Boutique content sales, distribution, development and co-production company yes Studios has announced that it is to use the forthcoming MIPCOM to introduce Lifeline, its second major factual title in 2023.
Available as either a four-hour or eight half-hour series and 1 x74’ feature - plus a format - Lifeline takes viewers behind the scenes at a helpline centre receiving calls on all manner of subjects from family violence and heartbreak to loneliness and suicidal thoughts.
With exclusive first-time access to the ERAN Association (Emotional First Aid) in Israel, the single-camera series follows the actual volunteers - all highly trained professionals - who receive the calls, while actors (to preserve anonymity) improvise off notes from selected real cases to bring dramatic stories alive. With sometimes shocking storytelling, plus genuine jeopardy and high emotion, Lifeline shines a light on a wide range of problems and contemporary mental health issues, as well as the work of kind-hearted people who will do anything to help and guide troubled individuals.
Over the course of the series, which features two stories in each hour-long episode, we meet Aref, a Druze manager at ERAN, who receives a call from a fellow Druze who has been sent to murder his sister in the name of his family’s honour, and we listen in to Marcella as she talks to an overworked and exhausted medical intern, which raises emotions from her own tragic story. We also meet branch manager Lydia, who decides to celebrate a holiday evening with an elderly man who called when feeling lonely and Ziv, who must weigh up violating anonymity to save a father who called in with suicidal intentions.
Lifeline is produced by yes Docu and Endemol Shine Israel for yes TV and directed by Golan Rise and Sharon Yaish. The executive producers are Guy Lavie and Keren Gleicher. yes Studios represents the completed series’, feature, and format worldwide.
“Lifeline is a remarkable series, allowing viewers to sit right alongside volunteers for a privileged glimpse into the lives of these incredible people and the distressed callers they try to help,” commented Sharon Levi, managing director at yes Studios. “Programming that explores mental health issues is of great interest at present so we are pleased not only to have a new take on a topical subject but to also bring series of different lengths as well as a feature option to the market, allowing buyers to choose the version that will work best for their viewers.”
With exclusive first-time access to the ERAN Association (Emotional First Aid) in Israel, the single-camera series follows the actual volunteers - all highly trained professionals - who receive the calls, while actors (to preserve anonymity) improvise off notes from selected real cases to bring dramatic stories alive. With sometimes shocking storytelling, plus genuine jeopardy and high emotion, Lifeline shines a light on a wide range of problems and contemporary mental health issues, as well as the work of kind-hearted people who will do anything to help and guide troubled individuals.
Over the course of the series, which features two stories in each hour-long episode, we meet Aref, a Druze manager at ERAN, who receives a call from a fellow Druze who has been sent to murder his sister in the name of his family’s honour, and we listen in to Marcella as she talks to an overworked and exhausted medical intern, which raises emotions from her own tragic story. We also meet branch manager Lydia, who decides to celebrate a holiday evening with an elderly man who called when feeling lonely and Ziv, who must weigh up violating anonymity to save a father who called in with suicidal intentions.
Lifeline is produced by yes Docu and Endemol Shine Israel for yes TV and directed by Golan Rise and Sharon Yaish. The executive producers are Guy Lavie and Keren Gleicher. yes Studios represents the completed series’, feature, and format worldwide.
“Lifeline is a remarkable series, allowing viewers to sit right alongside volunteers for a privileged glimpse into the lives of these incredible people and the distressed callers they try to help,” commented Sharon Levi, managing director at yes Studios. “Programming that explores mental health issues is of great interest at present so we are pleased not only to have a new take on a topical subject but to also bring series of different lengths as well as a feature option to the market, allowing buyers to choose the version that will work best for their viewers.”
