Behind the scenes with DNA detectives

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This article was published 10/07/2022 (1178 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Long-held family secrets solved through DNA testing and the impact of previously unknown family ties on Manitobans’ lives — that’s the subject of an upcoming docuseries by a boutique local film and television production company.

Winnipeg’s Black Watch Entertainment is bringing the stories of Paternity Testing Centers of Canada clients — mostly Manitobans — to the screen.

The show, entitled Secrets, Lies & DNA Ties, is filming now, and a few twists to the usual occupational documentary format give it potential to be juicy and compelling viewing.

“Secrets, Lies & DNA Ties is a show full of twists and turns, highs and lows, and awesome moments between clients and the DNA team,” Black Watch founder and show executive producer Meghan Duffy says during a recent midday filming break at the downtown Winnipeg set. “It’s a show I’m really proud of.”

That’s not too shabby of an elevator pitch — Duffy’s an industry veteran, after all. But more explanation is needed to fully understand how the show has progressed from a 2016 idea into reality.

Duffy — from first impressions, a dynamic, radiant sort — was born in Winnipeg and founded Black Watch in 2010 after several years producing in other cities.

She graduated from Red River College’s (as it was known at the time) Creative Communications program in 2008 and worked on Entertainment Tonight in Toronto, then on Dragon’s Den, then on Season 1 of Shark Tank in Los Angeles.

Finally, she traded The City of Angels for The Queen City, helping launch CTV Morning Live in Regina, but always knew she was eventually going to come back home.

It was after this mother of three had her second child — daughter Annie — that she reassessed what Black Watch should be. She’s excited about how Secrets, Lies & DNA Ties represents a new direction for her company.

“I wanted to work smarter, not harder, and there’s a lot of great creative people in Manitoba, so rather than just producing everyone else’s content, I wanted to produce my own content,” she explains. “I am the epitome of a working mom. My kids normally are on set. I call them ‘set kids.’”

Black Watch used to do “service production,” she says, producing commercials for Bauer, Bell MTS, Nike, Telus, in addition to TV programs. Duffy illustrates the term with a hypothetical phone call.

“Basically, Hallmark calls, they say, ‘Meghan can you produce this movie,’ I say, ‘Sure no problem,’ they say, ‘Here’s your fee, here’s the delivery date,’ I make the movie and deliver it back.”

The company gets no creative say in this type of arrangement, tough for Duffy who says she is a creative person “at the core.”

“You can’t control what the writing says, or who the director is, who I want to cast. We are a very creative office, we are a very creative team, and I love being creative… I am half producer, half creative producer. I think that has gotten Black Watch to where we are today.”

Secrets, Lies & DNA Ties’ foundation is the relationship between Duffy and the two women who own Paternity Testing Centers of Canada (branded as “DNA Confidential” for the show’s purposes.)

That’s Duffy’s older sister Ali St. Claire and Duffy’s close friend of more than 15 years, Carla Foley. St. Claire and Foley have been 50/50 business partners and DNA sample collectors for 10 years.

St. Claire explains she and Foley are just the team of collectors, not the actual lab processing samples. They have 50-plus subcontractors across Canada who collect samples on behalf of their company.

“We decided we wanted to make a TV show as a team, and I said, ‘Let’s do it on DNA,’ after seeing their clients and hearing their stories and realizing that this is going be a great show,” Duffy says.

St. Claire and Foley recall events slightly differently, saying they pitched it when they, around the same time, appeared on Dragon’s Den in 2016.

“Meghan said, ‘Hey, let me take this and run with it,’” St. Claire says.

Slight discrepancies in the origin story aside, Duffy soon got to polishing the idea with executive producers across North America and St. Claire and Foley began asking their clients who underwent testing — some to find a lost loved one, some to prove different familial relationships, some to prove inheritance — if they’d like to be featured in an episode.

Eventually, “we just locked it in and we love it,” Duffy says. “It’s a game-changer.”

The debut season will be 13 hour-long episodes, with two DNA stories featured in each. Despite not being professional actors, St. Claire and Foley are the stars of the show, presenting the tale “Vanna White-style,” Duffy says, adding they are very natural.

Filming is slated to wrap in September, with the show planned to debut next spring on Super Channel in Canada and Twist in the U.S.

“I would say that I am very much the business side of things, and for sure spicy in a good way,” Foley says. “I like organization, and for things to run smooth.”

“We take our job and responsibility very seriously, but it’s amazing what types of people we meet, and the situations that come up. We have met some interesting characters. There is a time to be fun, and there is a time to get to work.”

“What I bring to the table is care and compassion and sensitivity for my clients. Sure I can be funny, but at the end of the day what we do is not a joke, and the issues are heavy and we take our jobs very seriously,” St. Claire says. “Yes — Carla is more spicy; I would say I am more compassionate, if you needed a word to describe me.”

Rounding out the principal cast is receptionist Mitch McOuat — he’s “very over the top and hilarious,” Meghan says — and security guard Tunde Tokunboh, who “is very compassionate and a little more serious because he has to be.”

