Credo Entertainment’s historical docusoap Pioneer Quest: A Year in the Life of the Real West ran into potential disaster when half the series’ star power had to pull out within 24 hours of the series commencing.

Producers of the series, which is to be shot over a year as two carefully selected couples eke out an existence as 1870s-era pioneers on the Manitoba prairies would have, had to select a new couple when the male partner of one of the couples was charged with sexual assault. The assaults are alleged to have occurred prior to the project’s commencement.

In a statement, Winnipeg-based Credo said: ‘Due to sudden and unforeseen obligations, one of [the couples] has decided to withdraw from the series one day into production.’

The statement goes on to quote Credo executive producer Jamie Brown as saying the couple had run into ‘personal obligations [that] would have required them to leave the site on numerous occasions, making it difficult to fully commit to the project. It was with regret that the [couple] asked to withdraw from the series.’

Credo’s woes are nothing compared to the difficulties the pioneers are encountering. Manitoba has experienced record rain recently, which reportedly has taken its toll on the pioneers’ fledgling vegetable garden, and ‘inevitable’ personal tensions have surfaced among the four participants, currently all occupying the same canvas tent.

All this action is good, at least for the filmmakers: with less than a month of the project behind them, 70 rolls of film or digital tape are in the can. ‘We’ve shot practically every day since we started,’ says Brown.

Replacing the couple who left was easy, Brown says. ‘We had a dozen people who were all basically equal and as a team we made the final decision. [Substituting for the departing couple] was a really smooth transition. They were out there within a few days, not even a week into the show.’

Meanwhile, away from the brouhaha, the pioneers have persevered, having already built several structures on the site (a chicken coop, a pigpen, a kitchen structure and racks for harnessing the horses) and ploughed the ground.

‘They’re doing well. They’ve definitely had to adjust to the new reality [no toilet paper, for one]. Despite their assurances of preparedness, it’s a tough grind, but they’re succeeding.’

*Caitlin’s way with viewers

Mid-June saw the return of children’s television series Caitlin’s Way to its High River, Alta. home to film another 26 episodes.

The tween drama comes from Calgary-based Riverwood Productions and Toronto’s Fireworks Entertainment, which is acting as the series’ financier and international distributor.

Despite the first season only commencing airing on ytv March 9 and on Nickelodeon March 11, both broadcasters have renewed the series, says Riverwood producer Helene White.

The series’ launch on Nickelodeon was the highest-rated premiere in the network’s 20-year history, White claims. This success has been repeated at home, with Caitlin’s Way placing in the top 10 non-animated shows on ytv.

*Native talent

Two Saskatchewan producers returned home from last month’s Banff Television Festival clutching awards.

The two producers who walked away with Telefilm Canada/Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Awards and $10,000 prizes each were Dennis Jackson (producer/director) and Melanie Jackson (editor/production manager), winners of the best aboriginal-language production slot for the ‘Traditional Land Use’ episode of the documentary series Heartbeat of the Earth; and Doug Cuthand, who won in the best English-language aboriginal production category for the one-hour documentary Circle of Voices.

Heartbeat of the Earth, produced by Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation, airs on the Saskatchewan Communications Network and aptn and looks at the lives of the Cree, Dene and Michef peoples in northern Saskatchewan.

The series covers areas as diverse as the environment, art and music, the justice system and the treatment meted out to native war veterans from a native perspective.

‘The hardest thing about the series is choosing what footage to cut,’ says Jackson. ‘We have over 150 hours of footage for the first series. We’re in production for the next series and we already have 40 more tapes to look through. [The series] is a peek into [native peoples’] lives. So much is happening.’

Circle of Voices, produced out of Cuthand’s Blue Hill Productions, is a fly-on-the-wall documentary that follows the progress of a number of young actors staging a play. Funded by the National Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the play and the film specifically focus on the general effect of boarding schools, and although few of the participants had direct boarding school experience, most have immediate relatives who have.

A playwright was brought in to interview the actors, in the presence of the crew, and amalgamate their experiences into a whole.

Cuthand has another two projects in the works: one looking at ‘a family going through multi-generations differences,’ which is in editing, and a series on aboriginal health issues, to be shot nationwide for aptn and for which Cuthand says he is currently ‘digging up more money.’

*Mentors, round two

Production has started on season two of Mentors from Regina’s Minds Eye Pictures and Edmonton’s Anaid Productions. Thirteen new episodes of the time-travelling children’s series began shooting June 23 in and around Edmonton.

This round marks the first time a full season has been shot, the last ‘season’ having been shot in pieces: a pilot episode in 1997, five episodes in 1998 and seven episodes in 1999. Mentors airs on Family Channel.

*Call of the wild

The Banff Mountain Film Festival is calling for films and videos on mountain and adventure subjects to compete for screening at the event itself, set this year for Nov. 3-5. Entries must be submitted by Sept. 8.

Categories include the Grand Prize, Alpine Club of Canada Best Film on Climbing, Best Film on Mountain Sports, Best Film on Mountain Environment and Best Film on Mountain Culture. Two new categories have been added this year: Best Short Mountain Film for films up to 15 minutes and Best Feature-length Mountain Fiction Film for films of 70 minutes or more. The final prize is the for the People’s Choice Award and is selected by the festival audience. All up, $20,000 is on offer as prize money.

This year marks the festival’s 25th anniversary, and as part of the celebrations a retrospective of great mountain films from the past quarter century will be screened, according to Bernadette McDonald, director of the Banff Centre for Mountain Culture, organizers of the event.