Return to Fort Salem

The world premiere of Magic took place at The Watershed in Bristol, UK on Sunday July 6^th 2025.

It was in the Queer Visions Festival, which is part of Bristol Pride.

It was written and directed by Dominique Provost – Chalkley, who attended the festival in her role as the film’s creator.

The lead character is Jo, played by Motherland’s Taylor Hickson.  Dom stars as the title character, Magic.  This is a real case of when fandoms collide.  Two leading actors who already have big queer followings now getting to star opposite each other.  This was dynamite.

It is set in London, so we get to hear Taylor performing with a British accent.  Pretty good, although I am sure there was a little bit of Raelle Collar in there too. 

The film opens with Jo performing at a gig, which she is filming on her phone for her followers.  We later learn that Jo was once a contestant on The Voice, so she does have a significant number of followers. 

This photo, which had been released in advance, is from the opening seconds of the film, showing Jo performing at her gig. 

Then Magic comes into the bar, takes a seat and their eyes meet across a crowded room.

After the performance, Jo comes to the bar.  Magic is drinking water.  Magic starts to chat Jo up.  This is a lovely scene, warm, funny, adorable.  Exactly the sort of scene that would inspire a multitude of fanfics.  Magic’s chat up lines could do with a bit of work!  But they do eventually connect and leave the bar for somewhere more private. 

Now they can talk and start to get to know each other.  They decide to leave there and go to the shore.  This is London, so we don’t have beaches, but we do have the River Thanes, which is tidal, so we have low tide places and this is where Jo and Magic go. 

Jo is always on her phone and Magic is encouraging her to put it away and just experience life right now. 

Down on the shore, Magic gets lunch out of their bag.  Jo is surprised that anyone has that much food in their bag.  Lunch is water and vegetarian food.  Magic is quite happy eating their slice of watermelon, but Jo is less enthusiastic about eating her carrot. 

Jo has her guitar with her, from the gig, and asks Magic if they play.  Magic says yes and gets Jo’s guitar out of its case.  Magic starts to play the guitar and then sings.  After a little while, Jo and Magic do a duet.  Their voices compliment each other beautifully. 

Switches have been wanting more music from Taylor and this film delivers.  Taylor had sung two songs in episodes of Motherland and they were on the Motherland soundtrack albums.  I believe all the songs were written by Dom, but the music credits page of the closing credits went by too fast to read all the credits.  I wanted to freeze the screening and read it, but not possible.

After singing, they notice the tide is coming in and they need to get out of there, but the bottom of the access ramp is underwater, so they decide to climb the railing.  This is just physical comedy.  Magic gets over the top of the railing, but Jo decides to go through the gaps in the railing.  No words, just funny. 

They go to the bus stop.  Magic is going to hitch hike, which Jo is not happy about.  Hitch hiking goes with Magic’s view of life, living in the moment, not being connected.  Then the bus comes.

There is a promo trailer for Queer Vision 2025 which includes a clip from Magic, with Jo.  This comes at the end of the film.  The clip from Magic is at about the 10 second mark.   Available to watch at 

After the films, there was a networking event with the film creators.  I and some other fans, got the chance to talk to Dom in person.     What a lovely person.

Now we need a full length version of this film – the story of Jo and Magic has a lot of mileage in it.  We also need Dom and Taylor at a convention together.

And, just to make clear, yes, there was something for Amalia to be jealous about.  Raylla fans will get the reference, but for everyone else, watch the Motherland After The Storm ep – around the two minute mark.

I want to watch this again and I want a full length version.  I hope Dom and Taylor are able to give this to us. It was just pure Magic.

Of all the locations, Riverview is my favourite.  It is Fort Salem.    I love that it is a public park and anyone can go and visit it for free.  Address: Riverview Hospital,  2601 Lougheed Hwy. Coquitlam, BC V3C 4J2

I went there by bus from Braid station.  Normally I go from Coquitlam, but this time I was at a different starting point.  That meant that I got off the bus at a different stop – Fern Terrace, just down the hill from West Terrace building.  As I was walking towards the main filming area, I came across a site map!  It was just a bit of path that I had clearly missed before, but this was what I wanted.  All of Riverview laid out and labelled.  I wish I had found this 2 years ago because one of the things I had realised in planning this trip was that I had found a lot of places on the site, but didn’t always know where they were in relation to each other. 

The most important buildings are numbers 5, 6 and 8.  As you look at the picture below, the buildings at the top of the picture are at the top of the hill, going down to number 8 at the bottom of the hill.

