Singing Back the Buffalo

by Tasha Hubbard
About the Film

In a time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow. After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities, including award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate – but uncertain – goal of buffalo rematriation. Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.

2024  ·  1h38m  ·  Canada
English
Festivals and Awards
2024
Guelph Film Festival , Official Selection
2024
Windsor International Film Festival, Official Selection
2024
3 Ears Indigenous Film Festival, Official Selection
2024
STOODIS Indigenous Film Festival, Official Selection
2024
Calgary International Film Festival, Official Selection | Honourable Mention
2024
Reel Rave International Film Festival, Official Selection
2024
Asinabka Festival, Official Selection
2024
Ācimowin Film Festival, Official Selection | Saskatchewan premiere
2024
Blue Mountain Film Festival, Official Selection
2024
Northwest Fest, Official Selection | Alberta Premiere
2024
DOXA Documentary Festival, Official Selection | Special Mention | Rated Y for Youth
2024
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Official Selection | Canadian Premiere | Audience Top 20
2024
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Official Selection | World Premiere
Screenings
October 2, 2024
Fox Theatre (Toronto, ON, Canada)
September 20, 2024
Empress Theatre (Fort McLeod, AB, Canada)
September 15 - 18, 2024
The Movie Mill (Lethbridge, AB, Canada)
September 14, 2024
Revue Cinema (Toronto, ON)
September 14, 2024
Dave Barber Cinematheque (Winnipeg, MB, Canada)
September 14, 2024
Metro Cinema (Edmonton, AB, Canada)
September 13, 2024
Magic Lantern The Roxy Theatre (Saskatoon, SK, Canada)
September 13, 2024
Magic Lantern Capitol Theatre (North Battleford, SK, Canada)
September 13, 2024
Magic Lantern Elite Theatre (St. Paul, AB, Canada)
September 13, 2024
Sudbury Indie Cinema (Sudbury, ON, Canada)
September 13, 2024
Cinémathèque québécoise (Montreal, QC, Canada)
September 13, 2024
The Vic Theatre (Victoria, BC, Canada)
September 13, 2024
VIFF Centre, Van City Theatre (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
September 21, 2024
Calgary International Film Festival (Calgary, AB, Canada)
September 6, 2024
Reel Rave International Film Festival (Waskesiu Lake, SK, Canada)
August 18, 2024
National Museum of the American Indian, Native Cinema Showcase (Santa Fe, NM, USA)
August 9, 2024
Asinabka Festival (Ottawa, ON, Canada)
June 8, 2024
Ācimowin Film Festival (Saskatoon, SK, Canada)
May 13, 2024
Northwest Fest (Edmonton, AB, Canada)
May 9, 2024
DOXA Documentary Festival (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
May 8, 2024
DOXA Documentary Festival (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
April 29, 2024
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Toronto, ON, Canada)
April 26, 2024
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Toronto, ON, Canada)
February 24, 2024
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival (Missoula, MT, USA)
Credits
Director
Tasha Hubbard
Executive Producer
Bonnie Thompson
Producers
Tasha Hubbard, Jason Ryle, George Hupka
Associate Producer
Marie-Eve Marchand
Director of Photography
George Hupka
Editor
Hans Olson
Composers
John McMillan and Melody McKiver

Tasha Hubbard creates a very hopeful worldview with Singing Back the Buffalo, in how bringing back these mighty beasts can help reverse the degradation caused by climate change.

[the film] pulsates with living, breathing human beings and remains firmly fixed in the present.

Tasha Hubbard dreams up a future where the animals can again roam free after enduring a shared history of genocide

Singing Back the Buffalo is inherently about justice; the injustice that was done to Buffalo; and how we can work together to restore their rightful place on their territory.

About the Director

Tasha Hubbard

Dr. Tasha Hubbard is a filmmaker and an associate professor in the Faculty of Native Studies/Department of English and Film at the University of Alberta. She is from Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory and has ties to several First Nations in Treaty Six Territory through her father. She is also the mother of a seventeen-year-old son. Her academic research supports Indigenous efforts to return the buffalo to the lands, as well as Indigenous narrative sovereignty in North America. She has been working to support the Buffalo Treaty since 2015 and is one of the founding directors of the International Buffalo Relations Institute.

Her first solo writing/directing project Two Worlds Colliding, about Saskatoon’s infamous Starlight Tours, premiered at ImagineNATIVE in 2004 and won the Canada Award at the Gemini Awards in 2005. In 2017, she directed an NFB-produced feature documentary called Birth of a Family about a 60s Scoop family coming together for the first time during a holiday in Banff. It premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival and landed in the top ten audience choice list. It also won the Audience Favourite for Feature Documentary at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Moon Jury prize at ImagineNATIVE. Her last film was nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, an exploration of the impact of the death of Colten Boushie that premiered in the spring of 2019. It was the first Indigenous-directed film to open the Hot Docs International Film Festival and it won the top Canadian documentary prize. It also won the Colin Low Award for the top Canadian film at the DOXA International Film Festival and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2020. Hubbard was awarded the DGC Discovery award in 2019.

 
Other films by Tasha Hubbard

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