By John Corrado
In her narrative debut Meadowlarks, Canadian filmmaker Tasha Hubbard adapts her 2017 documentary Birth of a Family into a deeply moving family drama.
The film follows four Cree siblings – brother Anthony (Michael Greyeyes, delivering one of his finest performances) and his three sisters Connie (Carmen Moore), Gwen (Michelle Thrush), and Marianne (Alex Rice) – who are reuniting fifty years after they were forcibly separated during the Sixties Scoop and placed in foster care. They are spending the week together at a rental home in Banff, figuring out how to be a family for the first time. They explore the town together, remarking that they are tourists in their own country.
The siblings each feel fully realized. Connie is the organizer who brought everyone together, while Anthony is about to become a grandpa and wants to learn explore his Indigenous identity. Gwen is still the most emotionally guarded, while Marianne came all the way from Belgium and is struggling to feel like she fits in. It’s deeply affecting to watch how they overcome their differences and heal past traumas, and by the time Hubbard reaches the film’s end, we feel like we have gotten to know them, too.
As a character drama, Meadowlarks is a beautiful and emotional work, without ever stepping into melodrama or over sentimentality. At ninety minutes, Hubbard keeps it short and sweet. The siblings only have a few days together to reconnect, and the time feels fleeting because they are making up for so much that has been lost. It’s filled with tender moments that carry the full weight of the past, allowing our tears to feel earned.
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