Number 5 is the Centre Lawn Building, better known to Motherland fans as the Operations Building.  Previous blog at Operations Building https://returntofortsalem.com/2023/09/23/vancouver-pilgrimage-fort-salem-operations/

Number 6 is the East Lawn Building, better known as General Alder’s Office.  Previous blog at General Alder’s Office https://returntofortsalem.com/2023/09/23/vancouver-pilgrimage-fort-salem-gen-alder/

Number 8 is the Crease Unit, better known as Circe Barracks.  Previous blog at Circe Barracks https://returntofortsalem.com/2023/09/24/vancouver-pilgrimage-circe-barracks/

The site map also allowed me to find the Industrial Services Building that was used to film the Mycelium room where the Mother Mycelium was.  This was building number 3.  I was finally able to go to that building.  Clearly not somewhere I could get inside, but that was true of all the buildings. 

I had found the ‘Hey Camarilla’ filming stie, but hadn’t noted where it was, now I was able to refind it at the back of General Alder’s Office (#6).

The covered walkway that we see the Unit pass is at the east end of Alder’s Office (East Lawn Building). 

The fake wall around Fort Salem was easily breached by the Camarilla because it was only a metre or two wide on each side of the road.  This is at the western approach to the Operations Building (Centre Lawn Building). 

Even the noticeboard was changed for the occasion.

I also discovered an easier way to find the Raylla tree and the trees around there. 

Blog from my previous visit is at Raylla tree  https://returntofortsalem.com/2023/09/25/vancouver-pilgrimage-the-raylla-tree-and-other-living-stuff/

Previously, I had found it by going to the end of the Crease Building (Circe Barracks, where the Unit met Hearst and the Witch Plague).

Then walk down the path to the Samhain bonfires.

Cross over to the opposite of the (bonfire) clearing and enter the trees. 

This time I found the easy way.  Find the bus stop at Fern Terrace – just down the hill from West Lawn Building.  Stop number 53454.

Cross the road.  It is the tree on the left of this photo.

Then just walk under the tree canopy.

A very special tree indeed. 

However it is true that Riverview is a place that needs money spending on it to maintain it.   I know that the East and Centre Lawn Buildings are closed because of asbestos and unsafe flooring and it is proposed to sell them and the West Lawn Building may get demolished.  The set designers for Motherland made sure that the buildings looked in perfect condition.  Sadly, this is not always the case in the years since filming.

Even the grounds could do with some more attention. 

Whatever happens to the buildings, this is always Fort Salem and the magic is there.  If you get the chance to visit it, take it.  So many memories, just walking around it.  This will always be a Witches’ place.

Camp Howdy was the main filming location for Motherland’s episode 3.07 She Returns.  It was one of the sites that I wasn’t able to get to on my first trip and I was very pleased to finally get there.  It was one of my top 5 must-visit sites. 

Address 3000 Camp Howdy Rd, Belcarra BC, V3H 4S3  

It is currently undergoing a reconstruction programme and is not fully open to the public.  The owner generously gave us permission to visit and take photos.  He also arranged for a member of staff to meet us there and show us around.  This was the person who handled filming liaison, including Motherland. 

The reconstruction work is creating a new café onsite, repurposing one of the original buildings.  I believe it is intended for this to be open next year.  It has already created a fine dining experience, which was open in the winter evenings.  The globes were used as dining pods and illuminated to give a magical feel to the place. 

This magical feel (their words) included tree lighting and a horse and carriage made out of lights.  We were there in daylight so didn’t get the full effect.  But these were something that I would have really loved to see lit up at night. 

It is not easy to get to Camp Howdy.  There is no public transport that goes near there.  It is accessible by road, but some parts are quite steep and might not be advisable in bad weather.  You can also get there by ferry, ferries were laid on especially for the dining evenings. 

The renovation work has not significantly affected the parts of the site that we wanted to see.    There have been some changes, such as the benches moved to make way for the dining pods.

The benches still exist, but are now in less strategic parts of the grounds.

There had been a wedding at the premises, which is why some of the decorations from the wedding were still in place when we visited.   This is a popular site for weddings.  And also popular for filming.  This was yet another location that had been used to film Yellowjackets as well as Motherland. 

Some places were clearly filmed very cleverly to get just the right look.  This Tally and Scylla scene was filmed by the chimney. 

During filming for Yellowjackets, there was some alteration made to the side window.  This was left permanently. 

Curtains were used to hide a lot of things.  Apparently the curtains had been installed for filming and they proved so useful that they kept them in place.  In Motherland, we always see the curtains closed.  It hides the fact that the kitchens were directly behind. 

