CPH:DOX 2024: Wilfred Buck | Review
Wilfred Buck, directed by Lisa Jackson, powerfully illuminates the resilient journey of a member of the Opaskwayak Cree people, while questioning the effectiveness of fictional elements in depicting historical truths.
The Canadian documentary feature Wilfred Buck, directed by acclaimed Anishinaabe director Lisa Jackson, made its world premiere at CPH:DOX in 2024, as part of the DOX:AWARD section.
By alternating between direct cinema, testimonies, and fictional reenactments, the film recounts the tumultuous story of Wilfred Buck, a member of the Opaskwayak Cree people from Manitoba, Canada. The film’s significance lies in the subject it addresses. Through Wilfred Buck’s story, the director visually portrays the hardships endured by the Cree people and, by extension, numerous First Nations who were silenced for decades by colonial power. Orphaned by a series of events that decimated his family—his siblings forcibly placed in Indigenous residential schools, his mother forced into exile in the city only to find hardship and ultimately pass away—Wilfred escaped the depression and misery stemming from a violent and traumatic childhood. The film highlights Wilfred’s incredible journey of resilience, as he has tirelessly worked for years to rediscover ancestral traditions after centuries of colonialism, serving as a teacher and spiritual guide for Indigenous community members. Passionate about astronomy, he collaborated with elders from Cree, Ojibway, and Lakota peoples to expand his knowledge of First Nations astronomy. His research at the Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre has contributed to developing Indigenous perspectives in the scientific field, and vice versa.
While the film’s substance is rich, questions arise about its form and narrative choices. We lament the introduction of fictional reenactment sequences, which are rather lacking in dramatic effect, used to depict scenes from Wilfred Buck’s past. The documentary’s strength lies in depicting reality; the viewer cannot seek refuge in the artifice of fiction. Paradoxically, here, fiction diminishes the power of the narrative, as the film’s message is never as potent as when we see Wilfred today, participating in a ceremony or imparting his passion for astronomy to his fellow citizens. Consequently, in the absence of archival footage documenting particularly the period of Indigenous residential schools and faced with this unconvincing attempt at fiction, how can we narrate this period of Canadian history? What form should be adopted to depict sparsely documented events that were silenced for many years yet deserve to be brought to light?
In conclusion, it is crucial that those who have experienced these events directly or indirectly are now able to tell their own stories, whether through fiction, documentary, or literature. For this reason, we commend Lisa Jackson’s work and are pleased that her film is being presented at one of the world’s premier documentary festivals.
