A genre-defying documentary film,

Inspired by a medieval musical play created by an amazing company of artists with and without Down syndrome

Think "The Green Knight" meets "Crip Camp," but with songs!

Synopsis

From John Bolton, filmmaker behind AIM FOR THE ROSES (called "one of the wildest, craziest, smartest docs in years" by POV Magazine), comes KING ARTHUR'S NIGHT, a genre-defying documentary inspired by a medieval musical play created by artists with and without Down syndrome, including award-winning playwrights Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef, director James Long, and musician Veda Hille. Think "The Green Knight" meets "Crip Camp," but with songs.The original play was Niall's mashup of Arthurian legend with his childhood memories: Harrison Hot Springs, BC becomes Camelot; a bad goat experience becomes King Arthur facing a goat uprising; Niall's father-son relationship with Marcus becomes the bond between King Arthur (Niall) and Merlin (Marcus).

The film unfolds in Camelot as Arthur and Merlin reflect on their lives, and in Harrison Hot Springs as Niall and Marcus do the same. Featuring classic characters like Guinevere, Lancelot, and Morgana alongside the performers who play them, with the Lady of the Lake as guide. Brimming with magic, memory and metaphor, KING ARTHUR'S NIGHT explores difference and disability while asking who gets to tell stories and wear the crown. This deeply emotional father-son story, by turns comic and tragic, real and surreal, celebrates imagination and inclusion's power to change lives. Pushing access aesthetics boundaries, the film features Integrated Described Video and open captioning for truly inclusive screenings. An Opus 59 Films production, presented by AMI, with participation from Telefilm Canada, Canada Media Fund, Rogers Documentary Fund, Creative BC, BC Arts Council, and Knowledge Network.

Excerpts

Arthur & Merlin Curtain Call

Such a Beautiful Scene

This Is A lot To See

Goat Baby

My Disability Your Disability

And Go to the Harrison Hot Springs

Meet the Cast

  • Niall McNeil as King Arthur

    King Arthur

  • Marcus Youssef as

    Merlin

  • Nathan Kay as

    Mordred

  • Andrew Scott Gordon as

    Saxon

  • Matthew Tom-Wing as

    Magwitch

  • Lucy McNulty as

    Galahad

  • Amber Barton as

    Quelibel

  • Billy Marchenski as

    Lancelot

Crew

  • Director

    John Bolton is an award-winning filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada, and the founder & chief creative officer of Opus 59 Films. As knowledgeable about music, literature and art as he is about film and television, he brings a very particular erudition and sensibility to Opus 59 Films’ portfolio of projects. 

  • Star

    Niall McNeil is a multidisciplinary artist who, in his 20-plus year career has created, written plays, filmed, recorded and performed in works for stage and film across Canada. He is the first Canadian artist with Down Syndrome to be a 2022 recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts Composite Grant to support the development of three new multidisciplinary works.

  • Marcus Youssef has written or co-written fifteen plays that have been performed at theatres and major international festivals across North America, Australia, Europe and Asia. In 2017, he received Canada’s most prestigious theatre award, the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize for Theatre. He was Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre from 2005 to 2019.

Veda Hille

Veda Hille is a Vancouver musician, composer, theatre maker, and performer. She writes songs, makes records, co-writes musicals, collaborates in devised theatre, and fulfills other interesting assignments as they arise. Veda performs in a wide of array of places, alone or with bands, ensembles, symphonies, and casts. Her career spans 30 years of working in Canada and abroad, and shows no sign of flagging.

James Long

James Long is a director, actor, writer and teacher whose creative practice occurs in a wide variety of interdisciplinary and collaborative contexts, including as a co-founding Artistic Director of Theatre Replacement (2003-2022) and as an independent artist working in live performance, community engaged practice and public art.

AMI

AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation and positive portrayal. To learn more, visit AMI.ca and AMItele.ca.

HISTORY

INSPIRATION STRIKES

In early 2018, producer & director John Bolton and his mother Pat saw "King Arthur's Night" at Vancouver's PuSh Festival and loved it. In early 2019, Pat gave John the published play, letting him fully appreciate Niall's and Marcus' writing. In late 2019, John got the original cast recording and discovered Veda's amazing songs. The more familiar John became with the text and music, the more he wanted to adapt "King Arthur's Night" as a film.

GROUND WORK

In 2020, John began meeting with Niall, Marcus and Veda, realizing any adaptation would need to include as much backstory as story. In 2021, with Canada Council of the Arts and Telefilm Canada support, John took the entire cast and small crew to Harrison Hot Springs for a two-day test shoot of interviews and musical numbers. It was the cast's first reunion in almost two years after their COVID-canceled tour, and many's first visit to Harrison Hot Springs—the actual setting of "King Arthur's Night." In early 2022, John started pitching to funders and held the cast for the first week of October 2022, their only shared availability window. In mid-2022, John married his girlfriend Sarah. On his honeymoon, he received funding from the Canada Media Fund, followed by BC Arts Council and Creative BC support. AMI and Knowledge Network joined as broadcasters, enabling him to start filming. In October 2022, John took the cast and large crew to Harrison Hot Springs for six days to shoot dramatic scenes and musical numbers. The Copper Room became Arthur's throne room, the cinderblock enclosure Morgana's castle, and the lagoon beach the final battle field.

