Present-day Canada. Charlie is a former U.S. soldier who defected across the border as a conscientious objector — refusing to serve a war he believed was unjust. He gained freedom. He lost everything else: his country, his reputation, and access to his two children, Jazz (17) and Jordie (20), who are growing up without him.
Searching for ancestry to build the heritage his children were never given, Charlie discovers John Horse — a man who fought the U.S. Army, led his people to freedom across a border, and paid the same price Charlie did. The research becomes an obsession. Then the dreamworld opens.
Shot naturalistic. Handheld. Documentary texture.
Think: Moonlight. The Holdovers. Minding the Gap.
When Charlie touches the history — a document, sacred ground, a breaking point — he crosses over. Not time travel. Ancestral memory. The blood remembers what the records tried to destroy.
Each crossing pulls him into a different chapter: the Seminole Wars of Florida. The freedom road to Nova Scotia. The Haudenosaunee longhouses that sheltered runaways. The ancient builders whose traces survive in stone. Every world is real. Every connection is documented. Every crossing brings Charlie closer to the man he's been searching for — and the father he's trying to become.
Shot epic. Widescreen. Mythic scale.
Think: Apocalypto. The Revenant. Killers of the Flower Moon.
The series' superpower: Charlie is John Horse. Same military training. Same moral reckoning. Same border crossing. Same sacrifice. The audience watches a man discover his ancestor — and realize he's been living the same story all along. That's the moment the show becomes a phenomenon.
Charlie lives in quiet exile in Canada. A former soldier, now working construction, still carrying the discipline and the guilt. A genealogy search for Jazz's school project leads him to John Horse — a man he's never heard of. A visit to an archive triggers his first dreamworld crossing: Christmas Day 1837, the Battle of Lake Okeechobee. Charlie sees a man choosing to fight rather than submit. He recognizes the choice. The hunt begins.
Each crossing takes Charlie deeper. The Black Seminole Wars. The freedom road from Florida to Mexico. The Black Loyalists arriving in Nova Scotia — the same path, the same gamble, the same price, two centuries earlier. He meets Rose Deer, who shows him that Black and Indigenous histories in Canada aren't parallel — they're intertwined. Haudenosaunee families who sheltered runaways. Mi'kmaq communities who married into Black settlements. His present-day life strains. But what he's finding is bigger than anything he imagined.
Charlie finds his own family in the records. A birth certificate with one word scratched out and another written over it — the bureaucratic machinery that erased millions was done to his blood. He follows John Horse's path to Nacimiento, Mexico, where the Black Seminole descendants still live. He meets them. They know his family name. The dreamworld isn't fantasy. It's memory. He calls Jazz and Jordie. For the first time, he has something real to give them.
The Ancestor asks one final time: "Now that you've seen — what will you tell them?" Charlie records his heritage project — not for fame, not for vindication, but for his children. A video message, an archive of evidence, a map of the bloodline they were never told about. Jazz watches it. The camera lingers on her face. Season 2 begins.
"The question isn't whether this history is real. It's why nobody told you."
The positioning: Outlander's franchise model + Kindred's genre innovation + Black Panther's "hidden civilization" mythology — with a deeply Canadian spine. Built on Allegiance's production DNA. Follows The Book of Negroes' proof that Canadian Black history is premium, international television. This is white space.
Born enslaved, 1812 Florida. The Black Seminoles were an Afro-Indigenous alliance — escaped enslaved people who intermarried with Seminole, Creek, and other First Nations. John Horse rose to sub-chief. Fought Zachary Taylor at Lake Okeechobee (Christmas Day, 1837). Led 100+ people to freedom in Mexico. Became Captain Juan Caballo in the Mexican army. Met Presidents Polk and Taylor. Died free. His descendants still live in Nacimiento, Coahuila.
After the American Revolution (1783), 3,500+ Black Loyalists settled in Nova Scotia — making Birchtown the largest free Black settlement outside Africa. Many had mixed African and Indigenous heritage. They built communities alongside Mi'kmaq peoples. Some intermarried. The Dawes-era paper genocide that erased Afro-Indigenous identity in the U.S. had parallels in Canadian census practices that reclassified mixed families.
The colossal stone heads of San Lorenzo and La Venta (c. 1500–400 BCE) are among the most debated artifacts in the Americas. If the Black Seminoles carried both African and Indigenous roots, how far back do those roots go? The series presents the scholarly debate honestly, through Charlie's eyes. Not as a conclusion — as a question that refuses to be dismissed.
The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) — Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora — had documented connections with Black freedom-seekers. Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) brought both Haudenosaunee families and Black Loyalists to the Grand River area. The Underground Railroad ran through Haudenosaunee territory. Harriet Tubman's final destination was St. Catharines, Ontario — in the heart of Six Nations territory.
Between 1912–1946, Virginia's Registrar reclassified Indigenous peoples as "Colored." The Dawes Commission separated families by appearance. Between 1930 and 1940, Virginia's recorded Indian population dropped from 779 to 198. In Canada, similar practices erased Afro-Indigenous identity through residential school classifications and census categories that forced people into single-race boxes.
The series is honest about what is established fact, credible scholarship, and open debate. Charlie is investigating, not lecturing. The audience investigates alongside him. When evidence is ambiguous, the series says so. When it's incontrovertible — like John Horse's military record, the Black Loyalist settlements, the Dawes Rolls — it speaks for itself.
Charlie lives in Canada. His journey takes him through Nova Scotia, Ontario, Six Nations territory, and BC. The show's spine is the centuries-long tradition of freedom-seekers choosing Canada — from Black Loyalists to the Underground Railroad to Charlie himself. This isn't American history set in Canada. This is Canadian history that America never taught.
