{{Short description|Canadian (Cree) filmmaker and educator}} {{Infobox director | name = Tasha Hubbard | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1973}} | birth_name = Carrie Alaine Pinay | occupation = Director, Writer, Filmmaker, Associate Professor - Native Studies | awards = 2017 Gemini Award; <br>2005 Golden Sheaf Award - Aboriginal; <br>2016 Golden Sheaf Award - Short Subject (Non-Fiction); <br>2020 Golden Sheaf Award - Multicultural (Over 30 Minutes) | citizenship = Canadian (Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory) | employer = University of Alberta }} '''Tasha Hubbard''' is a Canadian First Nations/Cree filmmaker and educator based in Edmonton, Alberta. Hubbard's credits include three National Film Board of Canada documentaries exploring Indigenous rights in Canada: ''Two Worlds Colliding'', a 2004 Canada Award-winning short film about the Saskatoon freezing deaths,<ref name="sage2">{{cite news|url=http://www.ammsa.com/publications/saskatchewan-sage/two-worlds-colliding-wins-canada-award|title=Two Worlds Colliding wins Canada Award {{!}} Windspeaker - AMMSA|date=2005|work=Saskatchewan Sage|volume=10 |accessdate=19 May 2017|publisher=Aboriginal Multi-Media Society|issue=1|language=en}}</ref> ''Birth of a Family'', a 2017 feature-length documentary about four siblings separated during Canada's Sixties Scoop, and ''nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up'', a 2019 Hot Docs and DOXA Documentary award-winning documentary which examines the death of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man, and the subsequent trial and acquittal of the man who shot him.<ref name=":0">[https://variety.com/2019/film/festivals/we-will-stand-up-hope-frozen-take-top-prizes-hot-docs-1203205112/ "‘We Will Stand Up,’ ‘Hope Frozen’ Take Top Prizes at Hot Docs"]. ''Variety'', May 4, 2019.</ref>
==Family== Born in 1973, Hubbard's birth name was '''Carrie Alaine Pinay'''. Her biological mother was a young single Saulteaux/Métis/Cree woman whose parents and grandparents, as well as Hubbard's Cree/Nakota father, were placed into the Canadian Indian residential school system. With limited support from family and social services, Hubbard's mother gave her to a social worker whom she trusted, putting her up for adoption through the ''Saskatchewan Adopt Indian Metis (AIM)'' pilot project, part of the Sixties Scoop.<ref name="Hubbard2">{{cite news|url=https://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2015/07/10/how-do-you-make-amends-for-trying-to-erase-a-culture.html|title=How do you make amends for trying to erase a culture? {{!}} Toronto Star|last1=Hubbard|first1=Tasha|date=10 July 2015|work=Toronto Star|accessdate=19 May 2017}}</ref> Raised on a farm near Avonlea, Saskatchewan, Hubbard's adoptive parents were supportive of her search; it was her adoptive mother who first asked Hubbard, at the age of 14, if she wanted to find her biological family. Their search yielded nothing for almost two years until they hired a Cree lawyer who located Hubbard's birth mother in just two weeks; a woman who turned out to be a friend of her biological father. She met her birth mother three days after her sixteenth birthday, followed by her father, three weeks later. She would go on to reunite with all ten of her siblings, the last, a sister, at the age of twenty-two.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.macleans.ca/opinion/my-son-asked-me-a-question-and-i-felt-the-pain-of-the-60s-scoop-again/|title=My son asked me a question—and I felt the pain of the '60s Scoop again|last=Hubbard|first=Tasha|date=2017-04-26|work=Macleans|access-date=2017-05-19|language=en-US}}</ref>
== Filmography ==
