After the success of her documentary film Singing Back the Buffalo last year, Tasha Hubbard premiered her first narrative feature film at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
tells the story of four Cree siblings torn from their families to be adopted by white families during Canada’s notorious . Written by author Emil Sher and — herself a Sixties Scoop survivor and now an acclaimed filmmaker and professor of Native studies at the ϲ — the film was inspired by Hubbard’s 2017 documentary on the same subject, .
It is estimated that more than 20,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were removed from their homes by the government in the 1960s. Meadowlarks dramatizes the reunion of four siblings who meet for the first time in the mountains of Banff after decades apart.
“The story has lived in my head since I made the original documentary,” says Hubbard. “To have the opportunity to make my first drama with this particular story of reconnection and belonging is beyond rewarding.”
After appearing at festivals in Calgary and Vancouver this fall, the film will air on CBC, Crave and APTN in the coming months.