In the Indigenous culture, there are many stories and legends of great creatures. One of those stories is about a giant Thunderbird, capable of snatching up humans as food. These stories are passed down through the generations, sometimes as warnings and sometimes to ensure that the stories are not forgotten. There is a purpose behind every story and many are used to teach valuable life lessons. Every culture has their history, their legends and some of it can be frightening.
Thunderbird is a story about the fear of the unknown, the pain of guilt, and confronting the darkest parts of our past. The Coast Salish legend of the Thunderbird is an integral part of the story that also deals with racial tensions in a small fishing town on the Pacific Northwest and the search for a missing family member. Constructed against the rugged beauty and danger of this Pacific Northwest, this film takes a deep and dark descent into the desperation of the search. Written and directed by Nicholas Treeshin (Tricked, Worst to First, Border Security) it recently made its premiere on Amazon Prime Video on June 4, 2021.
This is an incredible film that needs to be seen to be appreciated. Nicholas has left no stone unturned in the making of this film. With over one hundred episodes of documentary, reality and lifestyle television, Nicholas has an eye for talent. The cast is phenomenal and they truly brought his vision to fruition. As his first feature film, the cast and the story combined to create magic and to tell an incredible story rooted in Indigenous culture.
Thunderbird stars Colten Wilke in his first starring role, Natalie Brown (Sophie, Clarice, The Strain, Dark Matter), Julian Black Antelope (Tribal, The Secret History of – The Wild West, Into the West), Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica, Van Helsing, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency), Ava Sleeth (Batwoman, Dead of Summer) and William Belleau (Blackway, Killers of the Flower Moon, Van Helsing). It was produced by Michael Morrison, Colten Wilke, Gabrielle Adelman, and Ben Plamondon.
I had the very unique privilege to speak with both Nicholas Treeshin and Ava Sleeth via Zoom and it was pretty darn amazing!
HNMAG “Nicholas, what was it that inspired this story?”
NICHOLAS “A producer friend of mine had an opportunity to develop a movie. They had some financing and they had some ideas but there were some false starts. At that time, I was working in television and I was looking at projects and getting ready to pick my first feature to make. He had come to me with an opportunity and I looked at what they wanted to do and thought about it. I came back to them and said that I didn’t really want to do it but if I were to do it, this is what I would do. I was thinking of things brewing in the back of my brain – themes, characters, I love a good mystery and I wanted to tell a tale with the Pacific Northwest as a backdrop. I started weaving this thread of a character with a missing sister and a detective with a bit of a disavowed past that have to work together to confront and fix the past. I grew up in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan for junior high and high school. I was really affected by the racism and prejudice that I saw in the smaller towns. We told this story about this little fishing town in the Pacific Northwest, where there is some racial tension, there are some secrets and some mystery. That’s where it started and it was enough to sink my teeth into to get excited. As you know, it takes a long time to make a movie and it’s been a 3 – 4 year process just to get to distribution. I came up with the idea, I pitched it and they went for it.”
HNMAG “Is this the first time you’ve written and directed a feature film?”
NICHOLAS “I knew, for my first feature film that I didn’t want to do anything willy nilly, I wanted to do something that I admire. For a lot of the filmmakers that I admire, their first film is so important, it’s their baby. It’s my first feature film and when it’s indie and you don’t have a lot of money, I just wanted to make sure that it felt right and I was doing something that I cared about.”
HNMAG “Now Ava, how did you get involved in this film?”
AVA “There was an audition in Vancouver and it was pretty interesting to me and I was really excited for it. I had done some dramatic work in the past, such as Dead of Summer, which I really enjoyed. I had gone in and gave it my all and got the callback, I went back and got the part, it was really exciting. I got cast to play the younger version of Will’s sister Sarah. I was in all the flashback scenes with the traumatic experiences and my first encounter with the Thunderbird. That’s how it all started.”
HNMAG “Would you say that you’re pretty good at memorizing your lines and getting into the skin of the character?”
AVA “At that time I was pretty young but I did find it pretty easy. I think, when you’re young, you’re more creative and not afraid to do your own thing. As you get older, I feel like you’re more judgmental of yourself and you stop expressing yourself in different ways. I know when I see myself crying on TV, I think it’s so corny and I’m so judgemental now in comparison to when I was younger. It was easier back then and I would falsend it without any regrets.”
HNMAG “Nicholas, where did you shoot this film?”
NICHOLAS “We shot it in and around Vancouver and Port Hardy and Port Rupert on Vancouver Island. When you don’t have a lot of money, we spent a lot of time location hunting to make sure we found the right spots.”
HNMAG “How long did it take to shoot the film?”
NICHOLAS “In the can I believe it was 21 days. We had some reshoots and pickups but it was 21 days in total.”
HNMAG “I really enjoyed the work you did on creating the Thunderbird. Was that all CGI?”
NICHOLAS “That was a CGI element and I knew what I wanted it to look and sound like and CG seemed to be the only way to go. It was FUSEFX that did it and they’re in Gastown.”
HNMAG “Considering you were much younger in this film, what types of roles interest you now, 4 years later?”
