Bring Them Home: Lily Gladstone Narrates and Produces Documentary on Blackfeet’s Buffalo Restoration Initiative”
Lily Gladstone, known for her Oscar-nominated role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” is taking on the roles of narrator and executive producer in a new documentary titled “Bring Them Home.” The film, directed by Blackfeet siblings Ivan MacDonald and Ivy MacDonald, along with Daniel Glick, focuses on a Blackfeet initiative to reintroduce buffalo to the wild and reclaim centuries of Indigenous tradition.
Lily Gladstone
Scheduled to premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on Feb. 24, the 85-minute documentary delves into the decades-long efforts of the “Blackfoot Confederacy” to bring buffalo back to the Blackfeet Reservation. The film explores the crucial role buffalos, or “iinnii,” played in Blackfeet life before settlers decimated the species in attempts to eradicate the tribe.
A press release for the documentary states, “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.”
Lily Gladstone, who has a personal connection to the cause, having grown up on the Blackfeet Reservation, expressed the documentary’s significance, stating, “‘Bring Them Home’ highlights a crucial story of survival; of Iinnii, our Buffalo, of Blackfoot people and our culture, and of the very land which we call home.”
Describing the interconnectedness of buffalo survival and the Blackfeet people, she emphasized the importance of revitalizing this knowledge for the collective future. Gladstone expressed her joy in being part of the documentary, praising her collaborators and calling it a “precious collaboration” in her life.
The documentary, produced by Thunderheart Films and The Redford Center, follows key figures in the buffalo conservation effort: Ervin Carlson, director of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program; Paulette Fox, co-creator of the Iinnii Initiative; and Leroy Little Bear, a prominent tribal elder and educator involved in the initiative. The film documents their endeavors to reintroduce a wild buffalo herd, facing opposition from ranchers who view the buffalo as a threat to cattle ranches.
The filmmakers chose the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival for the premiere due to its proximity to the Blackfeet Reservation, expecting a substantial turnout from the Blackfeet community, including Lily Gladstone’s family.
Lily Gladstone, who won a Golden Globe for her role in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” delivered her acceptance speech partly in the Blackfeet language. Expressing gratitude for her mother’s efforts to bring the language into classrooms, she highlighted the importance of preserving Native languages in the film industry, acknowledging the historical practice of having Native actors speak lines in English and manipulating audio to simulate Native languages on camera.
