“Wish You Were Here”-Experience Travel Series (Pitching)
Omni-Channel Property: Online, Streaming and Podcast
THE PREMISE
For more than three decades, Stephen Dorsey has travelled the globe for business and pleasure. Seeing the world and connecting with local people is his passion. Wish You Were Here follows Stephen has he revisits some of his favourite places, reconnecting with friends, and rediscovering the towns, villages and cities he loves. We get immersed with Stephen and his guest as they engage in a variety of experiences curated by local connectors.
Wish You Were Here is not your average travel series visiting the tried and true- it is capitalizing on the exponential growth of experience travel. In the post Covid era, curated, intimate travel experiences (versus all-inclusive resort experiences) will become even more in demand. Our show will lead and reflect this new reality.
Stephen and friends in Kingston, Jamaica. Strawberry Hill Villa. circa 2018,
In each episode Stephen takes viewers behind the typical tourist traps and beyond the top-ten lists to uncover the authentic experiences, unique and vibrant local culture, and the real people who live and work in some of the most beautiful and spectacular places on earth.
Stephen’s history and connections will provide viewers with unique access to popular destinations like they’ve never seen before. Join Stephen, his guest travellers and local connectors as they transport you to unique travel adventures around the globe including stops in Jamaica, Spain, Australia, Holland, Brazil, Italy, France and more.
Wish You Were Here is envisioned as a omni-channel property that includes a visual episodic show (for on-demand viewing online or via streaming channel), a audio and video based podcasts recorded on-location, and varied publishing related entities.
Executive Producer: Stephen Dorsey
Original Idea/ Writer: Stephen Dorsey
“Going Home” - Documentary Feature (In-Production-On Hold)
Producer, Director Stephen Dorsey’s exciting new documentary film, “Going Home”, introduces us to Jewish-Jamaican/American artist, author and jewelry designer, Anna Ruth Henriques. This is the story of her remarkable move to Portugal, the home of her ancestors who fled to Jamaica after the Inquisition in the 1500s, via New York where she has resided for the last 20 years.
Intent on leaving the bustling American city after her daughter heads west to college, Henriques attempts to return for good to Jamaica, the land of her birth and upbringing through high school. After her third failed try to resettle on the island, she questions where else she may go, legally.
She reads about and on a whim applies for the “right of return” to Portugal, a naturalization decree offering citizenship to any Sephardic Jew who can document their link to that country. Jews fled Portugal during the Inquisition. Those who remained were forced to convert or be killed.
On location filming @ Lime Cay - a little atoll off the city of Kingston, Jamaica. Dorsey Studios - November 2019
Initially, Henriques hopes not to live in Portugal but to obtain an EU passport so she can move to France where she also speaks the language. However, when her application is approved, she figures that in good faith she should at least visit this generous country. She heads to Lisbon for a week and falls in love with the city and the people. After three trips and an extended six-week stay in the summer, she buys a farm in the Algarve with a woman she meets at an Airbnb. The two plan to turn it into an eco-farm with guest lodging to welcome travellers from around the world.
The film will also explore the history of how Jews, including Anna’s ancestors, arrived to the shores of Jamaica (some as pirates) more than 400 years ago and how they made Jamaica home for centuries – contributing deeply to that unique island community.
We’ll learn more about Anna and her life in NYC over the past 20 years which has included raising her daughter, creating art (some of which is part of the permanent collection of the Jewish Museum of Art in New York City), writing a book that was published by Alfred A. Knopf, and designing custom jewelry for clients worldwide.
We’ll be there to witness Anna’s packing up of her Upper East Side apartment which she has sold, and for the many farewells to friends and family in the Big Apple. We’ll be there to capture her arrival and the start of her new life in Portugal and her and Sigrun’s efforts to turn their little farm in the Algavres into and eco-farm retreat for visitors from around the world.
“Going Home” is a universal story of family, faith and renewal, rooted in history and sprinkled with new discoveries that will surprise perhaps even Anna herself. Production Company: Dorsey Studios- Toronto, Canada.
We’ve already completed 7-days of shooting in NYC and Jamaica in late 2019 and cancelled a week of shooting in Portugal in early April 2020 due to the pandemic. We have an additional 18-days of shooting planned to complete the production phase of this project. Additional financing and travel restrictions will determine next steps.
Executive Producer: Stephen Dorsey, Anna Henriques
Original Idea / Writer / Director /Producer: Stephen Dorsey
“Homeless not Hopeless” - Documentary (Pitching)
Funding for shelters and support services for the homeless has been under pressure for decades, and affordable housing measures are not a budget priority for many cities. Support for mental health and addiction is not keeping up with the need. Income inequality is growing, and government assistance has been stagnant for decades and as such, many in our society have slipped into poverty and more than 8,000 are homeless today in Toronto. The COVID-19 crisis, has exasperated the problems of the homeless and we will shine a light on that as well.
In our documentary, HOMELESS NOT HOPELESS we follow 2-3 homeless or marginally housed men (clients of Haven Toronto, the day centre that provides direct support to men over 50) as they navigate the city desperate to take care of their basic needs, and watch while they cope with the unavoidable bureaucracy that comes with the reality of their lives. Our cameras are witnesses to how they manage their inner demons while trying to stay safe during the pandemic in crowded shelters or on the street.
Our POV will highlight the importance of housing accessibility, such as the need for hotel spaces to mitigate the potential spread of the virus. While the city opens up hotel rooms to get people off the street and works to reduce crowding in shelters, the question is clear: are these efforts too little too late to prevent the widespread infection amongst this vulnerable segment of Toronto’s population?
The Haven Toronto location on Jarvis Street is the hub where we connect with each man regularly throughout the crisis to reflect on their experience. In the documentary we interview key stakeholders: including health care and public safety representatives, government officials, public and private agencies, those with proposed solutions and front-line workers doing all they can to keep the homeless population safe.
For example, Lauro Monteiro, Executive Director at Haven Toronto has formally committed to providing our film with all the support and access we may need to effectively tell this important story.
The documentary uses a combination of expository and observational styles supported by select interviews.
Executive Producer: Stephen Dorsey
Original Idea / Writer / Director: Stephen Dorsey based on “Hope” , a short by Stephen Dorsey