab. In 2018, Babe Nation was named one of Playback’s Top 5 to Watch, and in 2019, the company was nominated for the CMPA Emerging Producer Award.
About Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is an award-winning creator and producer of original content for television, film, and digital. Shaftesbury’s current slate includes 13 seasons of Murdoch Mysteries for CBC and UKTV, three seasons of detective drama Frankie Drake Mysteries for CBC and UKTV, three seasons of critically acclaimed horror series Slasher for Netflix, two seasons of Hudson & Rex for Citytv/Rogers Media, and several new primetime series including Departure for Global/Corus Entertainment and NBC Universal, Dead Still for RTÉ, Acorn TV, and Citytv/Rogers, and The Sounds for CBC, Acorn TV, and Sky NZ. Shaftesbury’s branded division produces original entertainment projects for brands, including the global phenomenon Carmilla for U by Kotex/Kimberly-Clark and Turning the Tables for göt2b®/Henkel. Shaftesbury’s technology division works with leading healthcare institutions and researchers to explore and develop clinical applications for immersive media experiences including augmented and virtual reality. www.shaftesbury.ca
For more information, please contact:
Meg Campbell / Manager, Publicity / Shaftesbury / 416-363-1411 x163 / mcampbell@shaftesbury.ca
Jane Collins / Executive, PR / Shaftesbury / 416-363-1411 x130 / jcollins@shaftesbury.ca