Season 1 of the critically acclaimed, award-winning and much-loved Rezolution Pictures TV series Mohawk Girls will begin broadcasting on CBC TV on Tuesday, June 16 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT), as part of CBC’s Tuesday night comedy lineup. Following its run, Season 2 will launch Tuesday, August 4 on CBC and CBC Gem, and Seasons 3-5 will be available this fall on the free CBC Gem streaming service. Season 1 is available now on CBC Gem.
Over the course of its 4-year / 5-season run Mohawk Girls was nominated for multiple Canadian Screen Awards including Best Comedy Series, Best Direction in a Comedy Series, Best Writing in a Comedy Series, and Best Actress in a Comedy Series. The dramedy series that originally aired on APTN from 2014-2017 was embraced by fans across the country, lauded by TV critics, and garnered a devout and diverse following who enthusiastically awaited the start of each season.
Mohawk Girls takes a comedic look at the lives of four modern-day women trying to stay true to their roots while navigating sex, work, love and what it means to be Mohawk in the 21st century. The half-hour dramedy follows these twenty-something women as they begin to forge their own identity within a community embedded with rules and cultural traditions.
The dynamic cast of four leading women includes Jenny Pudavick (Bailey), Brittany LeBorgne (Zoe), Heather White (Caitlin), and Maika Harper (Anna), as well as Canadian film & TV veterans Tantoo Cardinal as Zoe’s mother and Glen Gould as Bailey’s father.
Mohawk Girls was created and executive produced by Tracey Deer and Cynthia Knight; Tracey Deer directed the episodes and Cynthia Knight was the head writer and showrunner. The series was produced by Rezolution Pictures’ Catherine Bainbridge, Christina Fon and Linda Ludwick, and executive produced by Catherine Bainbridge, Christina Fon, Linda Ludwick and Ernest Webb.
“We are so thrilled to have CBC air our show! We wanted to create a show that was unique, smart, relevant and empowering and we are so proud we get to relive each moment on television one more time.â€
– Cynthia Knight, Series Co-Creator/Executive Producer/Head Writer/Showrunner
“This series was my love letter to my community, to my people. It was a celebration of who we are and most importantly our women. I am extremely excited that the show has found a second home on CBC.â€- Tracey Deer, Series Co-Creator/Executive Producer/Director
About Rezolution Pictures
Rezolution Pictures is an award-winning production company led by Ernest Webb and Catherine Bainbridge (co-founders and executive producers), Christina Fon (Vice-President and executive producer), and Linda Ludwick (CFO and executive producer). Rezolution is best known for its original and trailblazing productions such as feature documentaries RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World, which screened worldwide and won multiple awards at Sundance, Hot Docs, and the Canadian Screen Awards, among others; and Reel Injun, which won multiple Geminis, and a Peabody Award. Rezolution also made its mark in scripted television with Canadian Screen Award-nominated comedy series, Mohawk Girls, which aired for five seasons on APTN, was recently broadcast as part of Air Canada’s in-flight entertainment and will now will now be available on the CBC Gem streaming service. From ground-breaking documentaries to innovative scripted series, Rezolution has helped shape Canada’s film and television industry for the past two decades, working with many of the country’s best new and established talents to create unique content, as well as video game and Virtual Reality content through its sister company Minority Media. An effective mix of production, creative, and executive experience has positioned Rezolution for global success as it turns its focus to developing and producing premium content with international partners.
First, before I say anything at all about Mohawk Girls’ Season 4 and the upcoming premiere of Season 5, I have to say I LOVE LOVE LOVE the press kit pic I used in the feature image for this article. If you recall the premiere season, our ladies were seen walking down the street together, very à la Sex in the City. Now as the fifth and final season is upon us, our Fab Foursome are toasting each other with the sunset off in the distance. They are four ladies who made it through everything life threw at them as the series prepares to close. Even the colours the ladies are wearing remain similar but more mature; refined. And ‘Hat Girl,’ is still ‘Hat Girl.’ Yeap! I am all about the metaphor.