Built-in path to global distribution. The story spans Canada, Florida, Mexico, and the ancient Americas. Universal's international footprint is the right scale. Canadian production with worldwide resonance — the Allegiance model elevated to prestige territory.
Lark already produces 10×60 character-driven drama in BC with Universal co-production. This series uses the same pipeline with a measured uplift for period elements and dreamworld sequences. Same DNA. Bigger canvas. Same team. Bigger story.
CMF fiscal year ends March 31 — development money needs to be committed. This project is pitch-ready now. Full series bible, pilot outline, historical dossier, and advisory board structure. Lark can move this into the current fiscal cycle immediately.
Historical epic. Cultural significance. Father-child emotional core. A-list performance opportunities. This is the kind of series that anchors an awards campaign. Allegiance earned CSA noms. The Book of Negroes won a Peabody. This aims for both.
Season 1 is self-contained with natural S2+ expansion: Jazz takes up the search, new timelines (Haitian Revolution, Caribbean Maroons, Moorish Spain deep-dive). Plus companion documentary, podcast, educational licensing. Not just a show — a platform. Multi-year, multi-revenue-stream IP.
What do you owe the children you chose to leave? Charlie's mission isn't academic — it's desperate. He's building the heritage Jazz and Jordie were never given, from a distance that gets wider every year. Every parent understands this fear. Every child understands this absence.
John Horse gained freedom and lost his homeland. Charlie gained freedom and lost his children. The series asks the question every generation faces: what is freedom worth? What does it cost? And who pays the price after you're gone?
Who am I, really? Where do I come from? What was hidden from me? Charlie discovers that his identity isn't one thing — it's African, Indigenous, American, Canadian, Seminole, Haudenosaunee. The categories collapse. What's left is the truth.
What happens when the truth threatens the story those in power told? From the Dawes Rolls to Canadian census erasure — every timeline features people who tried to bury the truth and people who refused to let it die. Charlie is the latest in that line.
The audience hook: This isn't a history lesson. It's a father trying to reach his children. A soldier trying to make sense of his sacrifice. A man discovering that the story of his life has been told before — and that this time, it might end differently.
Why Christopher is the only person who could write this: A U.S. Marine who moved to Canada. A man who knows what it means to cross a border and start over. USC craft. A24 feature. HBO screen. SXSW premiere. Netflix program. Four cities of youth mentorship. A national advocacy organization. Charlie's story comes from Christopher's bones. The military discipline, the border crossing, the search for identity in a country that isn't the one you were born in — this is autobiography transformed into epic.
$2M–$3M per episode ($16M–$24M Season 1). Within range of Lark's premium drama production, with measured uplift for period design and dreamworld sequences. Present-day Canadian settings keep costs grounded.
BC studio base for all dreamworld interiors and period sets. Lark's existing studio relationships. Present-day segments shot on location in Ontario, Nova Scotia, and BC. BC forest locations double for Florida Seminole territory. Period exteriors via practical sets + digital extension — no full-CG worlds. One targeted international shoot: Nacimiento, Mexico (5–7 day unit). Nova Scotia location block for Black Loyalist sequences.
CMF Convergent Stream — premium scripted drama eligible.
BC Tax Credits — PSTC 28% + FIBC 6%.
Nova Scotia Tax Credit — 32% for Nova Scotia sequences.
Telefilm — pre-sale trigger via broadcaster.
CBC or Rogers licence — aligned with mandates.
Universal co-production — via Lark first-look.
International pre-sales — UK, France, Australia, Africa, LatAm.
Tier 1: Canadian Broadcast. CBC or Rogers as primary. Lark's existing relationships provide immediate access. The Canadian protagonist and Nova Scotia/Ontario settings strengthen CanCon case.
Tier 2: Global. Universal International Studios via first-look for worldwide. Alternatively: co-prod with Netflix, Amazon, or Disney+ as SVOD window.
Tier 3: International Co-Production. Treaty co-prod with UK (BBC/C4) or Mexico. Multi-national settings unlock additional funding. The Mexico thread opens LATAM co-prod potential.
Season 2: Jazz takes up the search. New timelines: Haitian Revolution, Caribbean Maroons, Moorish Spain. The franchise engine passes from father to daughter.
Companion documentary using existing research dossier.
Podcast. Educational licensing. Museum partnerships. Six Nations cultural programming.
Multi-year, multi-revenue-stream IP.
African American Studies & Saginaw Chippewa. Author: An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States. The leading voice on Black-Indigenous identity in American academia.
MacArthur "Genius" Fellow. Author: Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family. The gold standard for scholarship on interwoven Black and Indigenous family histories.
Author: I've Been Here All Along: Black Freedom on Native Land. Specialist in Black-Indigenous relations in Indian Territory — the exact terrain of this series.
Six Nations of the Grand River consultation. Haudenosaunee history, protocol, and representation. The Freedom Road episode requires close partnership with Haudenosaunee community leaders and historians to ensure accuracy and respect.
Birchtown, Nova Scotia. Canada's premier institution for Black Loyalist history. Museum, archives, and community engagement. Essential partner for the Nova Scotia timeline and ongoing cultural consultation.
Cultural consultants from Seminole Nation, Black Seminole communities in Nacimiento (Mexico), Mi'kmaq Nation (Nova Scotia), and specialists in pre-Columbian studies. Military veterans advisory for Charlie's character authenticity.
Note on authenticity: This series treats history with the same rigor as any prestige historical drama. Where evidence is strong, we dramatize confidently. Where scholarship is debated, we present both sides through Charlie's investigation. The advisory board — spanning American, Canadian, and Indigenous perspectives — ensures every timeline is grounded, respectful, and honest.