We couldn’t go into the kitchen, but could take photos.  It looked a lot tidier when they were filming.  But that is true of many of the locations that we saw.  Strategic clutter only, seems to be normal.

This is where Raelle returned. 

The chandelier proved to be quite a feature of the room.  It is a very good multi-purpose space. 

And when they couldn’t use curtains to cover something up, the banners proved to be very effective covers too.  This one is covering up the fire exit.  Just taking away from things that would distract the viewer from the scene.

Camp Howdy is an impressive place.  It is well worth a visit.  I would love to see it in darkness, when it is all lit up for evening dining.  It does have a magic of its own.

Very glad I finally got to see it.

The Delusional Cabins

Yes, there are two of them.  The exterior scenes were filmed at a different place from where the interior scenes were filmed.  We only see the exterior of the cabin in episode 2.08, but we see the interior in episodes 2.06, 2.07 and 2.08. 

The interior scenes were filmed at Murdo Frazer Cabin, Address: 2720 Pemberton Avenue, North Vancouver, V7R 3X5. This is a public park and free to visit. 

The exterior scenes were filmed at Panter Paintball  19022 16 Ave, Surrey, BC V3S 9V2

When I first visited Vancouver, I visited the Murdo Frazer Cabin (Caretaker’s Cottage).  That story is told at https://returntofortsalem.com/2023/10/18/vancouver-pilgrimage-delusional-cabin/

At that time there was a lot of renovation going on and I couldn’t get close enough to see the interior.  I assumed that any differences were due to the renovation works. 

In particular, there should have been a tree right where the fence was.   But the cabin itself looked right.

However, after I got home and was posting about visiting the cabin, I was contacted by another fan who said that the cabin was at Panther Paintball and she and some other Switches had visited it.   

This meant a lot more research.  At first, I thought that they couldn’t both be right. I found some behind the scenes photos of the Core Four filming the cabin scenes from Delusional.  That was a perfect match to the place that I had visited.  

In the end, the most defining part was actually the front step.  In the behind the scenes shots, it is one thick step, with a brick path leading up to it.  In the external shots, it is two thick steps.  Yes, I have watched those scenes many, many times. 

Before we even got to the cabin, there was a new plaque that had been put there as part of the renovation work.  It references the filming done there and includes Motherland in the list of shows filmed there. 

Sadly, we weren’t able to go inside the cabin, but it was possible to see inside through one of the windows and see the distinctive fireplace.  Getting a photo was entirely another matter.   This was the best that I could do.

Sadly, we weren’t able to get permission to visit Panther Paintball.  So I can’t comment on that.

By sheer coincidence, the week were in Vancouver visiting Motherland Filming sites coincided with Emilie Leclerc being in a play, Ce Que Je Sais De Vrai. In English this is What I Know Is True.  So naturally, we bought tickets for the show.  It was quite fitting that the show is in French, as not only is Canada a bilingual country, but French is Emilie’s first language.

We reached out to Emilie and she offered to meet us after the show.

Even getting to the play was a Motherland adventure.  About 3 blocks form the theatre, we passed Alder St.  Of course, I had to get photos.  General Alder gets everywhere.

The website for the play is https://seizieme.ca/fr/spectacles/ce-que-je-sais-de-vrai/ which includes a series of rehearsal photos.  Emilie is in some of these. 

The play was at La Seizieme theatre, which is a French cultural centre.  This is the advertising board for the play.

This is the cultural centre where the performance takes place.  As well as a performance space, there is a French language library and bookshop as well as youth services and community outreach. 

Emilie’s bio for the performance mentions Motherland. 

It is about a family.  The parents and their four adult children.  Emilie plays the elder daughter.   They try to come to terms with a number of unexpected crises and tragedies, which challenge them individually and as a family.  It was originally an Australian play, but was translated into French and the action moved to Vancouver. 

The performance was in French, but they had English surtitles.  This was the first time that I had experienced surtitles and I was very impressed.  I wear hearing aids and I struggle with going to the theatre because I often cannot hear well enough to follow what the characters are saying.  Surtitles solve that.  I want more British theatres to adopt surtitles as standard. 

We met Emilie afterwards and got some photos with her.  I was very surprised, she remembered that we had met before.  She even remembered where it was – Witchbomb. 

It was good to meet her and chat about Motherland.  It is clearly a show she loves and has very positive memories of.  She would love to be invited to do more conventions. 

The Camarilla headquarters in episode 2.07 is at  6900 256 Street, Langley, British Columbia V4W 1T9

This is how we see it on screen, just before Adil uses his Tarim work to destroy the building.

