CEN1-03. Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On

Canada, Feature Documentary, 2022, 90 min

Shows an artist out of step and far ahead of her time… Toronto Globe and Mail

This is an amazing film about Beverly (Buffy) Sainte-Marie, a proud full-blooded daughter of the Cree Nation, who was discovered singing in a coffeehouse by Bob Dylan and had won “Best New Artist of the Year'' by 1964. But her songs, like the anti-war anthem “Universal Soldier” and “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” were released long before either issue was widely popular, and they earned her an eight-year radio station blacklist by J. Edgar Hoover at the peak of her career. Buffy became the first mother to breast-feed her baby on live TV on Sesame Street and went on to be the first Indigenous person to win an Academy Award in 1983 for the song “Up Where We Belong” from An Officer and a Gentleman. Her prolific songwriting career produced big hits for Elvis, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, Glen Campbell, Neil Diamond, Cher and Jay-Z. Like The Rolling Stones, Buffy has just completed another world tour and is still rocking it out at 81.

Directed by Madison Thomas

Colorado Premiere