McOuat “always makes sure to add a little sunshine,” St. Claire says, and Tokunboh “always has our back.”

The necessity of a security guard is due to each episode’s ending — a good old-fashioned reveal.

Each client is presented their DNA results for the first time on camera, which captures their immediate and unfiltered response. Tokunboh is there due to the uncertainty as to how someone might react to life-changing results.

Some DNA results are “really happy and positive and very exciting,” while others are “heartbreaking and really sad,” Duffy says.

“Either way, the news is going to change your life forever — It’s going to change it for the better, or it’s going to change it for the worse. Ali and Carla are there with them through the whole experience, which makes it a little bit better,” she continues.

A heart for others is important in the DNA testing industry, all three women say. One thing that strikes the reporter is just how nice these women are.

“Try telling a father his three kids aren’t his, or telling a mother that you’ve found her adopted daughter through a DNA match but she wants nothing to do with you,” Duffy says. “The best thing Ali and Carla can do is help people through the process as compassionately and sensitively as possible and I think that’s why their clients love them.”

While Foley and St. Claire are not trained therapists, and have a network of professionals to refer clients to, they are very hands-on and act as a “bridge” to families.

“We give them comfort and safety; we also become close to them as we go through this, and hear their amazing stories,” Foley says. “We feel so grateful that they feel safe to share this information with us — it’s very moving. There has been much laughter and many tears over the years. Not every ending turns out to be a happy one, but we do our best to make everyone feel safe and taken care of.”

“It’s not always easy. We don’t always give out great news but we do it with grace and compassion and with love,” St. Claire says.

Duffy wants viewers to be entertained by Secrets, Lies & DNA Ties, of course, but also wants some to act.

“I hope that when people see the show it might spark them to say, ‘You know what, I want to find my family too,’ and maybe they’ll pick up the phone and talk to Ali and Carla and maybe Ali and Carla can help them find their family.”

“I hope that our viewers get strength to share their own stories, or to have the courage to start moving toward closure on things they haven’t been able to face,” Foley says.

“I am hoping that it will cause someone watching — who maybe is looking for their family or has a desire to, (someone) feeling lost, and alone, and like they don’t have the answers — to know that it’s OK,” St. Claire says. “Hopefully this show will inspire them to get up, and search and know there may be someone out there looking for them, too.”

One of the Manitobans featured in an episode agrees.

“I can’t wait to see the results of all the stories that will be presented,” Carole Williams writes in an email. “Hopefully others who have similar situations will realize that they are not alone and maybe one day will be able to sit down and share their story and perhaps get the closure that they need.”

Williams, a 78-year-old retiree who lives year-round at Grindstone Provincial Park, has already been through filming. The mother of three, grandmother of eight, and great grandmother of four says she originally underwent DNA testing to find out who her birth father was (she was adopted at three months old) and also for medical reasons, but what she discovered was more than she bargained for.

Williams’s story is quite remarkable, and the reporter would love nothing less than to relay it all in detail, but that would sort of spoil the show, wouldn’t it? To be cryptic, she discovered she has another half-sibling, but says they are “so much alike” she has a hunch they may be more.

She has connected with and visited this sibling, who was born in 1950 and lives in Ontario.

“To say the least I was quite shocked to find (the results,) Williams says. “There are still moments when I find it hard to believe all that has happened, but for me it’s a happy time.”

Williams says she found St. Claire and Foley very professional, helpful, likeable and personable. She was initially hesitant when approached, but then thought sharing her story onscreen might convince others who have given some thought to getting their DNA tested to follow through.

“Just maybe it could help get the answers that they are seeking and give them some closure,” she says.

“It was a whole new experience to be in front of the cameras giving my life story, but I enjoyed it. To say the least it can be very exhausting. I have to give kudos to the whole team as they were terrific to work with and made my experience memorable — one I will not forget.”

“It’s been exciting, and also very exhausting, and eye-opening,” Foley says of the filming process. “I had no idea how a show was run, and also how it gets filmed. It’s an experience for sure.”

“This experience, although new and sometimes exhausting, has been amazing and worth every second,” St. Claire agrees. “We get to work with some of the most talented directors in the world and I mean, who gets this lucky?”

Duffy’s vision for Black Watch is that they continue to produce original scripted and unscripted series 100 per cent in-house. They are also currently shooting a true crime program called Finally Caught.

“We’re small and hearty and thoughtful,” Duffy says of Black Watch, which employs about 80 people between the two shows currently in production. “Coming to set and seeing my team and seeing Ali and Carla, it’s kind of like a dream come true for all of us, because we’ve worked so hard to get here.”

In addition to more episode subjects for Secrets, Lies & DNA Ties, Duffy wants ideas from Manitobans.

“We have an open door policy, so if someone has a great story and they want to share it, come by our office,” she says. “Call us, email us, walk in the door… we love pitches.”

declan.schroeder@winnipegfreepress.com