When it came to producing Marie Clements’ sweeping CBC miniseries and feature film Bones of Crows, it was the former project that inspired the creation of the latter, resulting in a unique hybrid model that helped finance the ambitious Indigenous story.

Writer-director-lead producer Clements spoke about the groundbreaking, two-format project on a panel presented by Telefilm Canada in collaboration with the Canada Media Fund (CMF) at MIPCOM on Tuesday (Oct. 18) along with fellow producers Trish Dolman and Christine Haebler of Screen Siren Pictures, and Linda Jin, VP of content strategy at Bron Studios who is spearheading the Bones of Crows sales and distribution strategy.

Dolman and Haebler said CBC had greenlit Bones of Crows as a series based on one of two scripts by Clements, who approached the producers about looking for partners in British Columbia to finance and execute it. They helped develop two more scripts, which ended up being so long, they decided to make it a five-part series for which they needed more money. That’s when the film came into the picture.

“At that point, the only way to raise more money was to create another asset, and the other asset was a feature film,” said Haebler. “We could finance the feature film through Telefilm Canada, and that enabled us to do this very large production, achieving all five episodes and then distilling the feature film from the five episodes.”

The TV version of the multi-generational residential school drama was commissioned by CBC/Radio-Canada in association with APTN and is slated for a 2023-24 premiere, likely in late September, early October, said Jin. Meanwhile, the accompanying film made its world premiere at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Both the series and film are produced by Clements’ B.C.-based Ayasew Ooskana Pictures in association with CBC/Radio-Canada, APTN, Telefilm, the CMF, the Shaw Rocket Fund, the Bell Fund, the Cogeco Independent Production Fund, the Indigenous Screen Office (ISO) and Elevation Pictures.

The project also got funding through Creative BC, the First Peoples’ Cultural Council, tax credits and a grant Clements received to create a song for the film with the Victoria Symphony Orchestra.

Dolman said their goal with the series “was to create something very elevated, very high quality, and the scripts are incredibly ambitious,” so they came up with the film idea to help with the shortfall in financing.

She and Haebler got inspiration for the hybrid approach from the Olivier Assayas-directed Carlos, a 2010 French-German biographical film and Canal+ miniseries that had turned to the hybrid model in order to raise more money.

“We didn’t believe that all these Canadian funders would support doing two things, and it was actually CBC who said, ‘Have you guys thought about doing it this way?’ And we were like, ‘Yeah, but we didn’t think anyone would go for it,'” said Dolman.

“But Marie then wrote a beautiful screenplay from the series, and Telefilm Canada and Elevation Pictures came on board. It was the highest-funded project by Telefilm Canada that year.”

Jin said Dolan and Haebler brought the project to Bron, having already had a long-standing relationship with CEO Aaron L. Gilbert.

“We looked at it and immediately felt that this was an important and inspiring story that we wanted to get involved with, so we attached as an EP and we are here to help guide the budget through its fruition and also oversee the sales and distribution strategy to make sure it can reach the widest audience possible,” she said.

That strategy includes leveraging the feature film as a promotional asset for the series as it runs through the festival circuit to great reviews.

“The idea behind having that feature film not only as a separate asset that you can monetize, and a way to get more funding to elevate the series production value, is also that you have another asset to sell. And using that film festival circuit, you’re reaching a wider audience,” said Jin.

Bones of Crows worked with the ISO and adhered to the On-Screen Protocols and Pathways guideline for working with Indigenous cast, crew and communities during production. The cast of the multi-generational tale, about a resilient Cree women affected by Canada’s residential school system, includes Grace Dove, Phillip Lewitski, and Rémy Girard.

The project is billed as the largest-scale Indigenous-led production in Canada and had an Indigenous elder on set with whom the cast could smudge, pray or meditate in order to prepare or deal with the heavy content. Filming for both the feature film and series took place over 57 days in five different cities with 160 speaking roles, more than 1,200 extras and a crew of over 110.

The story’s many characters and elements make for compelling TV overall while the Indigenous aspects have great resonance in other territories with Indigenous peoples, said Jin.

“From a sales perspective, it’s great to have a story where … you can feel that this is true, authentic, and someone’s truth and tells such a great story that way, but at the same time it will resonate with audiences around the world.”

Photo L-R: Moderator Mireille Darveau, director of French content at Canada Media Fund; Marie Clements; Trish Dolman; Christine Haebler; Linda Jin.