=== ''Two Worlds Colliding'' (2004) === ''Two Worlds Colliding'' is a 2004 documentary following the experience of Darrell Night, an Indigenous man dumped by police in a field on the outskirts of Saskatchewan in January 2000 in -20 °C temperature. Investigating the "freezing deaths" of Indigenous peoples in the early 2000s and the cementing of distrust and fear of the Saskatchewan police,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hubbard|first1=Tasha|last2=Razack|first2=Sherene|date=September 2011|title=ReframingTwo Worlds Colliding: A Conversation Between Tasha Hubbard and Sherene Razack|journal=Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies|language=en|volume=33|issue=4|pages=318–332|doi=10.1080/10714413.2011.597641|s2cid=145123200 |issn=1071-4413}}</ref> The film premiered at ImagineNATIVE in 2004,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://broadbent.nationbuilder.com/tashahubbard|title=Tasha Hubbard at Broadbent Institute|website=Broadbent Institute|language=en|access-date=2018-10-25}}</ref> winning a Gemini Canada Award.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Paulson|first=Joanne|date=10 Nov 2005|title=Saskatoon documentary maker wins Gemini|page=21|work=Star-Phoenix|location=Saskatoon, Saskatchewan|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49653364/paulson-joanne-saskatoon-documentary/|access-date=8 December 2020|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> ''Two Worlds Colliding'' also won the Golden Sheaf Award - Aboriginal at the 2005 Yorkton Film Festival.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Paulson|first=Joanne|date=28 Dec 2005|title=A year's worth of memories|page=19|work=Star-Phoenix|location=Saskatoon, Saskatchewan|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/49601814/paulson-joanne-a-years-worth-of/|access-date=8 December 2020|ref=Star-Phoenix-2005|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
=== "7 Minutes" (2016) === This short documentary won the Golden Sheaf Award - Short Subject (Non-Fiction) at the 2016 Yorkton Film Festival.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://yorktonfilm.com/2016-winners-nominees/|title=2016 Winners & Nominees|date=2016-03-23|work=Yorkton Film Festival|access-date=2018-10-25|language=en-US|archive-date=2017-03-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330155234/http://yorktonfilm.com/2016-winners-nominees/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
=== ''Birth of a Family'' (2017) === Hubbard's own experiences helped influence her decision to make ''Birth of a Family'', about the reunion of four First Nations siblings separated as part of the Sixties Scoop. One of four reunited siblings is Betty Ann Adam, a journalist with the ''Saskatoon Star Phoenix'', who also co-wrote the film. Adam, a Dene, had been encouraged to document her reunion with siblings Esther, Rosalie and Ben by Marie Wilson, a commissioner with Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Adam had known Hubbard for more than a decade and approached her with the idea of making the film.
The documentary was nominated for the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival 2017 and won the 2017 EIFF Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature and 2017 Special Jury Prize - Moon Jury at the 18th Annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.edmontonfilmfest.com/events/birth-of-a-family/|title=BIRTH OF A FAMILY - Edmonton International Film Festival|website=www.edmontonfilmfest.com|language=en-US|access-date=2018-10-25}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
=== ''nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up'' (2019) === ''nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up'' is a 2019 documentary that serves as Hubbard's personal reflection on the death of Colten Boushie, a young Cree man, the subsequent trial and acquittal of the man who shot him, and the aftermath of the case, which caused shock and outrage across Canada. While following the trajectory of the case and the efforts of Boushie's family to seek justice, Hubbard draws attention to prejudices in the Canadian legal system, the history of colonialism on the Prairies, and anti-Indigenous racism in Canada.<ref name=":0" />
