'We held onto each other.' Bones of Crows writer/director Marie Clements on filming 'gut wrenching' scenes
We look at the moment Aline Spears and her siblings are taken from their parents
Based on real events, Bones of Crows is an epic story of resilience told through the eyes of Cree matriarch Aline Spears. As a young child, she and her siblings are taken from their home in Manitoba and forced into Canada's residential school system.
Over 100 years, Aline and her descendants fight against a reign of terror that included starvation, sexual abuse and poverty as they struggle together toward reconciliation and a brighter future.
Recreating some of these traumatic scenes, experienced by many Indigenous families for generations, was challenging for Métis/Dene filmmaker Marie Clements and her team.
"We're respectful on set and with each other. We talked softly on set because we wanted the actors to feel that they were the centre of it and that we were going to support them in a way that held sacred their work," explains Clements. "There was an ability for people to process. We had a whole trailer where elders were and you could hang out and cry if you needed to let it go, or you could laugh or you could just be with each other."
In this video, she shares her thoughts on one of the series' most poignant scenes, the moment Aline and her siblings are taken away from their parents.
Watch the video above.
Watch the series, Bones of Crows, now streaming on CBC Gem.
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