Tag Archives: Featured

19-2, Featured

Tattiawna Jones talks Amelie’s journey on 19-2

It seems like no one on 19-2 is allowed to have nice things. After Ben Chartier revealed his secret spot away from the world to Amelie De Grace (Tattiawna Jones) and she recently saying “I love you” to him, her life was cut short. In typical brutal 19-2 fashion, Amelie died violently at the hands of Frank Ferney (Spiro Malandrakis), a recovering drug addict who blamed social worker Amelie for him not being able to foster his niece, Martine.

Now, with 19-2‘s season finale around the corner, we spoke to Jones about her role, her experience on the gritty Bravo drama … and her stand-up career.

Congratulations on your portrayal of Amelie. Sadly, I’m talking to you because she is no more. How did you find out? Did showrunner Bruce Smith call to tell you the news?
Tattiawna Jones: He did, and he was really great about it. I can’t imagine it was a fun call for him to make. ‘Hi, um, you’re getting fired and this is how it happens.’ [Laughs.] It wasn’t like that at all. He was so lovely and the 19-2 family is a group of artists that are there wanting to tell a good story. He said, ‘Amelie is going to meet her end, and this is how it’s going to happen and how it works into the story.’ I was super-excited and thought it was unbelievable. No one was going to see it coming. It gives 19-2 heart. It’s such a personal show and a personal story. Amelie dying in that way makes it even more personal. When I read the script, I’d felt like I had lost someone and that’s how I do feel when I watch 19-2.

I love to do action stuff, so the stunts were really fun and my screen partner was super-fantastic. In between action and cut was as terrifying as it should be.

Fans certainly didn’t see it coming.
I think it speaks to the courage of the writers. It’s something that I had overlooked as an actor; the people who live through these characters first are the writers. I got Amelie as a toddler and was able to grow her up a bit. The writers have to live through this first and are blamed [when something bad happens]. If a writer has the courage to do something like that for the sake of the story, they should be commended for it. That’s how I felt when Bruce called me up and when I saw [writer] Lynne [Kamm] on the set. It’s bravery to take people by surprise.

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What about working with Spiro? Did you talk about the scene in advance? He had a tough job to do too.
He had a really tough job and I’m glad you said that. People often think the victim in the partnership has the tough job but his character is the abuser in this case and that is a tough job. You’re into all kinds of politics with our characters: man and woman, race politics, all kinds of politics at work. The writers want people to think and to look at their own sensibilities. We didn’t talk about it beforehand. We got on-set and are relative newbies in the stand-up comedy world, so we were talking about that beforehand. He was a pro and I never felt unsafe.

Did you do research in preparation for playing Amelie? Did you speak to social workers?
I did. Lynne really helped out a lot and gave me a bunch of information. I spoke to a couple of people that I knew, did some Googling. You have to do research if you’re going to play any kind of public servant.

It’s a tough job.
Oh my God, I couldn’t do it. I could never, never do it. I cannot believe the kinds of things these people go through. But also, it’s a thankless job. These people are underpaid and get no accolades and yet are doing good work at the ground level day in and day out. There are selfless and want something better for someone else.

What did you learn about your time on 19-2?
I learned a lot about how to make a really great piece of art and not let money stop that.

I have to ask you about your stand-up career. What’s the status of that?
It’s sitting at home. I’m scared to go back and work on it. I’m at the stage where I have a ton of material written and now it’s up to me to go to an open mike and go on at one or two in the morning like any other comedian ever in the history of comedians has and earn it.

Is stand-up something you’ve always wanted to do?
It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and been afraid to do. I’m kind of good enough at it that when I’m with my friends, but I’m not that good at it as a profession because I haven’t put the work in. Now I’m putting the work in and learning about the craft of stand-up comedy.

19-2‘s season finale airs Monday at 10 p.m. ET on Bravo.

 

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Working It Out Together: Restoring Justice through Healing

This episode jumps right in with some shocking statistics: 20-25% of all prisoners in Canada are Indigenous. However, in prisons located in the prairies, the  population rate of Indigenous persons is estimated to be 75%.  Kimberly Pate, National Director, Canadian Association of  Elizabeth Fry Societies goes on to say that “Canada’s rate of incarceration of Indigenous people is worse than any other incarceration rate worldwide.”

These numbers beg the question, “Why?” with a follow up question, “What can be done to reverse this trend?”

When you consider these numbers in the context of colonization–the loss of land, language, culture, and ceremony, the significant change in manner of dress, the way lives are conducted, the way people interact–we begin to understand the significant changes undergone by communities. Then, when told “Just get over it already” by the ignorant or unsympathetic, you open up a powder keg of anger and retaliatory violence. Combining this anger, the social dysfunction created by other governmental policies, and a discriminatory justice system, we can begin to understand the “Why”.  And all of this has suited the Crown and its reason for colonization; there has been a consistent lack of people present on the land, thus allowing the Crown  free access to the land and all of its resources.

