qathet film society presents
3 Ears Indigenous Film Festival

Wilfred Buck

Wilfred Buck

Friday September 27 — 7 pm

Preceded by Welcome to Here

Written & Directed by Lisa Jackson
1hr 36 min | Documentary
English, Cree
Released 2024

Moving between earth and stars, past and present, this hybrid feature documentary follows the extraordinary life of Wilfred Buck, a charismatic and irreverent Cree Elder who overcame a harrowing yet familiar history of displacement, racism and addiction by reclaiming ancestral star knowledge and ceremony.

Buck is humble, profound, funny, always real and a master storyteller. Narration taken from his autobiography condenses the loss and pain of his youth into powerful, Beat-like poetry. After his community in Northern Manitoba is forcibly relocated to make way for a hydroelectric dam, Buck’s family loses everything. He descends into the darkness of the city streets, surviving any way he can, until he reconnects with Elders who start him on a path that transforms his world.  Driven by insatiable curiosity and instructed by dreams, Buck becomes a science educator and internationally respected star lore expert. His mission is sharing these life-changing teachings—as relevant and urgent today as ever—always guided by ceremony and anchored in the land.

Director Lisa Jackson deftly interweaves verité footage of Buck’s present with archival footage and cinematic, dramatized scenes from his past, painting a portrait of a beloved leader who now stands at the forefront of the resurgence of Indigenous ways of knowing.

A National Film Board of Canada and Door Number 3 Productions Inc. co-production

Filming took place on the traditional territories of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, Onigaming First Nation, and Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation; on Treaty One Territory which includes the Anishinaabeg, Anishiniewuk, Dakoka Oyate, Denesuline, Nehethowk Nations and is the homeland of the Red River Métis; on the territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, Anishnabeg, Chippewa, Haudenosaunee and Wendat peoples; and on the territories of the Massachusetts and Pawtucket.

Awards and Festivals

• Official SelectionCPH: DOX (2024)
• Winner – Top 5 Audience FavouriteHot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (2024)
• Official SelectionDOXA (2024)
• Official SelectionYorkton Film Festival – Opening Night (2024)