Press kit artwork from Season 1
It has been 335 days since the “PowWow.” OK, I admit it. I had to look it up. And I used one of those handy online calculators to figure it out. But still, for those of us invested in these characters, we finally made it to the beginning of the end of our journey with Bailey (Jenny Pudavick), Zoe (Brittany LeBorgne), Anna (Maika Harper) and Caitlin (Heather White). The fifth and final season of Mohawk Girls premieres Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 8:30 p.m. on APTN. And with only six episodes, you know co-creators Tracey Deer and Cynthia Knight are going to cram in as much as possible to ensure fans will feel satisfied. So, I thought a quick run-down of where we are now might be in store, just in case you haven’t had time to binge-watch Season 4 in preparation for Season 5.
Season 4 literally faded to credits just as Bailey seized her sparkle and Watio (Jimmy Blais) tackled James (Jeffrey Wetsch). This conscious choice by Bailey will mean lots of challenges for this pairing. She has been down this road before in Season 1 with a brief love affair that proved too much for Jack. This time though, she knows what she is up against. But will this new found love stand the test of Kahnawa:ke, let alone time?
Then there was the surprise by Zoe. She checked herself into rehab for sex addiction. She fully believes that she is sick and twisted. Thinking that she has lost everything she cares most about, including the election for Chief, Zoe felt she had no choice. But we all know Zoe is a very private person; she likes to keep control of her naughty little secrets. So how is therapy going to work for her? Zoe doesn’t open up and counselling is all about just that. She hit rock bottom in Season 4 but will she be able to climb back out in Season 5?
Meanwhile, the end of Season 4 still saw Anna struggling to fit in. Really, for a character that has been through so much, she has not made much headway on her path to self-discovery. Following a one night stand with Butterhead (Meegwun Fairbrother), she then hopped into bed with Midas (Tanner Novlan) a.k.a. “The Blow Job King” in order to quash Butterhead’s “dead fish story.” But where is this leading? For four seasons we have watched Anna turn herself into a pretzel just to fit in, but she keeps losing a little piece of herself in each incarnation. Will Anna finally stop fighting and realize that to find a place for herself she has to be herself?
And finally Caitlin. In Season 4 we watched Luscious Leon (Dwain Murphy) woo her and treat her with all of the respect she has always deserved. But, the pressures of dating a black man, even the loss of her job at the hair salon, and a full court press by a new and improved Butterhead had Caitlin giving it another go for the team! That sets up lots of potential storylines too: what about Leon? Will Butterhead lapse back to his old ways? Will Caitlin just settle, or will she find her inner Goddess and put Butterhead in his place?
I think that has us all caught up! We are faced with lots of possibilities. After talking to Cynthia Knight the other day, I think it is fair to say we are in for some surprises this season too! For both Tracey Deer and Cynthia Knight, this show has been a labour of love, so we can be sure we are in for a #BEAST of a final season!
What do you think is in store for our Fab Foursome this season? Let me know in the comments below!
Mohawk Girls’ season premiere airs Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET/CT/MT on APTN.
Mohawk Girls returns for its fifth and final season this Tuesday, Nov. 14, on APTN. Co-created and executive produced by Cynthia Knight and Tracey Deer, the series stars Jenny Pudavick as Bailey, Brittany LeBorgne as Zoe, Heather White as Caitlin and Maika Harper as Anna, four modern-day women trying to stay true to their roots while navigating sex, work, love and what it means to be Mohawk in the 21st century.
I caught up with the lovely and talented Cynthia Knight by phone whilst she was riding in the back of a cab during her recent visit to New York City. Stuck in traffic, we had a nice chunk of time to catch up since my visit to set in Kahnawa:ke, Quebec, last season. We had lots to cover, and we finally we managed to get around to this final season of Mohawk Girls.
How are you feeling right now as the final season of Mohawk Girls is about to be launched Tuesday evening? Cynthia Knight: Talk about ‘Empty Nester’. It is such a weird time. There are so many different feelings. We are so thrilled that we knew the series was ending because we got to finish up the girls’ storylines and get them to where we wanted them to be. And we were really excited for the audience to see that. All in all, from the time we first shot the pilot which was in 2009—the whole process has been about nine years.
