Having spent the past several years jumping through various preproduction hoops, writer-director-producer Loretta Todd has finally landed precisely where she wants to be: behind a camera, shooting the pilot episode of Skye & Chang, her genre-blending creation for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.
Being a sci-fi nerd, I have a particular affection for science fiction fans, she admits. So, I think I have an idea of what we like and how were always looking for something innovative and unique. And yet, [Skye & Chang] still references some of our favourites.
Enjoying a brief lunch break from a hectic shooting schedule, Todd is seated in a martial arts studio that her industrious crew has created in the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. This is the headquarters of Skye Daniels (Sera-Lys McArthur) and Emily Chang (Olivia Cheng), two friends who grew up together on Vancouvers Downtown Eastside and now mix their hand-to-hand combat with acts of kindness to their disadvantaged neighbours and close encounters with the third kind.
I wanted to harken back to the buddy TV series you used to see, Todd says. That idea of people defending the underdog... I took that theme and married it with the sci-fi.
For the Cree filmmaker, it was also an opportunity to use genre storytellings allegorical capabilities to slyly explore weightier concerns and share her philosophies regarding sovereignty and our shared responsibility to the land.
I wanted to find a way that was populist... That people would come and watch it and wouldnt realize that they are being educated, shares Todd. People are watching sci-fi with marital arts and a beautiful cast and, at the same time, theyre going, Oh... So aboriginal people do have power. They do have influence. They do have history... They do have a lot to bring to bear in Canada.
Another storytelling priority for the filmmaker is crafting a fictional world that reflects the cultural realities of Vancouver. That reality is that were diverse, Todd says. Should an entire series of Skye & Chang be ordered, she plans for the one-hour episodes to explore different ethnicities and cultures. All the kinds of realities of Canada, she suggests. Theres the opportunity to have very diverse storylines.
Rather fittingly, Todd has received support from notably diverse sources, whether its APTN allowing her creative freedom during the development process or the Chinese Cultural Centre providing locations for the finished product. With some satisfaction, she says, You always like to know that theres enthusiasm. That people believe in the dream.
Two of those believers are Todds leads, whove immediately breathed life into characters who previously only existed on the page and in her imagination.
Theres a deep bond between the two of them, she says of Chang and Skye. I think Olivia and Sera-Lys were really able to embody that bond. At the core, thats what buddy films are: you can see the deep respect and loyalty. At the core of martial arts films, thats one of the things: loyalty. Theyve really brought that to the project.
