Submitted by the Friday Harbor Film Festival.

Friday Harbor Film Festival’s FREE Best of the Fest series will show “Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On,” winner of the 2023 International Emmy Award in Arts Programming, at the San Juan Island Grange on Friday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. It will be followed by a pre-recorded interview about the film with Producer Kyle Irving. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets or reservations are needed.

Have you wished to submit your documentary to the Festival in October? Submissions are now open for features, short films, and Young Filmmakers Showcase short films until Aug. 1 at www.fhff.org. Click “Film Submissions” at the top of the home page, and you will find full details.

“Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On”

Experience the story of the Oscar-winning Indigenous artist from her rise to prominence in New York’s Greenwich Village folk music scene through her six-decade groundbreaking career as a singer-songwriter, social activist, educator, and artist. Over a career spanning six decades, Cree musician, artist and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie has used her platform to campaign for Indigenous and women’s rights and has inspired multiple generations of musicians, artists, and activists.

The film features never-before-seen archival material, new performance footage, and interviews with Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell, Sonia Manzano, John Kay, Robbie Robertson, Jackson Browne, and others.

Sainte-Marie changed perceptions of Indigenous people in music, film, and television. When approached to play a lead role in a 1968 episode of “The Virginian,” she famously demanded that all Indigenous roles be played by Indigenous peoples. During her five years on Sesame Street, she helped create segments based on her experiences as an Indigenous woman in North America.