The name of our media production company lends itself to some confusion.
Ceres.
There’s the inevitable slight pause before someone on the introductory zoom call attempts to say it aloud: “How do I say ‘seh-rez’? Like cherry in French?”
Cue me: “See - reez. Like the planet.”
Them: “OH! Like Series. Because you make films and tv. Right, clever.”
Me: “I mean yes, that’s true, but no. Ceres—like the dwarf planet. Because all of our stories are part of the same solar system…think constellation metaphor…Walter Benjamin and—”
Blank stares before Bec moves the conversation along.
It’s very rare that my turn to philosophy wins the crowd. But I attempt it every time! I am nothing if not persistent.
One colleague did recently say we should just lean into the confusion. “Makes your name memorable!”
Excellent reframe!
Introducing our upcoming event series—leaning into our name by saying it twice: This will be the first in our Ceres Conversation Series, happening on February 21st.
To guide our chat we’ll be using conversation prompts from The School of Life, a company who says that they help people lead “more emotionally intelligent lives.” They donated a box of probing questions as a mental health tool for our Reframeables podcast last year, so for this first Ceres Conversation we are bringing the box back out.
Who knows what emotionally wise nugget will come from this evening. Or unwise? No prescription. Consider this your event for folks who want to go to book club but didn’t read the book!
If you’re joining us, we can’t wait to see you! If you can’t this time, we’ll post pictures in our next Ceres Dispatch so you can see how we vibe :)
Stars in our Galaxy (Ceres projects in process)
WritOr
Original short story by Emma Donoghue, reimagined by Ceres Productions.
The Nothing Club
The Nothing Club is a kids series we are shooting in April. As a disability advocate herself whose daughter lives with a limb difference, former Much Music VJ and eTalk entertainment reporter Liz Trinnear gave us a shout out on her IG. Thanks, Liz! The road to getting a project off the ground is long and takes a whole village of support.
On that note, if you’re an educator or have kids in your life who would benefit from some funny AND humanizing kids media, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Just like we need internet famous folks giving us shout outs, we also need our on the ground community support from readers like you. We appreciate and need it all! If you don’t fall into either of those categories you can still subscribe. We appreciate it! We want to ensure the content gets to ALL the kiddos when the time comes.
Now back to the February snow. I’m not blue but I am cold and dreaming of the return of sun and eating one of my brother-in-law’s sourdough bagels.
xo Nat