There is a moment early in the documentary Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On when Joni Mitchell appears on screen to speak about the titular, award-winning, Indigenous singer-songwriter, activist and visual artist.
“I was very impressed with her. Her stage performance, songwriting ability. Buffy was different,” Mitchell says. That’s when it hits you: Sainte-Marie might be Mitchell’s peer, but, so far, the music world hasn’t held her up to the same legendary status. Slowly, that seems to be changing.
“That’s one of my frustrations,” says Andrea Warner, the Vancouver-based author of Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography, who also serves as writer and associate producer of the documentary. “It’s been one of my frustrations for so long. I don’t think it’s a frustration she carries—that would be exhausting; that’s not really her vibe. But I think it sucks for the world, frankly, that there isn’t more awareness of how important she is.
What an incredible songwriter she is. There’s not as much appreciation for her craft and talent.” The documentary unravels some of the possible reasons for that lack of recognition, while chronicling her complicated and fascinating life, and holding up her varied accomplishments—from the tangible, like winning a Grammy (and Polaris Music Prize, Juno and Golden Globe, to name just a few) to the more abstract, like the influence her activism and music has had on young, Indigenous people over many decades.
“She’s such an extraordinary person,” Warner says. “I just really appreciate her so much—how humble and creative she is. She’s not somebody who downplays her accomplishments or innovations, but she doesn’t want to spend a lot of time treading in that water either. She’s always moving forward. There’s so much momentum to Buffy.”
Warner wound up writing Buffy’s authorized biography after an interview in which the connection seemed to flow two ways. (When Pique spoke to Sainte- Marie ahead of her performance at Whistler Olympic Plaza in 2019, she also spoke warmly of Warner.)
Shortly after the book’s 2018 release, White Pine Pictures, a Toronto-based production company, reached out to Warner to ask some questions and invite her to serve as a consultant. (The film was co-produced with the Indigenous film production company Eagle Vision.)
As the work unfolded, Warner came onboard as a writer and associate producer. “Writing in a visual medium is very different,” she says. “It took me a while to get used to it. For a while, I was like, ‘Is this writing?’ I realized, ultimately, yeah, it’s a different form of writing than I’ve ever done. I loved it. I’ve always wanted to work in documentary. I think it’s an extremely cool expansion of the written form.”
It perhaps helped that Sainte-Marie’s life story—and music—is so ready-made for the big screen. She started out as a fresh- faced folk singer in New York City alongside the likes of a burgeoning Bob Dylan; she wrote monster hits like “Until It’s Time for You to Go” covered by Elvis and Barbra Streisand; she was unknowingly blacklisted from American radio by presidents Nixon and Johnson for her “protest” music; broke barriers on Sesame Street; and has worked in various ways to support Indigenous youth in the arts.
“I’ve cried every time I’ve watched it,” Warner says. “And I’ve watched it 1,000 times ... At one point, Buffy says she wishes she could’ve been more effective. I just think, ‘Damn, if Buffy Sainte-Marie thinks that she should’ve been more effective, what are the rest of us doing?’”
Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On screens as part of the Whistler Film Festival on Friday, Dec. 2 at 4 p.m. at the Maury Young Arts Centre.
Sainte-Marie, Warner, and Madison Thomas, the film’s director, will also take part in a livestreamed conversation (though Warner will attend in-person) as part of the festival’s Women in Focus programming. That takes place on Dec. 2 from 2:30 to 3:20 p.m.
For more information or tickets, visit whistlerfilmfestival.com.