AGAINST THE ODDS

The shoot was cross-cultural: bigger budget meeting indie filmmaking, film meeting theatre culture, neurodiverse meeting neurotypical culture. It was one of the best experiences for almost everyone in cast and crew—except John. After one day they were behind schedule, after six days over budget. In post-production, John and his editor realized they lacked enough footage for a movie. In December 2022, John pitched to more funders and held the cast for one week in May 2023, their only shared availability window. In January 2023, Sarah gave birth to their son, Silas. In April 2023, John received further funding from Telefilm Canada and Rogers Documentary Fund, enabling continued shooting. In May 2023, John took the cast and mid-sized crew back to Harrison Hot Springs for four days to shoot documentary footage, including interviews with Niall and Marcus as themselves in the resort's nicest suite, and as Arthur and Merlin on a pier over Harrison Lake. They also shot pickups: the cast checking in at the Copper Room, a musical number in the hot springs (standing in for Arthur's castle moat), and John and Sarah's son Silas (with prosthetic horns) making his debut as a "goat baby." This shoot was among the best experiences for everyone, including John. The film was back on schedule and budget, with enough footage to complete the movie.

THE FINAL CUT

From 2023 through 2025, John and his editor worked on the film, balancing "Camelot" footage from the first shoot, "Harrison" footage from the second shoot, and behind-the-scenes material to tell three stories simultaneously. They worked with AMI to create accessibility for blind and partially sighted audiences through the Lady of the Lake character, who described video, narrated the story, and interacted mysteriously with Arthur and Merlin. They also worked with Line21 Media Services for best-in-class captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences. During this period, John's father Michael faced health issues while John navigated new fatherhood, making the film much more about fathers and sons than anticipated. John dedicated the film to Sarah's late mother Vivian and her sister Allison, who had Down syndrome. In May 2025, the director's cut premiered at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. In June 2025, the broadcast version will debut on AMI-tv and AMI+.

Contact us.

For the press kit, please contact:

Greg David / Accessible Media Inc. (AMI)

647.417.0631 | greg.david@ami.ca

John Bolton / Opus 59 Films Inc.

|604.817.9556 | john@opus59films.com


  • John Bolton

    “The relaxed performance of “King Arthur’s Night” (the play) that I saw at the PuSh Festival in Vancouver in 2018 was one of the greatest theatregoing experiences of my life. It was funny, sad and scary; I was amused, moved and upset; I laughed, cried and gasped. It made me think about the world in a new way, and it changed my life, and I could imagine it changing the world, if only the world could see it. Thanks to AMI, now it will.”

  • Niall McNeil | Producer & Star & Subject

    “I can answer about 25 questions about the film ... Arthur is really hard [to answer questions about]. He's a great guy. He's a star. He's cool ... I really like me and Marcus. I like the music, when Veda is using her imagination. Memories of Tiffany [King, who plays Guinevere] when she's sad ... When I first met John, we were having dinner, and I realized, maybe I could work with this guy. He's extremely hard working, and tired all the time, and he never takes a break in the hot springs. Long days. Long nights. We need people to watch the film, and see how they feel about watching cast who have Down syndrome, and watching cast who are non- Down syndrome ... It's a long wait. Everybody wants to see it.”

  • Marcus Youssef | Producer & Star & Subject

    “This project was the most massive undertaking of my artistic career, in scale, scope, and in the attempt to imagine a slightly better, more loving and more authentically inclusive society. John has realized it on an even bigger scale. His film version makes our production and the process we invented accessible to people everywhere. It's humbling to see our attempt to realize and honour the vision of an extraordinary artist who happens to have Down syndrome, as well as the complex, contradictory and loving inclusive community we built around it, come fully to life in the movies. And it's thrilling, too.”

  • James Hill | Producer & Subject

    “John’s work is more than contemporary documentary - it’s an archive, a celebration, and a glorious act of storytelling. His care, consideration, and dedication throughout the filmmaking process has inspired its wide community of creators, reinforcing the value of artistic vision and inclusive practice in the arts.”

  • Veda Hille | Producer & Star & Subject

    “I still can't believe our luck in getting to collaborate with John on this film. His clear love of our original work, paired with his vision for his adaptation, was a wild and intriguing ride all the way along. I love what he’s captured on film, and I look forward to having the film in the world for decades to come.”