Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone’s latest feature “Aiskótáhkapiyaaya,” also known as “Bring Them Home,” is set to debut on PBS on Nov. 24, TheWrap has learned. It comes from Thunderheart Films and WETA.
The documentary film “tells the powerful, urgent story of the Blackfeet Nation’s decades-long effort to return wild buffalo [iinnii] to their ancestral lands, and with them, a critical part of Blackfeet identity, spirituality and sovereignty,” per the logline.
The doc was directed by Daniel Glick and Ivan and Ivy MacDonald, sibling filmmakers who are also members of the Blackfeet Tribe. Additionally, Blackfeet tribal members were involved in telling the story at every level of the process and the project was made in close consultation with the Blackfeet Tribal Member Advisory Board.
“The Blackfeet effort to return wild buffalo to the native lands where they once thrived is a story of extraordinary perseverance against the malignant forces of natural and cultural eradication,” the co-directors shared in a joint statement. “As the Blackfeet reclaim and revitalize a central part of this heritage, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities can draw from this initiative a powerful lesson about the importance of reconnecting with nature through conservation.”
“‘Bring Them Home’ examines the deeply meaningful role that buffalo played in Blackfeet life prior to the arrival of settlers who nearly eradicated wild buffalo in an effort to eradicate the Blackfeet people. For Blackfeet, the buffalo are seen not only as 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,” the team further teased. “In the present day, the film focuses on three main protagonists who are at the heart of the effort to reclaim these 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.”
The doc is a production of Thunderheart Films and The Redford Center. Executive producers include Melissa Grumhaus, Sarah Clarke and Lily Gladstone, with producers Daniel Glick and Ivan MacDonald. Cinematography was done by Zane Clampett, Kier Atherton and Daniel Glick.
The 85-minute movie will also get a limited theatrical release, as well as an “innii tour” of screenings, which will be more community-based with shared meals, cultural celebration and open conversations between the filmmakers, ecological experts and the audience.
“Bring Them Home” premieres Nov. 24 on PBS.
