Blackfeet filmmakers Ivan and Ivy MacDonald won the Frank Blythe Award from Vision Maker Media for their documentary Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya, which chronicles efforts to return wild bison to the Blackfeet reservation in Montana.
The award, named after VMM’s late founder, includes $2,000 for professional development. The MacDonalds built Bring Them Home on the foundations of a previous short, Buffalo Spirit, which was developed in part with funding from VMM’s 2023 Creative Shorts Fellowship.
The film follows Blackfeet community leaders working to establish the first wild bison herd on their ancestral territory since the species' near-extinction more than a century ago. The effort faces opposition from cattle ranchers, internal politics and the legacy of colonialism.
Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone, who is of Blackfeet and Nez Perce descent and grew up on the Blackfeet reservation, narrates the film.
The documentary focuses on the Blackfeet's Iinnii (Buffalo) Initiative, supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Oakland Zoo. The program aims to conserve traditional lands, protect Blackfeet culture and return buffalo to their ancestral territory.
Ivan MacDonald is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and an inaugural member of a creative fellowship between Netflix and Illuminative Producers, as well as the 2024 Mark Silverman honoree for the Sundance Producing Lab.
Bring Them Home/Aiskótáhkapiyaaya won the Big Sky Award at the 2024 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and premiered on public television in November. With the film project completed, the MacDonalds will continue their work with VMM by training other young filmmakers on the Blackfeet reservation through the media company’s Native Youth Media Project.
Bring Them Home comes amid a resurgence in Native American filmmaking, spurred by a pandemic-era interest in Native media. Prior Tribal Business News reporting points to a run of big-budget streaming shows like Reservation Dogs and Dark Winds, while tribes like the Cherokee Nation have started up award-winning tribally-supported film offices.
