Bring Them Home will premiere at Montana’s prestigious Big Sky Documentary Festival.
Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon) is returning to her roots as narrator and executive producer of Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya, an ambitious documentary set to premiere Feb. 24 at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. The 85-minute film, which currently is seeking a distribution partner, chronicles a decades-long initiative by members of the Blackfoot Confederacy to bring wild buffalo back to the Blackfeet Reservation.
Gladstone, who was raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana and whose family is involved with buffalo restoration work in the community, said in a prepared statement: “Bring them Home highlights a crucial story of survival — of Iinnii, our Buffalo; of Blackfoot people and our culture; and of the very land which we call home. Like the buffalo, our land does not acknowledge fences, and nor does our changing climate.
“For the Blackfeet, survival of the Buffalo has always been intrinsically connected to our survival as people — the revitalization of this knowledge is essential for not just us, but for all of us who share this planet, and who work to nurture hope for our collective future.
“Being a part of this essential documentary is one of the most precious collaborations of my life, and I couldn’t be more thrilled for the world to see this absolute labor of love come alive.”
Bring Them Home examines the major role that buffalo played in Blackfeet life before the arrival of settlers who nearly eradicated the animals in an effort to eradicate the Blackfeet people. The documentary details how the Blackfeet people view the buffalo as not only fundamental to a healthy ecosystem, but as spiritual relatives. Their removal from the land meant the loss of the Blackfeet way of life, the trauma of which still reverberates today.
In the present day, the film focuses on three individuals at the heart of the effort to reclaim their traditions through wildlife conservation: Ervin Carlson, director of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program; Paulette Fox, co-creator of the Iinii Initiative; and Leroy Little Bear, a leading tribal elder and educator involved in the Iinii Initiative. They join forces with non-native conservation groups, such as the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York City, that recognize the buffalo as a keystone species not only for Blackfeet lands, but for North America’s ecological stability. Ultimately, they strive to return to the wild a herd of buffalo that are direct descendants of the buffalo that originally inhabited their land.
Bring Them Home makes the case that a thriving wild buffalo population would not only reconnect Blackfeet with a central part of their heritage, spirituality and identity, but would also provide economic opportunities and healing for the community. Along the way, however, the initiative faces obstacles from ranchers who see the buffalo as a threat to their cattle ranches.
A production of Thunderheart Films and The Redford Center, Bring Them Home was directed by Daniel Glick and Ivan and Ivy MacDonald, a brother and sister filmmaking team who are members of the Blackfeet Tribe. Blackfeet tribal members were involved in telling the story at every level of the process, and the film was made in close consultation with a Blackfeet Tribal Member Advisory Board.
Looking beyond the Big Sky Documentary Festival premiere, the producers have developed a public impact campaign in consultation with the Blackfeet community, and in partnership with numerous conservation organizations, that will include screenings and panel discussions. More information on the film and impact campaign is available at thunderheartfilms.com
