#FIRSTLOOK: “SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO” WINS DOCUMENTARY AWARD AT IMAGINENATIVE25

SINGING BACK THE BUFFALO, from Award-Winning Documentarian Tasha Hubbard (seen above with Jason Ryle), wins the Documentary Feature Award, in honour of Alanis Obomsawin, at imagineNATIVE25.

Awards:
GEMFest 25: Winner Best Documentary
GEMFest 25: Winner Best Direction
Ely Film Festival 25: Audience Choice and Independent Spirit Award
Invermere Film Festival 25: Audience Award
DOXA 2024 Winner Nigel Moore Award – Special Jury Mention
Hot Docs 24: Nominee Audience Award
Hot Docs 24: Nominee Land Sky Sea Award
CIFF 2024 Winner Audience Choice Award
CIFF: 2024 Winner Honourable Mention
AMPIA 24: 2024 Winner Rosie
Indies 24: Nominee Outstanding Cinematography

Singing Back the Buffalo, the documentary from award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Birth of a Family), has won the Documentary Feature Award, in honour of Alanis Obomsawin at imagineNATIVE25. With support from TVO, this award recognizes an outstanding documentary feature-length film with a $5,000 cash prize.

Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, Singing Back the Buffalo, an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp, follows Indigenous visionaries and communities who are rematriating the buffalo to the lands they once defined.

“I want to acknowledge the incredible documentary filmmakers at imagineNATIVE, and also all the brilliant documentaries that have moved audiences at this festival for the past 25 years. I started coming in 2000 and I have been deeply inspired by everyone’s films, including those of Alanis. Thank you to the festival and the jury for this honour. I want to acknowledge also the two mentors who are the reason I am here, Doug Cuthand and the late Gil Cardinal. I didn’t know this could be my career, and I am grateful for their belief in me from the start.

Indigenous documentaries can be unflinching, heart-breaking, and incandescently brave in the face of colonial injustice and environmental degradation. And as my teachers tell me, we also need to find hope and joy, the incredible beauty that we all carry within us and the love we have for our lands and more than human relatives.

Thank you to the Buffalo People, both in human and animal form. Thank you to my producers, Jason Ryle, Bonnie Thompson and George Hupka, our trusting funders, our dedicated crew. And thank you to the young people in my life who remind me why we all do this work,” said Hubbard.

Singing Back the Buffalo is written and directed by Hubbard and produced by Hubbard, Jason Ryle (Amplify), George Hupka (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Obmin, On the Edge), associate produced by Marie-Eve Marchand (Iniskim), and executive produced by Bonnie Thompson (The Secret Society, nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Available on CBC Gem as part of the Nature of Things and the feature version will be on APTN later in 2025. Canadian distribution is handled by Cinema Politica.

Hubbard (Cree) is an award-winning filmmaker, a buffalo academic and buffalo activist. Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and meticulously reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey spanning eight years, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate – but uncertain – goal of buffalo rematriation. After their dark recent history of almost extinction, and in this time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow.

Singing Back the Buffalo is produced in association with CBC and APTN and produced with the participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Indigenous Screen Office and Telefilm Canada, with the assistance of the Government of Alberta, the participation of the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and Rogers Documentary Fund, as well as fiscal sponsorship provided by Redford Center.

ABOUT THE TEAM
Dr. Tasha Hubbard, Writer/Director/Producer: 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. 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 while winning Best Canadian Feature. 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.

Jason Ryle, Producer: Jason Ryle is a producer, programmer, curator, story editor, and arts consultant based in Toronto. Through his mother, he is Anishinaabe and a member of Lake St. Martin First Nation, Manitoba. Jason was the Executive Director of imagineNATIVE from July 2010 to June 2020. In addition to Singing Back the Buffalo, Jason has produced the docuseries Amplify for APTN and several award-winning shorts. In February 2021, Jason received the Clyde Gilmour Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association. The award is bestowed to Canadians whose work has in some way enriched the understanding and appreciation of film in their native country. Jason is also the International Programmer, Indigenous Cinema for TIFF.

George Hupka, DOP, Producer: George is a freelance Director and DP, who has worked with Tasha for over 25 years. They formed Downstream Documentary Productions to make nîpawistamâsowin and continue to bring Indigenous stories to the screen. As a cinematographer, Hupka has shot projects around the world for the UK’s Windfall Films, documentary features and shorts for the National Film Board, and many award-winning projects for CBC, CTV, and TSN. He directed and produced Obmin, a documentary about the Soviet Union before the fall of the Berlin Wall as seen through the eyes of Canadian exchange students and was the producer and DP of the Rogers series On the Edge. His short film about photographer and artist Lesia Maruschak, The Diggers, was recently screened at Landskrona Foto Festival in Sweden.

Bonnie Thompson, Executive Producer: Bonnie is a veteran and independent Canadian media producer of documentary, animation, and interactive projects. She worked as a producer with the National Film Board of Canada for many years, and now works independently. Her numerous feature and short documentary, animation, and interactive productions have been screened by national and international broadcasters and streamers (CBC, The Doc Channel, SuperChannel, APTN, PBS, NHK, Netflix, Apple), in festivals around the world (TIFF, Hot Docs, IDFA, Berlin, Sundance, Annecy) and on the web, with numerous awards and nominations, including Canadian Screen nominations and awards, an Oscar and Emmy nomination, and Webby awards. She was awarded the prestigious Don Haig Award at Hot Docs 2023.

