Tantoo Cardinal narrates Water Worlds the first Indigenous underwater exploration docuseries to air in Canada
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While most climate stories are foreboding in nature, documentarian Len Morissette chose to find the silver lining among the dark clouds.
For over a decade Morissette, with his company CIA Solutions, has filmed and produced over 200 commercials and films, as well as music videos including creating documentaries about and for First Nations across Canada. But Water Worlds is his first TV series. The project was made even more daunting by the fact he was going to shoot a lot of it underwater. Suddenly, issues like atmospheric conditions, water clarity, currents and depths were part of the production puzzle.
“Will the fish show up that day?” said Morissette with a chuckle when talking about the challenges of working in the watery wilds.
The journey spreads from a discussion about microplastics in Newfoundland, to here in B.C. and the vital waterways in Metro Vancouver. The show also heads to Haida Gwaii and the Comox Valley.
“It really just came down to following the journey, the spirit of water,” said Morissette, who lived in Vernon before moving to Grande Prairie in 2000.
After “a ton” of research, Morissette decided to break down the story into “bite-sized pieces,” which in the end, are satisfying and accessible ways to digest this big story.
“Keep it simple, right? Because when people use the terms climate change, and, you know, environmental impacts — it’s such a broad conversation. It’s like, OK, what are we exactly talking about?” said Morissette. “Then, the journey just happened to work out to where I was able to dissect each system and keep it really simple and infuse the two knowledges together. And sort of put that forward to: this is where we’re at, and this is what people are doing about it.”
The series is narrated in both English and Cree by iconic Cree-Metis actor Tantoo Cardinal (Killers of the Flower Moon, Echo, Dances with Wolves). Cardinal, who grew up in Anzac, Alta., near Fort McMurray, grew up with her grandmother who spoke Cree in the house. But Cardinal says she was discouraged against speaking the language outside of the home. So, when Morissette reached out to her to do this project and to do it in her native Cree, the veteran actor jumped on board.
“I was discouraged from speaking it, so I never had confidence in my sentence structure or the sophistication of my words,” said Cardinal, who worked with Cree speakers during the project. “We did have interpreters, and then I was able to voice the Cree, and so much was enlivened. Words that I didn’t know still existed in my head. There was a lot of Cree that was sitting around in my head that had a chance to be remembered.”
Language aside, Cardinal said she was also drawn to the series because she cares deeply about environmental issues and she, like Morissette, wants to see the spotlight shine on changemakers and show the world that contributions of all sizes can help, even on an issue as large as the climate crisis.
“Once people feel they have a contribution to make, then they can kind of turn up their own way of going and learn more. And, you know that once there’s an openness, then there’s more possibility for information to flow. And the more people that we have feeling like, oh, I can do something, then the better off we are,” said Cardinal.
In the end, the series stands as an example of the power of people. And a reminder that small actions can lead to big change.
“I hope people walk away from it going, OK, I may not be able to change the big things in my life, but I can change the small things around me, within my myself, my community,” said Morissette. “It’s really just starting to think about, like, what’s affecting my area? And then, if we do that together, it clicks together like Lego. And it creates that change.”