It is a real building, but the on screen shot is a composite of the building and a completely separate field.  In reality it is located beside a railway track.  It is now a historic site. 

We met the owners of the building, who gave us permission to take photos and go on their land.  The building is one of the historic electricity substations used to power the interurban railways.  The railway track is still in use, albeit not very frequently.  We were warned about the possibility of a train, but we didn’t encounter one. 

This is the building itself. 

And the railway in front.

The owners said that the building had been used many times by film crews and had appeared on lots of shows.  They asked about it on Motherland and we said that it got destroyed.  That seemed to amuse them, it seems to be a common fate for the building.  They told about it being filmed for Supernatural.  The Supernatural people blew it up too. 

In the onscreen shot, the building appears to have a red door.  The owners said that the door used to be that colour but was repainted, and agreed that it would have still been red when it was used to film Motherland.

Hunting for General Alder Part 2

Another filming site at the University of British Columbia was Cecil Green Park House.  Address is Cecil Green Park House 6251 Cecil Green Park Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1X8.  Their website is at

Incomparable

Cecil Green Park House | Weddings Events Filming Vancouver (ubc.ca)

I knew the Circe Barracks common room was filmed here.  This is from one of the production notes that I managed to get hold of.

We found this room almost as soon as we walked into the building. 

The lighting is different and the army symbol is not over the fireplace.  This is where it was. The building is often rented out for functions, so the rooms are usually kept empty of furniture.

Once we knew we were in the right room, it was possible to match up some of the iconic scenes with their place in the room.

It was here that we first met Anacostia.  The windows haven’t changed, and nor have the curtains.

However, the army sign is not above the fireplace. 

The porch that Raelle walked along to get to Anacostia after getting in trouble for meeting Scylla is just outside the window.

I knew the common room was there, but the very next room was very familiar as well. 

The cadet dining room, the scene of so many powerful scenes, particularly in season 1.  Such as the confrontations between Abigail and Raelle, the Generals stealing the coffee before the pageant, Adil’s breakfast

The cereal dispensers and coffee machines were in an alcove in this room. 

Even the original fireplace was on screen at times, like this scene from Motherland episode 1.07.

On returning home, I had another hunt through production notes and came across this, which I had missed earlier.  It does say that the dining room is at Cecil Green Park House. 

I am sure that the back porch has been used to film something on Motherland, but I can’t immediately identify the scene(s).  Any excuse will do for a rewatch!

But there was one puzzle still to solve.  According to the production notes I did have with me, General Alder’s Office was filmed at Cecil Green Park House too.  But we couldn’t match it up with anything that we were seeing.  We talked to the staff and showed them the pictures.  They didn’t recognise it either, so they called someone else to come and talk to us about it.

The person who came had been the liaison with the filming crew.  He told us that Motherland had filmed there often.  He hadn’t met any of the cast, just production people.  The University staff are not around during filming, just a safety officer.  We showed him the pictures and he recognised them immediately.  They were not taken there, but were at Hycroft Manor.  So, we went to Hycroft next, in search of General Alder’s Office. 

Address: Hycroft Manor.  1489 McRae Ave V6H 1T7.  It is the headquarters of the University Women’s Club and is a building with a long and rich history. 

Production notes, for General Alder’s Office.

We went to Hycroft and talked to the manager on duty and said why we had come.  She recognised immediately where the photos had been taken.  She took us on a tour of the building to see the filming locations. 

These are the windows seen behind Alder’s desk.

This is the alcove opposite Alder’s desk, seen in the second production photo. 

The glass doors at the end of the room are significant.  The production set designers coated the door windows, to make the frosted.  The idea was that General Alder would have a private office, rather than one where everyone could see in at all times. 

When they finished filming, the production department gave the Hycroft management the choice that the set designers could remove the frosting or leave it in place.  The Hycroft management decided that they liked the privacy option and said the door frosting could stay.  This is another example of changes made for the filming of Motherland, which have become permanent.

Hycroft, we were told, was used quite often as a filming location.  We were taken to the main staircase.  The carpet on the main staircase had been put in by the makers of the film Catwoman for Halle Berry to walk down.  After the scenes were filmed, the film company had no use for the carpet, so that stayed permanently.  I couldn’t resist walking down Catwoman’s stair carpet.

The University of British Columbia proved a rich hunting ground for finding General Alder. 

On my previous visit, I went to the University to see some of the filming sites.  You can read about the previous visit here: https://returntofortsalem.com/2023/10/14/vancouver-pilgrimage-meeting-alder/

I got very close.  I got into the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, but was not able to get through the locked door to the performance spaces.  This year was different.  Not only was I able to get into the performance spaces, but I was also able to visit additional filming locations at the university.

