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Buffy Sainte-Marie documentary begins production

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TORONTO — Buffy Sainte-Marie is sharing new insight into her trailblazing rise in an upcoming documentary.

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This article was published 25/09/2021 (1776 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — Buffy Sainte-Marie is sharing new insight into her trailblazing rise in an upcoming documentary.

White Pine Pictures, Eagle Vision and Paquin Entertainment say production has started on Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, a wide-ranging glimpse at the Cree singer-songwriter and activist’s influence.

The film is billed as a “cinematic, poetic and musically infused” look at Sainte-Marie’s six-decade career of creative and social disruption, from penning protest anthems in the 1960s to stirring controversy by breastfeeding on Sesame Street.

The 80-year-old musician has been celebrated with a slew of honours, including several Junos, a Polaris Music Prize, a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award and the cinematic trifecta of an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for co-writing the song Up Where We Belong from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Reportedly, her Oscar was the first Academy Award given to an Indigenous person. Her songs have been recorded by luminaries including Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Cher, Joe Cocker, Jennifer Warnes, Barbra Streisand, Janis Joplin, and Glen Campbell.

Directed by Winnipeg-based filmmaker Madison Thomas, Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On is set to include archival material, recent performances and interviews with the musician and her contemporaries.

Eagle Vision partner Kyle Irving confirmed production has already begun, saying the film will be shot “all over North America” and will include a vast array of interesting interviewees, although he couldn’t share details.

“We’re especially thrilled that Madison Thomas will be directing,” Irving said. “She has been directing all sorts of projects for us at Eagle Vision.”

Thomas’s directing work has include the Eagle Vision productions such as the TV series Taken and Burden of Truth, as well as the feature films Ruthless Souls and Finality of Dusk.

The documentary is expected to hit theatres in fall 2022, and will be broadcast by Bell Media and APTN in Canada and PBS in the United States on later dates.

With files from Randall King

— The Canadian Press

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