AVA “I’ve never really done anything light-hearted, with the exception of a Lifetime movie about Christmas and there was a lot of smiling, but it felt like a commercial to me and was pretty easy. I’d like to do a more comedic role because I’ve always done very traumatic and depressing characters but I’m not mad about it, I enjoy those roles, they’re very interesting. A comedic role would be nice, fresh and new.”
HNMAG “Have you had any bad nightmares after being in this film, Ava?”
AVA “No, I’ve done a lot of stuff like this, so I just sort of brush it off and have a fun time afterwards to take my mind off things, so it never really affects me.”
HNMAG “Nicholas, is it more challenging to film on a boat in comparison to shooting in the forest?”
NICHOLAS “Definitely on a boat (laughing). We had to change our approach and Alfonso Chin is our very talented cinematographer that made the film look very beautiful. It’s a single camera shoot and we had a certain way we wanted it to look. When you’re on a boat, you have to throw all of that out the window. Instead of swapping lenses, we went with an incredible zoom in order to move fast. When you go out halibut fishing and the waves are bad, apparently they can make you seasick and we could’ve been in big trouble. The Ocean Twilight is a real fishing boat with a halibut quota, so everything was done authentically and almost documentary style. Everything was perfect – the sea was calm and we reeled in 9 halibut that day. We kept saying that the movie gods must be looking down at us on this film because there were so many obstacles every single day on this film that we had to overcome. I would say that shooting on a boat is extremely difficult but the movie gods were kind to us.”
HNMAG “What were negotiations like when shooting on a reservation?”
NICHOLAS “That’s a good question. With any Indigenous culture or First Nation, our first conversation was about asking for cultural guides to ensure that there’s no cultural appropriation. We need full authenticity, so we had an elder from the Squamish First Nation, Latash Nahanee. We also had a hereditary chief in Fort Rupert, so we had support in Port Rupert and in Vancouver. We shot inside an actual longhouse when you see the dancers, the masks and the ceremonies. What you see is very real and we had blessings from elders and the chiefs that allowed us to show these sacred ceremonies. From inception, to script, to production and editing, we had them as guides to ensure we weren’t getting anything wrong. I was very upfront and I wanted to educate myself. I’m a white guy telling a story about a white boy and a white cop with some First Nations elements in it. There have been people that have made mistakes in the past and we didn’t want to be one of them.”
Nicholas adds, “There are so many amazing and talented performers and artists in the Indigenous and First Nations culture in every province and territory. We wanted to put some of that on the screen and let people shine and soar – it was a great collaboration.”
HNMAG “Ava, what did you do to unwind after finishing this film?”
AVA “I feel that going to auditions helps. After an audition, you’re not supposed to hang onto the character or be disappointed if you don’t get the role. You have to be able to practise pushing it aside and forgetting about it. Some people even throw out their scripts and if they get the part, they can just reprint it. I’m pretty good at pushing it away and forgetting about it and just try and have a fun time. Usually, my mom is with me on set, so we’ll sometimes watch videos, something that makes me laugh, that really helps me.”
HNMAG “How supportive is your family on your acting career?”
AVA “They are so supportive and my entire family is very artistic and in notion of me not pursuing college and pursuing my artistic passions. My moms a singer, my dads artistic and my sister is an actor, my brother… is a gamer, but he’s still supportive.”
HNMAG “Now Nicholas, I believe I understand that this film was shot 3 years ago?”
NICHOLAS “I wrote it in early 2017 and we shot it later that summer. That was a really bad forest fire year in Okanogan, so if you notice the hazy skies in the film, that was from the actual smoke.”
HNMAG “How long were you on set, Ava?”
AVA “I got flown out to Port Hardy for I believe, 3 days. It was a long time ago and I’m trying to recall (laughing).”
HNMAG “Was all the cast local to BC, Nicholas?”
NICHOLAS “Natalie Brown who plays the detective, is from Ontario and Julian Black Antelope who plays chief George came in from Calgary, Alberta. Everyone else is from the Vancouver area or the island.”
HNMAG “Is this the first feature film you’ve been in Ava?”
AVA “It is the first feature film.”
HNMAG “Do you feel like this film has opened some doors for you since being in it?”
AVA “A lot of people haven’t seen it yet, but once that happens, I believe those doors will start to open soon.”
NICHOLAS “I can’t say enough about the great job Ava did. The first thing you do when you’re casting young versions of your leads is, you’re looking for a certain look… but then there’s intangible, this magic that happens if you’re lucky enough, and Ava embodied that. When you write something, you have a vision in your mind that you hope will happen. However, when you’re on an indie film, there’s compromises and something goes wrong – but I have so much love for this cast. When you see the cast delivering on the characters that you had in your head when you were writing in your bedroom in your pajamas a year earlier, it’s pretty remarkable. Each and everyone of them brought my vision to life. I loved working with Ava, she was fantastic.”
AVA “You’re also amazing (2 thumbs up).”
Both Nicholas and Ava were amazing to talk to. I wish every interview was as charming, delightful, informative and as passionate as these two. Ok, I’m kidding, they all are! I have the best job in the world, especially when it involves talking to creative and passionate people. Watch Thunderbird and support great Canadian film!