The first time we get to meet General Alder is when she addresses the new recruits in the opening episode of Motherland.  This was filmed in the Chan Shun Concert Hall at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Rd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

This time I was allowed into the auditorium and given permission to take photos.  This is what the auditorium looks like, from the recruits’ point of view. 

But Alder stood on that stage, surrounded by the Biddies.  Naturally, I got permission to go on the stage and take a photo from Alder’s point of view. 

There is another performance space at the Chan Centre that was used to film Motherland.  This was at the Telos Studio Theatre.

There are two major scenes from the pilot episode filmed here.  The first one is the units doing vocal training, where they are all deployed around the towers, until Raelle slips out and meets Scylla for the first time. 

The second one is when Raelle decides to join in fully and the Unit creates their remarkable harmonics. 

The theatre has a series of movable towers that can be moved to create different performance spaces.  The way it was set up when we visited was almost the way it was set up when Motherland filmed there. 

The fact that the towers are movable gave a lot of flexibility in the use of the space.  We saw this in the harmonics exercise, where all the main action took place in the middle of the floor, but had space for Anacostia and her other trainers to stand out of the way and monitor what was going on.  The chairs can be removed too, so the performers (soldiers) can stand at the various tiers.

This was one of the locations that I was really looking forward to visiting.  The location of the Bellweather wedding from Motherland episode 1.05.  It didn’t disappoint.

The Bellweather wedding was filmed at Casa Mia.  Address:  1920 SW Marine Dr, V6P 6B2

We met the manager and explained what we wanted to do and asked permission to take photos.  The venue is now a nursing home, so we knew there would be no chance of going inside the building.  But we were given permission to take photos.  Talking to the manager also allowed us to get an idea of the changes that had happened to the building in the years since Bellweather Season was filmed there. 

This is what it looked like when we see the mansion on screen for the first time. 

The porch and front entrance are unchanged since filming. 

The Bellweather mansion front door is just as we saw it in the episode, when Petra and her sister welcome Major Hoke at the door and go inside. 

As well as the front porch, there was filming at the side of the building.   The wedding itself and the dance tent were at the back of the building.

These are the gardens at the back of the building as we saw them on screen.

The manager told us that the land at the back of the building had been sold to developers.  The grounds we saw in the episode are no longer in existence; the gardens have turned into a building site.  The development of the back of the building has impacted on the side of the building because some of that was sold too and there has been some change of use.

One of the iconic moments from this episode was filmed at the side of the building. 

The behind the scenes shot.

The on screen shots.  Filming was from the back of the building facing forwards.

And then Scylla appears. 

This is what it looks like now. 

Although we were not able to go inside the building itself, it was possible to see inside from the porch.  In the episode, we see Petra, her sister and Major Hoke walk through this area into the foyer.  A little beyond this are the stairs. 

I did manage to get hold of a partial production sheet showing the layout of the ground floor to the mansion.  In this plan we can see the porch and the entry security as well as what is just beyond what I could see from the porch. 

We get to see Fort Langley in Motherland episode 1.02.  It is where the cadets go to visit the pageant.  We see it during the day, when there are stalls arranged on the central green and later we see the pageant itself on a stage at the fort.

Fort Langley is at 23433 Mavis Ave, Fort Langley V1M 2R5

It is one of the area’s most important historic sites.  The website is at https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/bc/langley

We first see the fort when the soldiers are getting off the bus.  We don’t get to see the bus arrive. 

The entrance is fairly small and not really suitable for a bus to enter.  The filming was all about careful camera angles and placements.

Below is the site plan for the Fort.  This shows the general layout.  The central green would have been where the daylight scenes were filmed, with the Unit exploring the stalls and Tally meeting the young girl and her mother.  The pageant would have been filmed at a specially constructed stage, filming with the audience on the left as we look at the plan, and the stage to the right, on the green. 

I do wonder where this ended up.  I just hope it is in the hands of a Talder fan. 

This is the area where the stage and the pageant would have been. 

The white house (The Big House) is visible in the background of the pageant.  By filming at night, many details of the Fort are not visible, but it is the right age and historical setting for the pageant, so hiding much of the detail wasn’t necessary.   Although the plastic children’s toys are not exactly period authentic. 

This is a popular destination for people to visit.  Even without the Motherland connection, it is worth visiting.  But it is exactly the sort of place you could imagine portraits of General Alder, or even the General herself walking about the grounds.