Isaac Murdoch, Traditional Story-Teller returns again this week to explain the history of how Canada’s justice system has shaped Indigenous life.  He states: ” When you look at justice today, it is not a holistic system. It is an individual system” … “Today they are just responding to the crime and before [within each community] they would respond to the break down that took place.”  Travis Gabriel, Traditional Helper, Waseskun Healing Centre, QC, adds that the cycle of  violence and drug abuse present today “has become habit, and one of our main goals here [at the healing centre] is making sure that whatever problems they had that got them into the prison system, don’t go home with them.”

To break this cycle and to reverse the high rates of incarceration, legal advocates have been promoting Restorative Justice, a process aimed at reintegrating  convicted offenders successfully into their communities.To understand the process of Restorative Justice we follow the stories of Sheri Pranteau and Elijah Decoursay, both convicted offenders, who through the aid of Gladue Reports have been sentenced to individually tailored sentences that promote their reintegration.

Mark Marsolais-Nahwegahbow, Justice Consultant, explains the process of a Gladue Report. Every Indigenous offender that faces 90 days or more incarceration is eligible to have a Gladue Report prepared prior to sentencing.  This  is a unique pre-sentencing report that  specifically itemizes the circumstances of the offender’s life and how they became a part of the justice system. It also includes the voices of community members. These reports are particularly effective if the crime in question is considered minor in nature and the judge believes that Restorative Justice is a suitable option instead of traditional incarceration, or “jail time”.

This is another informative episode jam packed with details that tackle a difficult consequence of colonization, and how reconciliation can be achieved!

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Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary, Uncategorized

Working It Out Together: Lucina Gordon–Inuk School Days

This episode of Working It Out Together examines a topic dear to my heart: Indigenous education. Through the lived experiences of an Inuit student from Nunavut, it takes a hard look at the effects that the Residential School System continues to inflict upon Indigenous youth across Canada today.

Carol Rowan, Professor of Education at Concordia University–Inuit Studies, describes the way Inuit children were educated by the community and through their experiences on the land prior to colonization. “The land was teacher and land was pedagog. Children learned through a caring relationship with the land.” This attitude to education was in stark contrast to what we today understand conventional education to be.

Morley Hanson, Coordinator, Nunavut Sivuniksavut describes the process of colonization as it manifested in the far north. “Waves of outsiders would arrive, predicated on the continued use of the natural resources.” There was a European whaling industry, followed by fur traders and missionaries. The people began to convert to Christianity, and were also encouraged and/or coerced to move off of the land to live in larger communities.

Melissa Irwin, Instructor, Nunavut Sivuniksavut explains how the Residential School System was a “colonizing tool that was designed with ill intent to take away our culture, our language, our pride, and our voice. It separated families physically, but also psychologically. It introduced violence, pain, disconnect, and abuse.” As a result of colonization, the value of education has been deflated within Indigenous communities across Canada. If however Indigenous ways of knowing are incorporated into school curriculum, interest in attending school and understanding its value will act to improve student success rates.

We follow 20 year old Lucina Gordon on her quest to become a school counselor. In order to complete her college degree at John Abbott College, she must travel more than 1500 km. Lucina is 1 of only 2 youth from her community to make it to the final college semester. We see through Lucina’s eyes the difficulties students face when they leave their tightly knit communities in the north to attend school in a large urban centre.

We are also introduced to the Nunavut Sivuniksavut program that helps Inuit students make the transition from their communities to post secondary education.  Using culturally relevant topics, students, so far removed from home and family, recognize their own sense of self and the program gives them ongoing support as they seek to complete higher education.

Admittedly, I am biased when it comes to Indigenous education but this episode really is jam packed with the issues that face Indigenous education and educators in Canada today. I have only touched on a few themes addressed in the episode and were I to truly do it  justice (at least in my mind) this recap would be twice as long as it is. Given the heavy media coverage that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s  Calls to Action have received across Canada, educational reform for Indigenous youth is a very timely topic. So my advice is simple, if you missed this episode just go watch it here: Working It Out Together

 

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Featured

Can Train 48 get back on track in Canada?

Steve Levitan is trying to get Train 48 back on track, and now seems like the perfect time to do it.

“The format that, at the time, I thought was innovative today is even more strategically smart,” Levitan says.

For those who don’t recall, Train 48 was an anomaly on the Canadian TV landscape. Broadcast on Global from 2003 until 2005 and based on the Australian series Going Home, the soapy series followed the daytime commute of a small group of characters from Toronto to Burlington, Ont. Before cell phones became the norm, folks would travel on the train and talk about the day’s events, often amongst the same four people sitting together. Levitan and his writers mirrored that for Train 48, mapping rough conversations and then letting the cast go, free forming the discussions to make them more real. Among the cast on Train 48 were Krista Sutton, Paul Braunstein, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Joe Dinicol, Raoul Bhaneja, Amy Price-Francis and Lisa Merchant, who filmed an episode every weekday for two years.

