Birth of a Family: A Conversation with Tasha Hubbard

On January 26th, Tasha Hubbard, the director of Birth of a Family, will speak about her award-winning documentary about a 60s Scoop family coming together for the first time during a holiday in Banff. She will also answer questions, both those that are submitted in advance and those that are raised following her presentation.

Birth of a Family can be viewed for free on the National Film Board website: https://www.nfb.ca/film/birth_of_a_family/ . We recommend that you view it in advance and have prepared a set of reflective questions that you may wish to consider as you watch. After viewing the film, submit the question that you would most like to ask Tasha Hubbard by January 23rd to specialprograms@calgarylifelonglearners.ca .

Bio: Dr. Tasha Hubbard is a Cree filmmaker and an associate professor in the Faculty of Native Studies/Department of English and Film at the University of Alberta. She is from Peepeekisis First Nation in Treaty Four Territory and has paternal ties to Thunderchild First Nation in Treaty Six Territory. Her first solo writing/directing project Two Worlds Colliding, about Saskatoon’s infamous Starlight Tours, premiered at ImagineNATIVE in 2004 and won the Canada Award at the Canadian Academy’s Gemini Awards in 2005. In 2016, she directed an NFB-produced feature documentary called Birth of a Family. The film premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival and landed in the top ten audience choice list. It also won the Audience Favourite for Feature Documentary at the Edmonton International Film Festival and the Moon Jury prize at ImagineNATIVE. Her latest feature documentary is called nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, a personal exploration of the impact of the death of Colten Boushie and the advocacy of his family to achieve justice. It opened the Hot Docs International Film Festival in 2019, the first time an Indigenous film opened the festival, and subsequently won the festival’s top Canadian documentary prize. The film has won other numerous awards, including the Colin Low Award for the top Canadian film at the prestigious DOXA International Film Festival, the Sun Jury Award at ImagineNATIVE, and the Canadian Academy’s Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary.