Complacent
Limited documentary Series
Alexa MINI LF
Complacent is a character-led documentary series set inside the aftermath of workplace fatalities and severe injuries. Canada’s record with occupational health and safety is terrible compared to other G7 nations. I was approached by Joe Media and the John Petropolous Memorial Fund to direct this limited series. The project comes from a place I recognise. Blue-collar environments where risk is part of the culture, where masculinity is tied up in endurance, and where speaking up isn’t always encouraged. That tension sits at the core of the series. Not just what happens, but why it keeps happening.
I was never interested in reconstructing the incidents. I’ve always been interested in what it leaves behind. A character driven series, of the people who carry it. The time that passes without resolution. The way something preventable gets absorbed into everyday life. The approach is observational and patient. I want the audience to sit with people long enough that the truth surfaces without being pushed. No narration. No over-explaining. Archive is used as evidence, not decoration. Where memory breaks, we step in with restraint, but never to heighten or dramatise. It’s built to feel grounded.
The series is structured around the five stages of grief. Not as a device, but as a way of understanding how loss is processed, resisted and carried over time.
Production began in February 2026, and limited documentary series will be delivered for broadcast in Canada in 2027.
Directed By Jack Chapman
Written By Jack Chapman & Maryanne Pope
Director Of Photography Sam Coombes
Produced By Joe Media
w/ The John Petropolous Memorial Fun
Exec Produced By
Matt Gillespie, Sheila Rae & Maryanne Pope