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“I sort of vaguely remember getting up at 4:30 a.m. to drive into the set,” Merchant, who played Brenda Murphy, recalls. “We’d get into costume and have a meeting with the producer, have breakfast, and then it was time to get rolling. We’d be finished by 2:30 p.m. and then would do it all over again the next day.”

“Even though those of us who did it have done a lot of things in our careers, we’ve haven’t done anything like it again,” Bhaneja, who portrayed Pete Subramani, says. “It was such a unique journey. We’d be picked up in a van convoy, climb into our fake GO Train set, film and then what we did would be on TV that night. It was crazy.”

As a daily commuter into Toronto myself at the time, I totally got what Train 48 was all about. Aside from being tonally different from what was on television at the time, Train 48 broke new technological ground as well. Levitan recalls how Global wanted to drive traffic to its fledgling Canada.com website; the show placed Pete on the phone his bookie betting on that night’s Toronto Blue Jays-New York Yankees game. Viewers were urged to visit the website to vote who they thought would win the game; Canada.com crashed for days.

So, why the attention for Train 48 after 13 years? Because episodes are rolling out on the show’s YouTube channel. The show’s distributor, Syndicado (a deal structured through Farrago Media Inc.), suggested they be posted online and Levitan said yes. Train 48 certainly works airing on YouTube, but it would be a perfect fit for Canada’s streaming channels CraveTV and shomi. Levitan thinks so too, but no broadcaster has been interested. He also believes the format is the perfect formula for television today. Levitan points to Orphan Black, which attracts 250,000 viewers for Space every week at a cost of millions per episode versus his show, which attracted 250,000 viewers or more every night of the week at a cost of $40,000 per instalment. The model, he says, still works today.

“There are lots of ways to keep doing Train 48,” Levitan says. “And there are lots of ways to update or change the creative focus of that format, depending on who your network or audience is.”

Check out all of Train 48’s episodes as they roll out on YouTube.

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Amazing Race Canada, Featured

Teamwork takes top spot on Amazing Race Canada

Haida Gwaii has become a hot spot to film Canadian television shows. First it was the Season 2 premiere of Jonny Harris’ Still Standing that visited the community; on Tuesday, The Amazing Race Canada teams blew through the area, soaking up culture and striving to arrive on the mat in first place. (Eagle-eyed fans of Still Standing recognized Desi Collinson and Ben Davidson in the episode.)

Perhaps it was the mysticism of the place that caused several teams to do the unthinkable: they helped each other out. The first Road Block challenge—to listen to the stories of six totem poles, then identify them and the artist to carved them—saw Ashley tell Amy and Kate the correct pole order and then Jillian, Julie, Rita and Amy all work together. (Learning the stories of the totems, though edited down for TV, was still fascinating and I wish there had been more time devoted to it.) Steph and Kristen had already shot ahead to the puzzle test in the forest, where once again Jillian and Emmett took a few extra minutes to aid their competitors instructing them in how the pieces fit together. I couldn’t help but be impressed by the team play, especially at this later stage in the game. I’d expect a little sharing off the top, but not so much as the end winds into sight.

This Leg of the Race was all Steph and Kristen, who vowed they’d land on the mat in front of Jon Montgomery. They made good on their word, never relinquishing the lead and only seeing other teams when they were leaving for the next stage. I admit I was cheering for them all along; they’re strong physically and mentally and are nothing but supportive of each other. (As an aside, those shots from and of the sea plane gliding over the water and land were some of the show’s most stunning ever.)

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As for the rest of the teams? They were in a figurative—and literal—log jam for the bulk of the Leg, with just Kelly and Kate the last team leaving the puzzle challenge in dead last. But The Amazing Race Canada has a way of equalizing things, and that happened during the second Road Block where the team member that didn’t complete the totem pole task had to operate a small tug boat and move rafts of marked logs—Beachcombers-style—to a dispatcher. That meant Lowell and his limited sight was behind the wheel of one boat while Kelly and her fear of operating machinery controlled the other.

Unfortunately, Kelly and Kate couldn’t recreate their luck last week and arrived on the mat last, where they were eliminated. Buy hey, they came in first place during one Leg and scored a trip for two to Los Angeles.

Here’s how the teams finished this Leg:

  1. Steph and Kristen (won trip for two to New York City)
  2. Jillian and Emmett
  3. Frankie and Amy
  4. Joel and Ashley
  5. Rita and Yvette
  6. Julie and Lowell
  7. Kelly and Kate (eliminated)

The Amazing Race Canada airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CTV.

Images courtesy of CTV

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