Montana filmmaker Daniel Glick decided to make a film about bison just because he loved the animals and wanted to be around them. He teamed up with Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald to co-direct the documentary, Bring them Home, narrated by Lily Gladstone. The film explores the history of bison on the North American continent and the Blackfeet nation in particular; the parallel genocides of native people and the animal that provided them with sustenance, both practical and spiritual; and the movement to bring surviving herds of bison back to their ancestral lands. In this podcast Ivan and Daniel talk about the process of making the film, the significance of bison, and the challenges—and moments of grace—in the decades-long grassroots efforts to return them.
The film has been screening in theaters and festivals since its release last year, and an hour-long version will be aired at 8pm Mountain Time on Monday, November 24 nationwide across all of PBS’s 330 local stations. The theatrical version will then be available for streaming on the PBS App, PBS.org and wellbeings.org, and on other stream platforms.
For more on Bring them Home, go to Thunderheart Films
2’28 WHY bring home buffalo
4’54 bringing back a wild herd that was once with Blackfeet people to their ancestral land
5’42 do the buffalo know they’re coming home?
6’35 how the film came to be, Daniel wanted to spend time with buffalo
7’54 the creation stories and the relationship between Blackfeet and buffalo
9’35 vision of buffalo returning to the land, but it wasn’t easy to implement
11’27 Blackfeet people were forced into ranching and farming and individual land ownership and this conflicted with the return of the buffalo
13’31 the system imposed on Blackfeet people antithetical to wildlife and healthy ecosystems
14’59 the different kinds of colonialism
16’02 Buffalo keystone species and how that affects other species
17’23 bison make grasslands a carbon sink
19’29 New York Wildlife Conservation Society got involved
20’40 the importance of patience in this process and building relationships, trust, community-building
22’58 potential for the buffalo to heal generational trauma, physical and spiritual genocide
24’23 Ini days celebration and ceremony
26’23 the spiritual aspect of Bison and all animals, relatives
26’35 everyone benefits from finding their reconnection to the natural world
27’20 the moment where the buffalo were set free, what was that like
28’13 a lot of risk and uncertainty in finally releasing them
29’55 cattle ranchers fell in love with buffalo
31’06 domesticated vs wild animals and how wildness affects us
32’47 how they are being monitored
33’51 Blackfeet acquired a 28,000 acre grassland ranch for the buffalo
34’45 conversations with other tribes
36’32 PBS screening starting November 24
38’05 beautifully made and crafted film, narrated by Lily Gladstone
40’56 a narrative of hope in a time of tragedy and pain
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