Vancouver writer Chelene Knight's novel Junie to be adapted into TV series
'It is my hope that this series showcases the complexity of home, belonging, and being Black in Vancouver'
Vancouver author Chelene Knight's debut novel Junie will be developed into a 10-episode television series.
Knight, who will be a consulting producer on the series said in a press release, "It is my hope that this series showcases the complexity of home, belonging, and being Black in Vancouver."
The story is about a young girl named Junie who lives in 1930s Hogan's Alley, a Black immigrant community located in East Vancouver. She is a creative, observant child who moves to the alley with her mother, Maddie: a jazz singer with a growing alcohol dependency.
As Junie reaches adulthood, exploring her artistic talents and burgeoning sexuality, her mother sinks further into the bottle while the thriving neighbourhood begins to change. The story explores the complexity of mother-daughter relationships and the vitality of Hogan's Alley.
Junie was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and a finalist for the 2023 Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction.
"When we do the research, we always see the same things popping up: that the neighbourhood itself was in squalor, that it was a community riddled with crime, that there were all these terrible things happening. But we weren't really looking at the community; we weren't really looking at people," Knight said in an interview with CBC Books.
"We weren't looking at the conversations and the everyday living. So that's what I wanted to highlight. This conversation around Black voice becomes really important, because we're often centring stories around pain, heartache and trauma. I wanted to showcase that joy can live inside even the most tumultuous times."
Knight is also the author of Braided Skin and Dear Current Occupant, winner of the 2018 Vancouver Book Award. Her essays have appeared in publications such as The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and The Walrus. She is the founder of Breathing Space Creative literary studio.
The series will be adapted by screenwriter Priscilla White who's worked on CBC's TV shows The Porter and Diggstown.
Two producers from local production companies will develop the series: Praneet Akilla of Vancouver-based Akilla Express and Teresa M. Ho of Ontario-based 100 Dragons Media.
"I was excited to share the stories about Black joy, love and friendship in a series format [and] showcase the pulsing day-to-day life of a once thriving Vancouver neighbourhood crucial to Black-Canadian history," Akilla said in a press release announcing the project.
Ho is also interested in telling stories that have been overlooked in Canadian history.
"Through the adaptation of this book, we celebrate the stories of women who have been forgotten in historical fiction."
The series is currently at the pre-development stage and is supported by the IP BC Pilot Program (a partnership between Creative BC and the Canadian Media Producers Association, BC Producers Branch).
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