Indigenous filmmaker CBC series Trickster to premiere at TIFF

By Rick Garrick

NIPISSING FIRST NATION — Indigenous filmmaker Michelle Latimer enjoyed shooting most of her CBC six-part original series Trickster, which will be premiering along with her feature-length documentary film Inconvenient Indian at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, in Nipissing First Nation territory in 2019.

Trickster is based on the Son of a Trickster novel by Eden Robinson that took place in Kitimaat Village, in Haisla territory in British Columbia.

“Jared’s house and his best friend’s house, those are all houses that are on Nipissing First Nation,” says Latimer, an award-winning Métis/Algonquin filmmaker who grew up in Thunder Bay. “And the community was really amazing to help us shoot there and be there. We were there for three months non-stop — we even shot in their real bingo hall. And some of their actual bingo hall players from their community came and were extras in our scene, so it was great.”

Latimer, director, co-writer and one of four executive producers of Trickster, says the one-hour series is about a 17-year-old Indigenous youth who starts to see visions.

“He thinks that he is just partying too hard but then he realizes these visions are actually reality because he has magic, he is the son of the trickster,” Latimer says. “Trickster is a decolonization story about a young boy who is coming of age who thinks he just wants to fit in and assimilate but can’t deny anymore who he is, and when he starts to embrace where he comes from and the culture he is from, he starts to realize the power in that.”

Trickster is scheduled to begin streaming on CBC Gem on Oct. 7. A preview of the series is posted online at CBC Gem.

Latimer says her documentary film Inconvenient Indian, which she directed, is an adaptation of Thomas King’s award-winning book.

“It looks at the colonization of North America and basically casts a critical lens on how we’ve learned about our history, that certain histories have been told over and over again and other histories have been left out completely until most recently,” Latimer says. “He really looks at how Indigenous histories, not just in Canada but in the United States as well, are being reclaimed by Indigenous people. I’m a filmmaker, I’m telling stories about my community — it is so important that we are taking back that voice, that it’s not just non-Indigenous people telling our stories.”

Latimer says it was “great” to work with King on the documentary.

“He always said to me: ‘I wrote the book, this is going to be your film,’” Latimer says. “It was just such a privilege working on that film because we travelled all around Turtle Island, meeting people from all different walks of life, different artists, different hunters, different language speakers, and got to celebrate the resurgence of culture and art in various communities, so it was really powerful.”

Latimer says she is always humbled to see what Indigenous people are doing across the country.

“We always hear the news stories but we don’t hear about the artists painting incredible murals or the hunter that is feeding his whole community,” Latimer says. “Those stories really deserve to have voice and to have space in our narrative, in our society, to celebrate the amazing people we have in our communities.”

Latimer previously directed and produced RISE, an eight-part chronicle on the Standing Rock occupation that was recognized with a 2018 Canadian Screen Award for Best Documentary Program.