client: Marcel LeBrundate published: Dec 04, 2019 content type: Documentaries
documentary
12 Neighbors
We produced an investigative documentary series about global anti-poverty initiatives that so profoundly inspired our client, tech philanthropist Marcel LeBrun, that he used the insights to construct a revolutionary 96-tiny-home community in New Brunswick to permanently house individuals living rough.
Research and document successful ground-up anti-poverty initiatives globally to discover best practices, which ultimately served as the direct inspiration for the client to construct a massive, multi-city tiny-home village.
The Challenge
Chronic homelessness and living rough are complex, systemic issues that communities across Canada continue to battle. When tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Marcel LeBrun wanted to find a meaningful way to tackle local poverty, he knew that simply throwing money at the problem wouldn't cut it. He needed a deep, global understanding of what actually worked. He set out to find the absolute best practices in ground-up anti-poverty initiatives, requiring a media partner who could help him research, document, and distill these global success stories into an educational documentary series that could inspire widespread policy and community changes.
Our Approach
We were hired to produce a powerful, investigative documentary series tracing successful, community-led anti-poverty movements.
Documenting Best Practices: Our production teams traveled and filmed ground-up initiatives, conducting raw, deeply honest interviews with community leaders, social workers, and individuals who had successfully transitioned out of chronic homelessness.
The Spark of Inspiration: Something incredible happened during the filmmaking process. The very stories we were documenting on camera didn't just capture best practices for an audience—they profoundly inspired the client himself.
From Film to Blueprint: Armed with the cinematic evidence and structural insights gathered during our series, Marcel took the experience off the screen and put it directly into action, developing a vision for a fully realized, supportive tiny-home community right here in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
“This is a testament to our strong community partnerships, government collaboration, and the leadership demonstrated through council’s approval of the housing for all strategy,” says Mayor Donna Reardon
The Impact
The ultimate impact of this project transcends the screen. Inspired by the documentary filmmaking process, Marcel founded 12 Neighbours, an extraordinary micro-home community that has built 96 fully independent, dignified tiny houses in Fredericton. This model has since expanded province-wide, creating "Neighbourly Homes" transitional and bridge housing blocks in Saint John. Today, hundreds of individuals who were once living rough or experiencing chronic homelessness are safely housed with access to on-site support, counseling, and low-barrier employment through social enterprises like Neighbourly Coffee and Print Shop. This project stands as the definitive proof of our core mission: we don't just make content to entertain; we create media that sparks the ideas that actively heal the world.
