Premium documentary
Investigations into institutional memory—and how public history gets made, inherited and corrected.
Toronto · Canada
Stories history
nearly lost.
RebelHeart Media develops premium film, television and publishing properties from overlooked history, controlled archives and lived experience—led by a Toronto basketball story developed with the cooperation of the NBA.
Rights-led from day one
Basketball · Documentary · Scripted · Publishing
Original archive · Toronto basketball
The company
We find the story
the record left behind.
A Canadian independent production and IP-development company, RebelHeart builds factual, scripted and publishing properties around material it can protect, prove and grow across formats.
Scripted worlds
Period drama and contained genre built on strong characters, distinctive settings and clear commercial hooks.
Publishing & adjacent IP
Narrative nonfiction and memoir developed beside screen properties, creating more than one route to audience.
In development
The slate
One Season in Toronto leads the slate: the dramatic story of the people, ambition and power behind Toronto’s first professional basketball season—followed by the documentary investigation and three properties about memory, belonging and the cost of being written out.
01Lead drama
Historical feature drama · Limited series
One Season
in Toronto
Toronto, 1946. At 26, champion-builder Ben Newman helps launch the Huskies and the opening game of the league that becomes the NBA—while money, rivalry and power threaten the dream before the season is over.
Maple Leaf Gardens · November 1, 1946
Explore the 1946 archive02Package ready
Feature documentary · Approx. 90 min
The First Game:
Finding Ben
A grandson recovers the forgotten basketball builder behind Toronto’s 1946 launch of the league that became the NBA.
Developed with the cooperation of the NBA
03Proposal gate
Narrative nonfiction
Finding Ben
An investigative memoir about a family archive, a mother-and-son search and a missing builder.
04Format decision
Memoir · Limited series
No Home But
the Story
Losing a family and a home while carrying its history: a present-tense Toronto rebuilding story.
05Bible gate
Coming-of-age drama
The House System
Inspired by Jordon Newman Williams’s lived experience at a traditional Canadian boarding school, this drama follows a gay, disabled boy navigating identity, belonging and power inside a rigid house system that decides who is accepted—and who must fight to be seen.
Lead title · First to market
The First Game:
Finding Ben
Feature documentary · Approx. 90 min · Canada · In development
A 26-year-old basketball builder helps bring a new professional league to Toronto. Eighty years later, his grandson fights to put his name back in the story.
Developed with the cooperation of the NBA.
Newman proved Toronto would pay to see elite basketball before it had a professional team.
He reached professional basketball having already built winning programs and local heroes.
Plus 104 contemporary clippings: a diligence-grade record, not family memory alone.
League governance minutes place Newman among Toronto’s representatives.
The announcement that put Toronto’s first professional basketball team—and its opening night at Maple Leaf Gardens—into the public record.
The Globe and Mail · September 25, 1946The championship foundation
Hayes Hellcats
Before the Toronto Huskies, Ben Newman built champions. His Merritton Hayes Hellcats won consecutive Canadian senior basketball titles in 1944 and 1945—part of the record that led directly to Toronto’s first professional team.
The championship foundation
Fast. Fluid. Built to score.
Contemporary coverage praised the Hellcats for their quickness, flair and scoring punch. Their transition game could turn a close contest into a runaway—and their crowd-drawing style helped prove that professional basketball belonged in Toronto.
He changed how the game was played.
November 1, 1946November 1, 2026
The 80th anniversary creates a fixed editorial, sponsorship and distribution window—the reason this title leads, not the reason the company exists.
Our advantage
Built to withstand
the questions.
Creative conviction and commercial diligence begin in the same place: control the underlying rights, know the record and make the route to partnership clear.
Rights first
We originate from family story rights, controlled archives and access competitors cannot easily reproduce.
Evidence, not folklore
Historical claims resolve to sources and a fact-check ledger. Accuracy is part of the creative and financing strategy.
One commercial door
Rights, business and partner inquiries route through Newman Williams for disciplined diligence, terms and closing.
Leadership
Creative origin.
Industry execution.
RebelHeart brings together proprietary story access, evidence-led development and decades of production experience.
JSNW
Founder · Executive Producer
Jordon S. Newman Williams
Founder, family rights holder, archive steward and principal public voice. He originates opportunity by building the evidentiary record, institutional relationships and rights position behind the slate.
MB
Co-Founder · Chief Executive Officer
Melissa Bessey
A Toronto producer and creative executive with more than two decades across Canada’s arts and entertainment sector. An OCAD University graduate, her experience spans producing, production design, costume design and department leadership, with credits including Memory of a Killer, Lifechanger, My Fake Boyfriend and Hero: The Extraordinary Life of Mr. Ulric Cross.
Partnerships
Bring the right
people into the room.
RebelHeart is seeking producing, financing, distribution, publishing and strategic development partners—at the property level or across the slate.
melissa@rebelheartmedia.com
Business & legal affairs
One office for every right and deal.
NEWMAN WILLIAMS handles all RebelHeart Media business and legal affairs, including underlying rights, clearances, licensing, contracts, financing documentation, distribution and partnership negotiations.