By John Corrado

The 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 25th to May 5th in Toronto

In her latest documentary, Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard explores the efforts to reintroduce herds of wild buffalo to Indigenous lands in Canada and the United States. Hubbard, who also narrates the film, explores the work of Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear and the ITBC (Intertribal Buffalo Council) to restore buffalo populations across the Great Plains, starting with a Buffalo Treaty signed by eight nations in 2014. This includes monitoring the buffalo populations in Alberta’s Elk Island National Park, where the creatures are shipped to places like Montana.

Like Hubbard’s previous film nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, Singing Back the Buffalo offers an absorbing deep dive into Indigenous history and culture, with buffalo being viewed as sacred animals that they share a deep connection with. Hubbard explores the history of how wild buffalo were driven from the land and often replaced with herds of cows (leading to them developing cattle diseases in some cases), tying the disappearance and displacement of buffalo to colonization.

Hubbard looks at herds of wild buffalo in Yellowstone (where they can legally be shot if they cross over border into Montana), as well as on a more uplifting note the successful reintroduction of wild plains bison in Banff. It’s the important role that buffalo play in the ecosystem as a whole that her film does an excellent job of highlighting; their fur traps and spreads seeds, their footsteps help stomp carbon back into the ground. This is an informative and ultimately hopeful film, carried by George Hupka’s gorgeous cinematography of buffalo roaming the wild landscapes.

Film Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)

Singing Back the Buffalo screens as part of the 2024 Hot Docs Film Festival, more information on tickets and showtimes can be found right here.