Frances-Anne champions 'colour' TV

Frances-Anne Solomon has received only rave reviews for the ground-breaking, Canadian sitcom Lord Have Mercy! which she created, co-wrote, and directed through her production company Leda Serene Films. The Gemini-nominated comedy series, Canada’s first multicultural sitcom, premiered on Showcase Television last February. Born in England to Trinidadian parents, Frank and Ann-Marie, Frances-Anne grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and attended Bishop Anstey High School.  She received a degree in Theatre Arts and English Literature at the University of Toronto, and then moved to England to pursue post-graduate work in film, and has since had an exciting career as producer, director, and writer in film, TV and radio for many years. She started off as a documentary researcher and director for the Bandung File-Channel 4 TV, and for Ebony, BBCTV; then worked as a radio drama producer/director for the BBC where she was responsible for some 35 productions including Monsoon by Maya Chowdhry and Her Father’s Daughter by Winsome Pinnock.

Between 1992 and 1997, as script editor, producer and executive producer for BBC Television Films and Single Drama,  Frances-Anne was responsible for several features and award-winning TV movies including Speak Like A Child and The Sixth Happiness.  She also initiated and executive-produced television movies written, directed and produced by minorities, known as Black Screen Productions; and was the executive producer of  Screen On The Tube — a co-production with the British Film Institute to develop first features with some of the UK’s “hottest” talent.  The result of these two initiatives include Love Is the Devil, John Maybury’s first feature film, which premiered at the Director’s Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival. As a director, Solomon’s credits include What My Mother Told Me which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and was recognised in the Toronto Star’s Best of the Festival; Bideshi won Best Short Feature at the Bombay Film Festival; and I is A Long Memoried Woman won the Gold Award for Performing Arts at the 1991 New York International Film and TV Festival.

It was now time for Solomon to fulfil a longtime ambition of starting her own production company, and in 1990, she launched Leda Serene Films in England, with a staff of production and creative talent.  By 1999, the president, brought her company  to Toronto where she continues to create, produce and direct film, television and new media projects. Leda Serene Films is dedicated to placing people of colour in front of, as well as, behind the camera; and has made its name as a producer of high quality dramas and documentaries which celebrate diversity — strong personal stories from different cultural perspectives in the global diaspora. In 2000, in order to produce the series Bo Ke Bo Phelo! — a drama series about the lives and loves of four members of a township soccer team,  Frances-Anne registered Leda Serene Films Pty in Johannesburg, South Africa, where other projects are currently being developed. There are no boundaries for this Trini woman who, in partnership with the University of Toronto in 2000, created the not-for-profit company Caribbean Tales to produce educational videos and new media products that document the rich legacy of Caribbean culture and heritage.  

However, riding high on the charts right now is Frances-Anne’s Lord Have Mercy, a zany ensemble sitcom set in a Caribbean storefront church, which features in its cast Trinidadian comics, Dennis “Sprangalang” Hall as the charismatic and easy-going Pastor Cuthbert Stevens, and Rachel Price, as Youth Pastor Dwight Gooding’s wife, Desiree. Up-and-coming Canadian actor Arnold Pinnock is cast as the youth pastor. The show which is taped live before a studio audience in Toronto, has gained excellent media reviews. Says Herman Silochan of The Caribbean Camera “a bold but overdue step in bringing out a comedy series which reflects a significant part of Toronto’s population, the Caribbean.”