Still from a Birth Of A Family
Still from a Birth Of A Family
 

On Demand

Birth of a Family

by Tasha Hubbard
At once a devastating tale of an Indigenous family ripped apart by the Canadian government’s “Sixties Scoop,” and a deeply moving moment of hope and resilience.
2016  ·  1h19m  ·  Canada
English
French subs
About the Film
Three sisters and a brother, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, meet together for the first time in this deeply moving documentary by director Tasha Hubbard. Removed from their young Dene mother’s care as part of Canada’s infamous Sixties Scoop, Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie and Ben were four of the 20,000 Indigenous children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or to live in foster care. Now all in middle age, each has grown up in different circumstances, with different family cultures, different values and no shared memories. Birth of a Family follows them through the challenges, trepidations and joys of their first steps towards forming their family. Meeting all together for the first time, they spend a week in Banff, Alberta, sharing what they know about their mother and stories about their lives and the struggles they went through as foster kids and adoptees. As the four siblings piece together their shared history, their connection deepens, bringing laughter with it, and their family begins to take shape.
Upcoming Screenings

Stay tuned for upcoming screenings!

Festivals and Awards
2017
HotDocs, Official Selection
2017
Cinefest Sudbury, Official Selection
2017
Calgary International Film Festival, Official Selection
2017
imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival , Official Selection
Editor
Hans Olson
Cinematographer
Allan Leader, Thomas Dudley and Jim Moule
Producer
Bonnie Thompson
Sound Editor
Perry Blackman and Serge Boivin
Executive Producer
David Christensen
Writer
Tasha Hubbard and Betty Ann Adam
Film Related
About the Director

Tasha Hubbard

Dr. Tasha Hubbard is a 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 ties to several First Nations in Treaty Six Territory through her father. She is also the mother of a seventeen-year-old son. Her academic research supports Indigenous efforts to return the buffalo to the lands, as well as Indigenous narrative sovereignty in North America. She has been working to support the Buffalo Treaty since 2015 and is one of the founding directors of the International Buffalo Relations Institute.

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 Gemini Awards in 2005. In 2017, she directed an NFB-produced feature documentary called Birth of a Family about a 60s Scoop family coming together for the first time during a holiday in Banff. It 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 last film was nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up, an exploration of the impact of the death of Colten Boushie that premiered in the spring of 2019. It was the first Indigenous-directed film to open the Hot Docs International Film Festival and it won the top Canadian documentary prize. It also won the Colin Low Award for the top Canadian film at the DOXA International Film Festival and the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2020. Hubbard was awarded the DGC Discovery award in 2019.

 
Other films by Tasha Hubbard

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