New filmed-in-Hamilton show ‘Wild Child’ pits young people against wilderness

In school, in the last century, I learned how to calculate the area of a cone in geometry class, a skill which has stood me in good stead as my life has so often depended on being able to area-fy a cone . . . wait, I've never had to; not once.

Start a fire? I wish they'd taught me to do THAT.

The kids 11 to 15 in the new show Wild Child" on Bell Fibe TV learned to start their own fire; actually they taught themselves.

They taught themselves how to survive in wilderness, paddle a canoe, develop knife skills, bait a fishing line, then catch a bass (catch and release), pitch a tent . . . and commmmmuuuunicate.

Wild Child" is a fun and very instructive show, set at Valens Lake Conservation Area in Hamilton, that pits (playfully) five teams of two (teams are identified by colour, and you can tell by their T-shirts) against each other as they strive to conquer outdoor challenges, usually within time limits.

Yes, they're outdoors and somewhat isolated but this is not about the schadenfreude of watching people writhe in extreme situations. The kids, all from the Hamilton area, have flares and life lines," if they need help but they generally don't, though the show also features simulated emergencies, like injuries and rescues.

Aside from that, they do encounter real obstacles - tents that won't come together quite right, a canoe that wants to spear itself into a shoreline or a bridge strut as the paddlers, who have no experience with canoes, frantically attempt to correct course.

You will find yourself smiling the whole time and wondering if you could do any better.

Wild Child" is the brainchild of producers Nathan Fleet (see story on creation of new Hamilton film school) and Jeremy Major, and, says Nathan, it was the perfect format to emerge from the pandemic, with its lockdowns, driving people outdoors to socialize because they couldn't in enclosed spaces.

One day in 2020 my daughter and my nephew came back from an outing to a storm water pond and they'd actually caught a fish in a butterfly net," Nathan recalls.

Like many families, Nathan's spent more time outdoors and relating to nature during lockdowns than they ever had before.

All of this sparked the idea for the show, Nathan took it to colleague Jeremy Major and before they knew it, they had teams, they had on-air nature expert and safety adviser Max Francis and they had Indigenous host Rylan Bomberry all ready to shoot.

There are all kinds of challenges in the show," says Nathan. One was for them to make art of their favourite animal by using materials they find on the forest floor."

In one episode, the kids' parents are brought in to see how their offspring are faring.

There is also a very unique land acknowledgment that is done in the first episode," says Nathan. It was written by (Mohawk/Ojibway filmmaker and producer) Cher Obediah. The words are meant to be as meaningful as I love you' to the land."

Aside from all of the instruction and entertainment, the show features some beautiful shots and footage of Hamilton wilderness and nature scenes. The show's executive producer Fred Fuchs, who helped revive The Westdale, helped get permission from the Hamilton Conservation Authority to shoot the show at Valens.

Nathan says the show is generating a lot of interest as it is marketed to other countries, and there is a group in Australia who love the format and might try to licence it for use in that country.

The Wild Child" episodes can be viewed on Bell Fibe TV, available to Bell subscribers.

Visit www.wildchild.tv for streaming and ticket information.

Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator.jmahoney@thespec.com