Blackstone TV series earns accolades

It’s been a great summer for the cast and crew of Blackstone. The popular Canadian television drama wrapped its first season with a cliffhanger that left audiences wanting more, and the show’s producers have received the green light to go ahead on a second season. Work is already underway on the first episodes.

Blackstone has been winning accolades since the pilot aired early in 2010, earning five Rosies for that first outing. The winning has continued in 2011 with three Rosie awards, two Leos and the most recently announced, two Gemini awards including Michelle Thrush taking it for Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role.

“It’s very important that what we’re doing is recognized,” said Ron E. Scott, executive producer and head writer for Blackstone. “The production is all Native controlled with a lot of Native actors who can compete with some of the best actors. To get those nominations and win the awards is just very healthy all the way around. It’s very welcomed and we are grateful for it.”

Further evidence of the program’s popularity came from the fans who lined up to meet the cast and crew at an autograph signing held July 23 at West Edmonton Mall.
“People drove from Inuvik, Prince George and Saskatchewan to be there, to meet the cast,” said Scott. “It was wildly successful.”

The compelling drama also recently started airing on Maori TV in New Zealand, and lead actor and Leo-award winner Carmen Moore hopes that is the beginning of a trend. “We’d like to see it picked up by another network or two. We’d love to see it overseas,” she said.

Blackstone is an intense and confrontational TV drama that takes place on the fictional Blackstone reserve, and is filmed on location in and around Edmonton. It weaves a dramatic tale of corrupt leadership and tumultuous relationships on a First Nations reserve.

“There is nothing else like it on Canadian television right now,” says Moore. “People are saying that Blackstone is the Canadian Sopranos, and we’re thrilled about that.”
Moore gives a lot of credit for the show’s success to the writing team, lead by Scott.

“We have fantastic writers,” she said. “We have to rely on them to come up with the whole season, the eight episodes, with something that’s interesting not only to the viewers but to the actors. Words on a page don’t come to life until the actors give them life, but there has to be a solid structure we can work with.”

Scott agrees that quality content makes all the difference in the success of Blackstone. “I think the quest for authenticity and lining up values I have as a content creator, trying to reflect on relationships… that resonates with a lot of people. It presents something we haven’t seen before.”

The cliffhanger finale of season one involved a shooting at a strip club, and it left viewers in suspense for the summer. Scott won’t reveal the plot, but he said, “There’s some chaos and a question answered and some new questions asked in the first episode.” Some new faces will also join the cast, including acclaimed First Nation’s actors Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal and Georgina Lightening.

Asked about the future of Blackstone, both Scott and Moore said they’d like to work on a third season when this one wraps up. “I like to be optimistic,” said Scott. “It’s a series with tremendous legs unlike anything else on Canadian television.”

Blackstone also features Eric Schweig, Nathanial Arcand and Roseanne Supernault among the talented cast. It is produced for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network by Edmonton’s Prairie Dog Film + Television, with Scott as executive producer, writer and director, Jessica Szymanski as producer, Damon Vignale as producer and writer and Gil Cardinal as writer.