I think for me, part of me is you know, looking forward to doing something else. But, it is really difficult, these people, these characters, we live with them all year long. We are in development, then prep, then production, then post, and then we start development again. And it has been like that for five years. So it definitely feels very weird that we won’t be coming back to this. We have been so incredibly blessed with a cast and crew that gets together every year and it feels like this wonderful reunion. Definitely, a lot of mixed feelings going on.
What about Mohawk Girls, as you are reflecting back upon the journey, are you most proud of? Tracey and I always like to create content that is above all else entertaining, but that also has a deeper message. To create material that is not heavy or preachy, that is entertaining, but is capable of something important and builds bridges between communities; I think we really found that magic formula with Mohawk Girls. I feel that the producers [Rezolution Pictures] and the network [APTN] and the fans have given us the ability in this platform to really talk and delve into these issues and this community. We shed light on who they are and, how similar we all are. We get to really break down stereotypes and misconceptions.
We get so much feedback from friends or people who happened upon the show and they are like, ‘Wow, we never realized this,’ or ‘We always thought Kahnawa:ke was that,’ or ‘I never really thought about native people in that light.’ To tell the story of Mohawk Girls in a light and entertaining way, so that people can just enjoy the show. To show modern, vibrant Mohawk women, and Mohawk people, and have that depiction on television when people are so used to seeing them in a very heavy, kind of historical context for the difficulties in many of their communities, I think really that is what I am most proud of. I feel that we really contributed to the very important and timely conversation about our [Canadian] history and our present-day relationships with native communities. People have definitely heard and responded, and I am just so elated about that.
As a writer, looking back over your many years working on Mohawk Girls, where are you as a writer now? It is so interesting. You know you learn and grow so much with each project. Tracey and I were recently working with our digital media people. We fell upon some old content from previous seasons and they did some amalgamation videos of fun moments from all of the seasons. It is so incredible to watch the progression and the journey. Mohawk Girls was the first time that Tracey and I were at the helm. Not only was she directing, and I was the head writer, but we were showrunning, so we got to see our creative vision. We made a lot of mistakes. We always do. We always will. But, we learned so much.
I think one of the main things as a writer is to be confident and really go for it with what you want to say. Have faith in yourself and your ability to it, but at the same time surround yourself with great talent, and be really open to their ideas and their perspectives. Even though I have been writing for a long time and at the helm of this show, it has been an incredible, incredible learning experience and an opportunity for a huge amount of growth.
What about colonization and the stereotypes of Indigenous people have altered your lens since your involvement with Mohawk Girls? Oh so much! I like to think that I am a conscientious person and an egalitarian. As a Jewish person, I and my people have experienced so much racism over the centuries as well, so I felt that I was so in tune with that and certainly with native people. And as a child, my mom’s best friend was from Kahnawa:ke so I had no notion of what it was beyond ‘they have different practices but we are all people’ and I thought I knew everything. But I have learned so much over this process.
We have this one storyline with Anna [Maika Harper]. People are telling her that McGill is a colonialist institution and she is being brainwashed and she, like me, was ‘really?’ It’s not that I didn’t believe but, I couldn’t even give you an example of what that meant if I tried. But researching and talking to Tracey, you see how ingrained it is in our way of thinking. So often you don’t know that you don’t know.
I am very, very sensitive to any jokes about any minority group, and I don’t remember what the comment was, but someone made a comment on set and I didn’t even react. A lot of people bristled, and I didn’t because I didn’t even realise that it could be offensive. Afterwards, I felt so horrible that I hadn’t noticed. The key is to learn and hear and understand and be open to knowing that there is stuff that you don’t know. It has been a huge long process for me of constant growth. Every season, every time I am in Kahnawa:ke, every time I am talking to people, I was shocked with how much I didn’t know, even me, a member of another minority, so I am highly sensitive to it.
Cynthia and me on set in Kahnawa:ke in the summer of 2016.
