Cottage Life Television Sneak Peek! Life as they know it

The recipe is simple. Take the remote North, add some extreme weather and near-24-hour winter darkness, toss in a few nerve-racking experiences and a splash or two of danger…and you’ll serve up some good TV. Life Below Zero Canada—a new documentary series premiering in March—follows five Canadians in Northern Ontario, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. They hunt, trap, fish, and earn a living in some of the toughest-to-handle (and toughest-to-film) locations in the country. “It’s a very, very unforgiving environment,” says Paul Kilback, one of the show’s directors. “Out there, everything is stripped down. It’s cold and it’s hard.” But, as he points out, “that’s what makes it worth it.”

Behind the scenes

Director Paul Kilback spent time on the set of the original U.S. version of the show—a BBC Worldwide production filmed in Alaska—in November of 2018, before the production team began searching for cast members. They used film crew was a lean one (usually only Kilback and two others). Sometimes, they hired local help—a river guide; a cook. “We didn’t want to bring in someone else when someone local could do it,” he says. Plus, “the safest place to be anywhere is with local people. They know when the situation is serious, and when it’s nothing to worry about,” says Kilback. “I only ever got worried when they got worried.”