The film received the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Toronto's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival,<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hotdocs.ca/news/hd19-awards|title=Hot Docs 2019 Award Winners Announced - Hot Docs|website=www.hotdocs.ca|access-date=2019-05-26}}</ref> and the Colin Low Award for Canadian Documentary at Vancouver's DOXA Documentary Film Festival.<ref>[https://globalnews.ca/news/5302394/colten-boushie-documentary-national-tour/ "‘Canadians should see this film’: Colten Boushie doc sets out on national tour"]. Global News, May 22, 2019.</ref> Additionally, this film won the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Multicultural (Over 30 Minutes) at the 2020 Yorkton Film Festival.<ref name="YorktonThisWeek-2020">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=18 June 2020|title=Golden Sheaf Awards presented for 2020|url=https://www.yorktonthisweek.com/news/local-news/golden-sheaf-awards-presented-for-2020-1.24156064|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=13 December 2020|website=Yorkton This Week|ref=YorktonThisWeek-2020}}</ref>
=== ''Singing Back the Buffalo'' (2024) === ''Singing Back the Buffalo'' is a 2024 documentary that follows Indigenous visionaries and communities who are repatriating the buffalo back into the North American plains, signalling a turn for Indigenous nations, the ecosystem, and the future.<ref>[https://www.cbc.ca/arts/tasha-hubbard-singing-back-the-buffalo-hot-docs-2024-1.7184511 "Buffalo deserve an epic film about their history — so I decided to give it to them."] ''CBC.ca''. April 25, 2024.</ref>
The documentary received the Nigel Moore Award at the 2024 DOXA Documentary Film Festival.<ref>Janet Smith, [https://www.createastir.ca/articles/doxa-documentary-film-festival-awards-2024 "Red Fever, Bye Bye Tiberias, and La Laguna del Soldado amid award winners at DOXA Documentary Film Festival"]. ''Stir'', May 11, 2024.</ref> It also received the Audience Award for Documentaries from the 2024 Calgary International Film Festival,<ref>Nicholas Sokic, [https://playbackonline.ca/2024/10/09/audiences-fete-drive-back-home-tragically-hip-docuseries-at-ciff/ "Audiences fete Drive Back Home, Tragically Hip docuseries at CIFF"]. ''Playback'', October 9, 2024.</ref> as well as an honorable mention for Best Canadian Documentary.<ref>Aryn Toombs, [https://livewirecalgary.com/2024/09/26/calgary-international-film-festival-awards-the-assistant-now-eligible-for-academy-award-consideration/ "Calgary International Film Festival awards The Assistant, now eligible for Academy Award consideration"]. ''LiveWire Calgary'', September 26, 2024.</ref>
=== ''Meadowlarks'' (2025) === In 2024 Hubbard began production on a scripted narrative fiction version of ''Birth of a Family''.<ref>Jamie Casemore, [https://playbackonline.ca/2024/12/03/tasha-hubbard-wraps-scripted-directorial-debut-birth-of-a-family/ "Tasha Hubbard wraps scripted directorial debut Birth of a Family"]. ''Playback'', December 3, 2024.</ref> ''Meadowlarks'' is slated to premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.<ref>Anthony D'Alessandro, [https://deadline.com/2025/07/tiff-lineup-sydney-sweeny-dwayne-johnson-nuremberg-1236463346/ "TIFF Galas & Presentations: World Premieres ‘Good Fortune’, ‘Nuremberg’, Sydney Sweeney Pic ‘Christy’, Angelina Jolie ‘Couture’; North American Debuts Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’, Dwayne Johnson ‘Smashing Machine’"]. ''Deadline Hollywood'', July 21, 2025.</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb name|1114245}} * [https://www.nfb.ca/directors/tasha-hubbard/ Films by Tasha Hubbard at NFB.ca]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, Tasha}} Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century First Nations artists Category:Sixties Scoop victims Category:Canadian documentary film directors Category:Canadian women film directors Category:Cree people Category:Directors of Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners for Best Documentary Film Category:Film directors from Saskatchewan Category:First Nations filmmakers Category:Indigenous child displacement in Canada Category:Métis filmmakers Category:People from Saskatoon Category:Canadian people of Métis descent Category:Saulteaux people Category:Academic staff of the University of Saskatchewan Category:Canadian film educators Category:Canadian women documentary filmmakers Category:21st-century First Nations women