I finally watched the Trickster series. I did my best to watch as an audience member. I do like some of the filmmaking, there are beautiful scenes and great moments. I love the vfx on Jared. Visually, they had great moments from the book. I think I have to watch it a few times to really review all 6 episodes, but overall, the filmmaking is good. And I have worked with the star of the show, Joel Oulette, and he is ‘Jared’ and excited for his work for season 2.
What doesn’t work for me, looking at it thru the lens of, Indigenous Costume Designer from the Pacific Northwest was the icing on the scenes that could have been and honestly, should have been. Not only in the costume department but the production design and even the cast & crew. Watching the credits even made me sad.
There are so many cultural misses on so many accounts, I honestly don’t want to even list them all, the misses are what would have made this show for all of BC audience members. It’s missing the nuance of BC, of Westcoast, of Kitimaat, Haisla, our art, our ways, the nod, the everything BC was missing from the Story of Our Raven, Our Trickster. He’s ours and he doesn’t belong on the east coast.
This is told in an east coast stage, east coast habits, nuances that are the ‘tells’ of being from the east and west of this country. In episode 4, I have an issue with the costume build being a raffia and yarn build instead of the cedar bark capes and regalia it deserves. There is a chance in cinema to showcase the culture and represent who we are, and it hits the so-called mark but it’ll never be a bullseye for so many reasons.
As a Costume Designer reviewing this series, I do like the brush strokes of the costumes. But when it comes to the Cultural part of costume, of who we are as a Nation, as Haisla, and how we, as Indigenous, want to be repented now on film, this isn’t us. I honestly hated the production and costume design of Gramma’s house. The fun that would have been had, if it were our BC Haisla’s Gramma’s place, instead, its the east coast Gramma with her feathers and curtains and tea that screams east coast to me.
And the dialogue about the Residential School. I may have to re-watch and actually quote them, just to prove how bad they all are. You know when you know, and she doesn’t know. Michelle, you do not know.
It reminds me of when X-Files left filming in BC and went to LA and that was it, it lost its….x-files.
The trees are skinnier in the east. So was this story.