Talking to diverse Ahead of her film’s world premiere at leading European documentary festival CPH:DOX, Lisa Jackson was keen to stress that “Wilfred Buck” is what she calls a “feel-good story” despite its take on dark issues related to Canada’s colonial past.
Written and directed by Jackson (“Biidaaban: First Light”), the film is a documentary hybrid that follows the extraordinary life story of its eponymous charismatic science facilitator, an expert in Indigenous traditions around astronomy, who overcame a horrific history of displacement, racism and addiction. By reclaiming the knowledge and ceremonies of the ancestral stars.
Buck, who dropped out of school as a teenager, returned to complete his education as an adult and earned two degrees from the University of Manitoba. He has dedicated 25 years to educating students, from kindergarten to college level, through lectures and planetarium shows.
The film is based on Buck’s memoir, “I’ve Lived Four Lives,” an insider’s story of colonialism that took him, in Jackson’s words, “from the rocks to the stars.” In addition to being a highly respected educator, known for his deep knowledge of astronomy from both Indigenous and Western perspectives, Buck is a Grand and Honorary Chief of the Cree People, one of the largest First Nations groups in Canada.
“I want to emphasize how profound hope I find in this film. “I hope it will be seen as something that will open doors to new ways of looking at the world through an Indigenous lens, and that viewers will enjoy meeting this extraordinary man in the process.” Anishinaabe, A group of indigenous people from the Great Lakes region of North America.
The film weaves together three strands: archival Indigenous footage from the National Film Board of Canada, re-enactments of key moments in Wilfred Buck’s life captured on film for a grainy, authentic look, and real-life footage of Jackson documenting his life today as a science teacher and facilitator.
It is also filled with poetic, abstract scenes of meteorites seen through a microscope, used as a metaphor to allow the viewer to move smoothly in time.
“The idea of the film is that we will travel through time – from Wilfred’s past to the present – but also this third, more atmospheric thread will represent deep time, the idea of deep lineage, the beginning of the earth – almost like a Greek chorus – something more fundamental, more profound than a purely rational way of looking at the world. .
Jackson initially expected to document a dialogue between Western science and indigenous ways of knowing, but as the film took shape, things turned out differently, and it became “the movie it was meant to be.”
“What I saw was that they weren’t even speaking the same language — I saw a real desire, an interest in Indigenous methodologies, ways of knowing, but I think the film is an invitation to start that dialogue,” she says. Alluding to the growing conversation between the Western scientific community and Indigenous knowledge keepers, illustrated in her film by a high-profile conference at Harvard where Buck was invited to share his stellar knowledge.
Jackson explains that what she learned from Buck, and hopes to convey in her film, is the fundamental difference between the Western and indigenous approaches to science, and how complementary they are.
“Western science is excellent at breaking things down into the smallest parts, and indigenous knowledge is really expert at seeing how the parts fit together as a whole, and understanding that relationship, and where we, as humans, fit into the big picture. It’s more about personal development, community and the land itself,” she says. diverse.
In Buck’s case, this journey took him through his own personal healing journey, but he didn’t stop there, she says. “He brings together a larger community as an ongoing mission: it’s a hero’s journey who dedicates himself to his community first and foremost, and who continues to do the work and spread what he knows.”
Jackson and her team are currently working on a 360-degree short film version of Buck’s story, narrated by himself, to be shown in planetariums.
“Wilfred Buck” is a Door 3 and National Film Board of Canada production, in association with Clique Pictures, Crave, Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Rogers Documentary Fund, Indigenous Screen Office, Justfilms and Ford. Foundation and APTN, with support from Sandbox Films and the Sundance Institute.
The film will have its world premiere at CPH:DOX on March 18. The festival continues in and around Copenhagen until March 24.