APTN’s documentary series Northern Air Rescue went through more than two years of challenges before its debut this month, including an overhaul of its narrative structure during production.

The 13 x 30-minute series premiered in Cree on APTN and APTN lumi on Tuesday (Jan. 9), while its English-language version lands on Sunday (Jan. 14).

Northern Air Rescue is co-directed by Carmen Henriquez and Denis Paquette, and produced under their Vancouver-based RealWorld Films banner. The character-driven series follows the operations of Missinippi Airways, a small First Nation-owned Manitoba airline which provides air ambulance, passenger and cargo services.

Production on the series was delayed due to COVID-19, and the subsequent airline and government mandated restrictions. Filming took place over 79 days, beginning in September 2021 and wrapping in December the following year, with RealWorld conducting four separate production trips to Manitoba. Post-production was completed last September.

“During these unprecedented times, from a filmmaking perspective, we had to be extremely patient in order to gain the trust and access the airline’s broader management and staff, who ultimately became the characters in our story,” Henriquez and Paquette told Playback Daily in a joint statement.

The pandemic, as well as the airline’s concerns over patient confidentiality, pushed Henriquez and Paquette to reframe the narrative of the series from a medevac focus to the entire operation of Missinippi and aviation challenges in this part of the world.

“With the filming restrictions we faced around patient confidentiality issues, we had to chase planes across Manitoba by ground. We learned to rely on the airline’s dispatchers in Winnipeg who would cue us, 24/7, when and where Missinippi’s medevac, passenger and cargo flight would depart and arrive,” said Henriquez and Paquette. “This forced us to shift the episodic story structure we originally envisioned, evolving our format to focus on the progress of actual medevac crews during the course of the 13-day rotation. Chasing them around Manitoba, meant we had to be resilient in order to gain their trust in order that we could capture the real-life rigours of a medevac crew, through their fatigue and bad weather.”

The resulting story structure took on a more “day in the life” approach.

Another challenge was developing “characters”, as many pilots would move onto bigger airlines after building their flight hours with Missinippi.

But it also provided the opportunity to focus on individuals who embraced the challenges of flying for a small northern carrier. From that focus came stories like that of a young Indigenous female trainee pilot who became captain of her own medevac crew.

Over the course of filming Northern Air Rescue, the production team also had to become adept at shooting in -40 degree weather, working despite mechanical breakdowns, as well as filming on dog sleds and snowmobiles.

Northern Air Rescue was licensed by APTN and financed through the Canada Media Fund, with both agreements finalized in July 2021. The combined budget for the TV episodes and digital media (website and social) was $1.2 million, according to the production team.

Photo by Carmen Henriquez