SS Film Festival: Buffy Sainte-Marie 'Carry It On.'

Salt Spring Film Festival presents Buffy Sainte-Marie: "Carry It On."

Named “Best New Artist” the year the Beatles came to America, Buffy Sainte-Marie defied the odds by flourishing despite a childhood of dislocation and abuse. This inspiring look at her groundbreaking career was met with wide acclaim when it premiered at the recent Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Madison Thomas and co-written by Andrea Warner, author of the 2018 authorized biography, this intimate retrospective of Buffy’s personal journey includes rare archival material and interviews with Joni Mitchell, Alanis Obomsawin, Jackson Browne, and Robbie Robertson.

Blacklisted by both the Johnson & Nixon Administrations, Buffy spoke truth to power while changing perceptions of Indigenous people in music, film, and television. Her natural musical ability protected her spirit and propelled her from her birthplace on a Saskatchewan reserve to international concert halls and the Oscars.

“Sometimes,” says Buffy, “you have to carry the medicine a while before people are ready for it.