Labeled: The Missing, Murdered, and Forgotten Official Trailer Release
I am extremely proud to announce the trailer for Labeled: The Missing, Murdered, and Forgotten is finally released!
Here is the link if you want to quickly give it a watch. But if you want to take a trip with me into the ‘Making Of’ please read below:
Labeled: The Missing, Murdered, and Forgotten Official Trailer
Synopsis: Labeled: The Missing, Murdered, and Forgotten is a harrowing, intimate journey into the lives of three Indigenous women who were abused, exploited, and harmed during their time in Edmonton’s sex industry.
This documentary provides an in-depth and unfiltered exposé of the intergenerational trauma and racism that many Indigenous people face – trauma which is deeply rooted within Canadian identity – and brings awareness to the 4000+ Women and Girls who are Missing, Murdered and Forgotten across Canada.
Now that the trailer has been released, I can give some insight into how this episode came to be.
As many of you might know, Labeled as a docuseries is eight episodes following Andrea Heinz, a former dominatrix and escort who spent 7 years in Edmonton’s licensed commercial sex industry. In 2010, Heinz was invited to travel to Las Vegas by a wealthy surgeon. After being stopped and interrogated at the border, she was documented as a ‘prostitute’ and issued a ban from the United States of America. Since exiting the sex trade in 2013, she is now a wife, a mother of three, and an outspoken activist against the industry. The series captures Andrea’s fight to have the US Government lift her ban and remove her label so that she can take their children to Disneyland.
Labeled pulls back the curtain and offers a comprehensive in-depth look into the sex industry. The series takes the viewer on an unforgettable journey into the nuanced topic of commercial sex from an economical, emotional, and social standpoint. Each episode examines specific aspects of an often-hidden world. Interviews include current and former sellers and buyers, politicians, police, advocates, family members, and more.
In December 2019 I was brought on to direct, write, produce (and ended up doing pretty much everything else along the way) this series. As of March 2020, we had compiled about 30+ interviews and about 40 shooting days. These included: Juanita, April Eve, and Kathy King (all of whom appear in Chapter Five). What started as a short film about Andrea’s life turned into something much larger than I could have imagined (and it got even bigger by the end in 2023).
When COVID and lockdowns hit in March 2020, I made this project my priority. The transcribed interviews started to roll in and I started to hone in on the entire story. A daunting task but a challenge I was ready to tackle head-on.
The A story was obvious (Andrea’s story). But how would I weave all these other interviews and plot points into the narrative? The pieces of the puzzle were there but I wasn’t sure how it would look just yet.
During the interview portion of production, I noticed certain themes developing and I really started to work MMIWG related questions into the conversations I was having. And then, once I was diving into the interviews, the structure became clearer by the day and major themes began to emerge even further. One of the biggest light bulb moments was Episode 5 (or now called Chapter Five: The Missing, Murdered, and Forgotten).
Five is essentially our halfway point. And where we leave off in Chapter Four, we have the flexibility for – I don’t want to say a ‘bottle episode’ – but more of a one-off under the Labeled banner. Initially, there wasn’t really a plan to make it a one-off, but more it would weave into the overall story in some kind of way.
Side Note: If Labeled were to be picked up for a Season Two I envision it being more of these one-off individual stories.
However, once I went through Juanita, April Eve, and Kathy King’s interviews I knew it was imperative and of the utmost importance to separate them from the other storylines and make the entire focus of the episode Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. As well, within the framework of their stories, issues of racism, sexism, and colonialism are explored, showing the ways in which they intersect to create additional layers of risk and hardship for those in the commercial sex industry. I felt like doing it this way was absolutely necessary. Thankfully when I pitched it to the rest of the team they were fully supportive and backed my plan.
From there, I felt we needed to start the episode with a traditional honour song (the honour song you hear in the trailer) which was performed beautifully by Janice Randhile. This was filmed at the Indigenous Peoples Experience at Fort Edmonton Park (I highly recommend checking it out if you are in the area). We were also invited to film the MMIWG Convoy that took place in Edmonton that year. And lastly, I finished up the production side of things with a few stylized recreations to help add a visual component to the story (the entire Labeled Docuseries has stylized recreations throughout).
With the guidance and assistance of several Elders, the episode was put together and has been entered in several festivals in hopes of raising awareness to this tragedy.
For me, this is about recognizing the 4000+ Missing Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada. This is something ALL Canadians need to see. It is an extremely heavy topic, but change doesn’t come without having these difficult conversations. I know my eyes are opened and my hope with this episode is that it raises awareness and opens the public’s eyes to the atrocities and injustices happening to Indigenous Women and Girls in this country. This is a call to action. There needs to be change. And I hope this film is the catalyst for that much needed change.
Thank you to our incredible team in front and behind the camera and everyone that assisted along the way. And, thank you to everyone who spoke for your courage, strength, and bravery in sharing your life with us. Your truths deserve to be told and I am truly grateful to help share those truths with the world.