#FIRSTLOOK: imagineNATIVE FILM + MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL PROGRAMMING 2025

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (imagineNATIVE) is proud to announce the programming for their milestone 25th Anniversary festival. Celebrating 25 years of showcasing the very best Indigenous talent in film and media arts from around the world, imagineNATIVE has programmed works spanning 55 Indigenous Nations from 16 countries . This year’s theme centres around seedkeeping and the passing down of seeds to the next generation. Like ancestors planting their seeds to grow and harvest sustenance for the people, we look back on 25 years of Indigenous artists breaking barriers, opening doors for each other, connecting, collaborating, and inspiring fearlessness in storytelling for future generations.

The festival runs from June 3-8, 2025 in Toronto and from June 9-15, 2025 online. In addition to the film programming, imagineNATIVE’s special events and media arts programming was also announced today.

Kicking off this year’s festival is the Hot Docs Audience Award-winning documentary Endless Cookie from directors Pete Scriver and Seth Scriver. The film will be preceded by The Opening Address from directors Konwanahktotha Alvera Sargent (Mohawk) and Jess Lowe Chaverri. The festival will close with an outdoor screening at Fort York National Historic Site of Canadian Screen Award-nominated horror comedy Seeds from filmmaker Kaniehtiio Horn.

In addition to the film works listed below, imagineNATIVE will screen select presentations in partnership with organizations to celebrate its Silver Jubilee anniversary, including:

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival announces special events and media arts programming

May 8, 2025, Tkaronto/Toronto – Celebrating its silver jubilee, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival (imagineNATIVE) returns in 2025 with a full slate of media arts offerings and special events. Taking place from June 3-8, 2025 in Toronto and June 9-15, 2025 online, the festival will feature 14 digital and interactive works, 4 special events and 17 audio works open to the public in addition to its film programming which was also announced today.

Looking back on 25 years of imagineNATIVE, this year’s milestone festival will start with the traditional Welcome Gathering held at Spadina Museum on Tuesday, June 3. The gathering will feature a performance by Kehewin Native Dance Theatre, delectable food from Dashmaawaan Bemaadzinjin (They Feed the People) and The Three Sisters Indigenous Vendors Market, encouraging guests to buy Indigenous-made, not Indigenous inspired, products.

Following the Welcome Gathering, the Opening Night Party featuring the sounds of DJ Thomas Hernan will be hosted at Malaparte on King West in the heart of the entertainment district.

More on the Festival here.

#FIRSTLOOK: IMAGINENATIVE LAUNCHES NEW MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM

imagineNATIVE have launched a brand new membership program and today comes news of benefits that come with a membership, including early access to Festival tickets, special screenings, and so much more! Check out the table below and our FAQ section for a full breakdown of benefits.

Member Benefits
As a member, you’ll enjoy perks like early access to Festival tickets, special screening invitations, exclusive merch discounts, and opportunities to meet with filmmakers and artists at private Industry events!

How to Join
Sign up for our Membership Program today and become part of a community that celebrates Indigenous storytelling. Choose between a one-time annual payment or convenient monthly installments. Please note that membership must be purchased before April 15, 2025 to be eligible for Festival perks at the 2025 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in June 2025. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I pay monthly? Select the “Monthly Installments” option when choosing your Membership Tier through our Membership interface, Elevent.

When does my membership expire? Your membership lasts one year from the date you sign up. We’ll send you renewal reminders.

What is the cut-off date for membership to receive Festival benefits for the current year? Purchase your membership before April 15 to receive Festival benefits for that year’s June Festival. For example, if purchased on May 1, 2025, you’ll receive benefits for the June 2026 Festival.

Do I get a tax receipt? Yes, all donations and membership purchases will receive a tax receipt via email.

Can you explain the Festival benefits?
Complimentary 10-ticket package: Use these yourself or share with friends and family.
Early bird access: Book your tickets before the general public.
Invitations to Industry Days events: Receive invitations to attend select panels, masterclasses, and keynotes.

What does “Access to Special Ticketed Events” mean? Members receive priority tickets to special film programming events throughout the year.

What does “Access to Year-Round Programming Tickets” mean? Members get early notice for year-round screenings.

Cancellation + Refund Policy Memberships are non-refundable. You may cancel monthly payments, but will lose benefits for any unpaid parts of the year or upcoming Festival. Membership must be active during the Festival to receive benefits.

How does the merch discount work? Members receive a discount code for the imagineNATIVE Store.

What if I can’t attend any in-person events? You can transfer your ticket to a friend or family member.

Join us today and make a meaningful impact while enjoying exclusive member benefits!

#FIRSTLOOK: IMAGINENATIVE FILM + MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL MOVES TO JUNE AND RETURNS 2025

Celebrating its milestone 25th anniversary, the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is permanently moving its fall festival to June just in time for Indigenous Peoples’ Month. Postponing the 2024 event, the new dates run from June 3-8, 2025 in Toronto and June 9-15, 2025 for the online festival.

“Our goal at imagineNATIVE is to better serve our community and deliver a better festival every year,” said Naomi Johnson, Executive Director of imagineNATIVE. “From fresh programming ideas and themes to expanding our programming to outdoor events, the June 2025 date gives us more time to support our festival’s growth.”

Leading up to the festival, imagineNATIVE will host events including extending the imagineNATIVE Tour to the end of November 2024 to help strengthen the organization and enhance the festival experience for creators and guests next year. Further programming will be announced later in the year.

This new date will also allow film submissions from 2023-2025 productions that are looking to be included in the largest Indigenous film festival in North America.

“A festival in June means we’re in a month of increased awareness about Indigenous stories, allowing us to put our filmmakers front and centre,” said Lindsay Monture, Festival Director at imagineNATIVE. “We couldn’t be more excited to see what organizations and talent imagineNATIVE gets the chance to elevate to a bigger audience in our 25th year.”

imagineNATIVE looks forward to hosting festival-goers in Toronto June 3-8, 2025, for the milestone 25th anniversary of the Film + Media Arts Festival. For additional information, please visit: imagineNATIVE.org/faq