Can you give us any hints about what is in store for our fabulous foursome this season? I think and I hope fans are going to be really gratified with where our characters end up. We’ve for a long time known for at least two of them where we wanted to end their storylines and two we did not know. We did not know Zoe [Brittany LeBorgne] and we did not know Anna. With Zoe, there is a bit of a surprise in store, but I won’t tell you what. Bailey [Jenny Pudavick] has a real battle this season. I mean you know, she is with James [Jeffrey Wetsch]. She has tried it before. How is she going to make it work? It is a real battle. Anna, we had lots of different ideas of where we end her, but we are very happy. And, I think Caitlin [Heather White] is the most gratifying.
Any last messages for fans that you want to share? You know, you can write something that you think says something important or that you want people to respond to, but if people don’t watch or get invested, and don’t care and don’t support the project then there is no show. But so much of what gets us through those very challenging times that productions like Mohawk Girls experience, is knowing people out there, both native and non-native, all sorts of people from across the country are invested and care about our girls, about the characters. I mean, they want to see what happens to them and they are learning and growing right along with them.
Tracey got this call recently from a Jewish guy who grew up in Montreal but was living in Toronto. And he had grown up thinking that Kahnawa:ke was this weird scary place that you just never go to but he just happened to catch an episode of Mohawk Girls. He then binge-watched the whole series and he called Tracey. He was in Kahnawa:ke. He came all the way from Toronto and brought his adult son and he was there for the weekend and he came to see the place and again, just build a bridge. He realized how wrong he was and how many misconceptions he had, and he wanted to open his eyes and see the place for real.
It is those kinds of stories or fans who are young women who are inspired by our characters’ bravery and relate to how flawed they are; this is really the whole joy and purpose of creating a series, telling any kind of story, and putting it out there. To touch people and to inspire people, make people feel that they are not alone. So for our fans who have been so vocal about it to us, we are just infinitely grateful for you sharing your stories and for all of your support and enthusiasm. This has been a really special experience.
My thanks to Cynthia for taking the time to speak with me.
Mohawk Girls season premiere airs Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. ET/CT/MT on APTN.
It’s the end of the road for Mohawk Girls. That’s the word from co-creator, co-executive producer and director Tracey Deer, who broke the news to TV, Eh? during a one-on-one interview at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference. Deer was part of a panel entitled I Am: A Discussion on the Female Gaze alongside Shoot the Messenger‘s Jennifer Holness, Degrassi‘s Courtney Jane Walker, Odd Squad‘s Robby Hoffman and moderated by Saving Hope‘s Katrina Saville.
“This is our final season,” Deer confirmed. “[Cynthia Knight] and I have always known where we wanted to get these girls, from the three-arc conception of the show, so we’re doing it.”
Filmed and set in Montreal and the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Mohawk Girls stars Brittany LeBorgne as Zoe, Heather White as Caitlin, Maika Harper as Anna and Jennifer Pudavick as Bailey. Pre-production on Season 5 begins next week; the last six episodes were greenlit by APTN two weeks ago.
Mohawk Girls has been nominated for several Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Comedy Series, Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series, Best Writing in a Comedy Program or Series and Best Performance by an Actress in a Continuing Comedic Role for LeBorgne.
What can fans expect from Season 5? Deer was mum on details but did say the series’ final scene makes her cry every time she thinks about it.
“The final scene is going to be traumatic [to film],” Deer admits. “There is an event that is going to take up a lot of the final episode and there is a pool involved.”
Are you upset Mohawk Girls is ending? Do you have a message for the cast and co-creators? Comment below.
“We are developing the fourth season,†showrunner Cynthia Knight confirmed to The TV Junkies. The APTN comedy’s fourth year will be an extended run since “it’s going to be eight half hour episodes instead of six,†says Knight. She also said that they are aiming “to shoot around the same time as last year, hopefully around the end of May to mid-July. It’ll then air next fall.†Knight and Mohawk Girls creator and executive producer Tracey Deer also confirmed that the writers’ room for Season 4 of the critically acclaimed show will have six women in it. Knight calls it their “biggest story room yet by far,†as they get set to begin writing this week in Toronto. Continue reading.
