Who rescued whom?

As the saying (sort of) goes: Diamond is Ian Bawa’s best friend.

Diamond, a one-eyed yellow Labrador retriever mix, came into Bawa’s life when he was in desperate need of companionship following the death of his father.

“I was alone in my small condo for three, four months, just kind of melting away from the world,” he says. “She made my life better.”

The Winnipeg filmmaker, 37, and his canine co-host (“maybe eight or nine? No one really knows”) are now stars of a new CBC docuseries, Finding Diamonds, which follows the pair as they travel across the country highlighting other stories of animal-assisted healing in the face of grief and trauma.

Bawa started fostering dogs for a local rescue shelter during the pandemic. In October 2020, he made the difficult decision to give up a dog he had formed a strong bond with.

“He ended up getting adopted and it broke my heart. The next day my dad passed away. It was a really sudden one-two punch,” he says.

Enveloped in a fog of depression, Bawa wasn’t sure he was ready to take on another foster when Diamond needed a place to stay several months later. He said yes anyway.

A rescue from northern Manitoba, Diamond had clearly come from a loving family, but was suffering eye issues when she entered care. Navigating her medical needs and recovery gave Bawa purpose. The responsibility of caring for another being had positive side effects.

“I started going out again because I had to take her on walks, and I actually started making content and social media videos and mini-movies with her, he says.

“It sparked, not only my (desire) to re-exist in the world, but also my creativity.”

He knew it was going to be a foster-fail situation when he was packing up the house that belonged to his father — Bawa’s best friend and last remaining parent.

“There was one day I went there and it was so emotionally hard. I just sat on the stairs and started crying and Diamond came up and wanted pets. That’s when I was like, ‘You’re not going anywhere; I’m so happy to not be alone in this house by myself right now,’” Bawa says.

Diamond — a relaxed, quiet dog with a sunny disposition — has become something of a local and online celebrity. Bawa takes her everywhere and has made several viral social media videos with her.

For Bawa’s friends and film collaborators Quan Luong and Scott Leary, those videos — along with Diamond’s onscreen magnetism — seemed like perfect fodder for engaging television. The trio pitched CBC on the idea of a travel show based on human-animal relationships.

Bawa was shocked when the project got the green light.

“It just seemed too crazy of an idea that me and my dog would have our own show,” he says, laughing.

The first season of Finding Diamonds features six 15-minute segments, in which Bawa and Diamond (who holds an executive producer credit) travel across the country to interview humans and the cats and dogs who have helped them carry on in the face of loss, discrimination, injury and war.

While the stories differ, the impact of animal companionship carries across provincial borders.

For Bawa — whose film work often focuses on his personal life — making the series with his dog and connecting with others who have gone through similar forms of heartbreak was a profound experience.

“These aspects of trauma and grief are really relatable and universal and all of a sudden I didn’t feel weird about my feelings or talking about it,” he says.

“Everyone had a version of the (same story) … and we found our light through a dog or cat that brought us back to life.”

Finding Diamonds is available to stream on CBC Gem.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @evawasney