“Star Guy” Wilfred Buck, an elder from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, has committed his life to teaching how science has always been at the core of Indigenous ways of understanding the world. Inviting viewers to reconsider how we know the world around us, Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson’s hybrid documentary portrait of this First Nations astronomer integrates Buck’s life story with his deep knowledge of Cree, Ojibwe, and Lakota peoples’ millennia-long observations of the stars, revealed through legends, cosmologies, and quantum physics. 2024, Aamjiwnaang First Nation/Canada, DCP, 97 min.
Additional screening added for Thursday, March 6, at 7 pm.
A conversation with Wilfred Buck, filmmaker Lisa Jackson, and Ben Weiss, Chair of the Program in Planetary Sciences at MIT, follows the screening on Friday, February 14.
Don’t miss the chance to step inside an immersive planetarium and journey through the night skies with Wilfred Buck at Free Thursday Night on February 13.
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Bios
Wilfred Buck is an Ininiw (Cree) astronomer, author, educator, Knowledge Keeper, and lecturer from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with two degrees in education and has 25 years of experience as an educator, working with students from kindergarten to university. Buck is the author of Tipiskawi Kisik: Night Sky Star Stories (2018), the semi-autobiographical I Have Lived Four Lives (2021), and Kitcikisik (Great Sky): Tellings That Fill the Night Sky (2021). Considered the foremost authority on Indigenous astronomy in the world, Buck gives planetarium presentations, lectures, and keynote presentations.
Lisa Jackson (Anishinaabe) is an award-winning creator of documentary and fiction films, virtual reality (VR), and multimedia installation works. She earned a BFA in film from Simon Fraser University and an MFA in film production from York University. Jackson is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre’s Directors Lab, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Talent Lab and TIFF Writers Studio, and IDFA Summer School. Based in Toronto, Jackson develops documentary and fiction film and media projects with her company, Door Number 3 Productions. Broadcast and recognized widely, Jackson’s work has screened at Berlinale, HotDocs, ImagineNATIVE, SXSW, Sundance, Tribeca, and London BFI. Her interactive VR work, Biidaaban: First Light, was presented at INDIgenesis: GEN2 at the Walker Art Center (2019).
Ben Weiss is Chair of the Program in Planetary Sciences at MIT. Weiss studies the formation, evolution, and history of planetary bodies, with a focus on paleomagnetism and geomagnetism, geophysics, meteoritics, and habitability. He employs laboratory analyses of geological samples, spacecraft observations, and fieldwork around the Earth to understand the history of planetary geological and geochemical processes. He runs the MIT Planetary Magnetism Laboratory, studying the magnetic signatures of rock samples from Earth, the lunar surface, and meteorites to understand the conditions of the early solar system, as well as the past climates and habitability of Earth and Mars. Weiss is also involved with multiple NASA exploration missions: he is the deputy principal investigator on the October 2023 Psyche Mission to study the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, as well as a co-investigator on the Mars 2020 rover and the Europa Clipper missions.
Accessibility, Content, and Sensory Notes
Content note: Wilfred Buck is a hybrid documentary that explores mature themes through first-person narratives, archival footage, and dramatic re-creations. The film explores the life story of Cree elder and ceremonial leader Wilfred Buck, including his experiences of historical and ongoing traumas of colonialism, such as family separation, residential schooling, addiction, imprisonment, and poverty.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, based in Minneapolis, provides a resource list for trauma responses. The coalition leads in the pursuit of understanding and addressing the ongoing trauma created by the US Indian Boarding School policy. More info at boardingschoolhealing.org.
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For questions on accessibility or to request additional accommodations, call 612-375-7564 or email access@walkerart.org.
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