by Michelle Hurtubise
The iinnii (Blackfeet for buffalo) and Indigenous filmmakers are having a moment. 4th World Media Lab alumni Ivy and Ivan MacDonald (Blackfeet siblings and filmmakers) and Daniel Glick's (Thunderheart Films) award-winning feature documentary, Bring Them Home / Aiskthkapiyaaya, will be playing at the Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) Cinema Uptown May 16 and 18, with the filmmakers, their families, and a new cohort of 4th World Indigenous filmmakers in attendance. Opening this feature is the short film Tahnaanooku', written by Indigenous filmmaker Justin Deegan (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation, Oglala, Hunkpapa) and co-produced by Seattle-based Tracy Rector. It is part of the second season of the Reciprocity Project, which includes Indigenous shorts from around the world that explore a return to land, languages, and reciprocal relationships.
Originally, Bring Them Home / Aiskthkapiyaaya premiered at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival this February in Missoula, Montana. This stunning winner of the Big Sky Award tells the intimate story of how a Blackfeet community worked through years of challenges to reestablish the first wild buffalo herd on their homelands since colonization brought the species to near-extinction over a century ago. Actor Lily Gladstone (Kainawa, Amskapi Pikuni, Nimi'iipu), the first Native American to be nominated for an Oscar for best actress, narrates the film. Gladstone was raised on the Blackfeet Reservation.
After the Big Sky premier, Ivy MacDonald told me what she shared with other Indigenous storytellers: "We weren't meant to be here. But the fact that we are here and we are able to have our voice — and like I said tonight, 'You're doing the work. You're standing up. You're telling your story. You have a voice, and it matters.' We're all in this together and it's so cool. We're uplifting everyone and each other and that's how we create the movement and the work going forward. It's our time, you know, it's our time. It's been our time. It's going to continue to be our time, so let's just go forward with it."
Their sold-out screenings at The Wilma Theater at the Big Sky Festival were packed to the rafters with over 200 members of the Blackfeet Nation, plus moviegoers and filmmakers, who rose to their feet several times for standing ovations, joyful words, and gratitude. After the opening screening, a group of Blackfeet spontaneously stood up in the audience and gifted the filmmakers with a song.
"It was an honor song, essentially saying that the iinii are coming back and they're going to be here," Ivy explained. "It's a buffalo song singing them back. And for Blackfeet, the iinii, they're a relative. We learned everything from them, and there's this symbiotic relationship. We're not one or the other. We're together." And that extends to the community. Ivy continued, "It's so important to have the community support, especially when you're a documentary filmmaker. You don't go in and extract a story. You are part of the community, and you create that before and even after you're done with your film. We are accountable to our people."
The day of their Big Sky premiere, Feb. 24, 2024, the kinship and buffalo were felt everywhere in Missoula, Montana. Big Sky was also hosting the world premiere of celebrated Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard's Singing Back the Buffalo about the collective Indigenous efforts to rematriate buffalo to the Plains, raise Buffalo Consciousness, and implement the Buffalo Treaty.
Leanne Allison and Peter Balkwill's Iniskim: Return of the Buffalo, an artistic celebration of the reintroduction of buffalo to Banff National Park in 2017 with the Blackfoot Confederacy, also had its premiere that afternoon. Attending each screening were Indigenous leaders, like renowned couple Dr. Leroy Little Bear and Amethyst First Rider (both of the Kainai Nation, Blackfoot Confederacy), whose songs, words, laughter, and celebration shared alongside each of the film's unique stories strengthened these collective Indigenous efforts to bring buffalo back to the land and people, deepening relationships, knowledge of their land, languages, and cultures.
Big Sky was the MacDonalds' ideal place to premiere their film, which helped nurture their careers through the 4th World Media Lab, founded by Rector, and with the partnership of Big Sky's Executive Director Rachel Gregg, both of whom steadfastly uplift Indigenous excellence and abundance. Ivan said, "I think most people, when you meet Tracy for the first time, you just can't help but fall in love with her. And she's been so supportive to our career. She's in that similar vein of Rachel Gregg, where we wouldn't be where we're at without them."
"Meeting Tracy has transformed everything I thought about being a woman and being in film," Ivy echoed, voicing deep respect for ]Rector, Gregg, and their roots at Big Sky and with 4th World. Ivy says she learned so much from Rector about what it means to have a career in film, "and really just sticking to what it means to be Indigenous, and what it means to be a woman, and what it means to be in this collective practice together and not holding anyone down but uplifting everyone's voices. We all learn from one another, and I'm such a better filmmaker and better Indigenous person because of all the people I've met through all the fellowships and through the festivals I've been to and the conversations I've had with many people."
This year is SIFF's 50th anniversary, and Rector, multicultural filmmaker, festival programmer, and founder of the 4th World Media Lab, is helping to bring over a dozen Indigenous-made films to the festival, many of which are part of the cINeDIGENOUS program, which amplifies Indigenous storytellers. At Big Sky, there were six generations of 4th World fellowship cohorts in attendance participating as fellows and mentors, screening their films, competing in the pitch competition, and more. This is an astounding testament to the success of the 4th World Fellowship, which is designed to support emerging and mid-career Indigenous filmmakers as they make inroads in the film industry with support from organizational partners: SIFF, Big Sky, the Points North Institute, and ITVS. This year's cohort will be participating in SIFF with even more 4th World alumni, strengthening the growing network of Indigenous storytellers and leaders.
Ivan, Ivy, Rector, Gregg, Glick, 4th World fellows, their families, and over three dozen Indigenous creatives will be flooding into town soon for SIFF, so be sure to show up in person. The films are incredible, and you never know who will be in line.
Featured Image: "Bring Them Home" Directors of Photography Kier Atherton and Zane Clampett with Ivy MacDonald (holding camera) and Daniel Glick (far right). (Photo: Mariah Gladstone)
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