Filmmaker Tash Hubbard’s thoughts on latest project

Filmmaker Tasha Hubbard’s newest film, Meadowlarks, breaks new ground on familiar territory. Her first scripted feature film, Hubbard based the story on her own documentary, Birth of a Family which tells the story of four adult siblings reunited after being separated during the 60s Scoop. The film debuted as a Special Presentation at TIFF 2025 and played at VIFF 2025 where it won the Panorama Audience Award. A special presentation of Meadowlarks, with a Q&A with Hubbard, plays in Saskatoon on November 27 at The Roxy Theatre.

Hubbard spoke with Eagle Feather News about her first scripted film.

EFN: Why did you decide to adapt your documentary, Birth of a Family, into a scripted feature?

TH: I love Birth of a Family and it felt like such a privilege to be invited to make that film. With all my films, when I’m working with Indigenous subjects, I make sure they have agency in how they’re represented because we’ve had so much misrepresentation of our people over the century and half of film.

When one of the producers of Meadowlarks approached me with the possibility of turning it into a scripted film, she asked ‘Are there things you would’ve liked to do that you couldn’t with the doc?’ and I said ‘Yeah, theres a couple of things’. One is, because we agreed (Birth of a Family) was just the present moment, we didn’t get into their lives as children or young adults. With people who have been through the child removal system – I’ve had many conversations with people, and I myself went through it – and I realized so much of who we are and how we move in the world is influenced by that experience and the ways in which we have survival strategies depending on the circumstances we were in. When you meet your family as an adult, that’s all with you. Because I respected the original family’s privacy, we didn’t dive into that in the doc. But if I have a fictional family, I can dive into that. Into the myriad of experiences that I have learned about over the years of what people went through. With a fictional space, I can explore that without intruding in the real family’s own stories.

EFN: The scripted film gave you access to explore things you might not have been able to in a doc?

TH: Yeah, and a scripted feature has a different audience in some ways. With Birth of a Family, we shot that in 2015, ten years ago. We’re going to bring this story of the impacts of the 60s Scoop from the perspective of people in their middle age, which is not often represented, and bring the story to a new audience. And also bring audiences back to the original documentary who perhaps haven’t seen it. This is a win-win, we can tell this story in a different way, for a different audience, and also call attention to the original family who inspired it.

EFN: Did you feel a need to remain faithful to the story from the documentary?

TH: No, because the characters are not them. We talked to the family, and got their blessing. And we said the feature film will start over, with a new family.

Sure, there’s echos, but the echos exist in all of us who have been through that experience. I also think a film can’t represent every single person, either. My co-writer and I spent a lot of time working on those characters, who are they, what happened to them, how did they cope, how did they adapt, what are they happy about, what are they not happy about? We spent time there because we were starting over with these new characters. So then it was a choice of how much of the structure of the doc are we keeping.

We changed the locale to this beautiful, huge chalet in Banff, versus the tiny apartment from the documentary. What does that bring us story wise? How do we want to create this that brings us to story? In the end, what this family wants is to go home. This beatitude place, while beautiful, is not their home. So that got layered in. So I had freedom to change things, to keep the premise but then start over.

EFN: How much of what’s explored in the film comes from a personal place?

TH: The story details are not me. What I was able to bring was that feeling of the awkwardness of meeting your siblings who look like you, but are strangers to you. So, I was able to bring the feeling that came with this situation but none of the characters are me. My own experience helped inform me as the writer and director, but didn’t write myself into any of them. It was the experience of: these are your family, but you don’t know them, you don’t know their past or histories, and you’re going to make missteps.

EFN: That feeling of discomfort was evident in the movie, particularly in the first half. Why was that important to depict?

TH: It reflects the reality. You have to build to that relationship. I think that’s the profound element to this story – whatpeople take for granted. If anyone stops and thinks about their sibling they grew up with, how many shared memories they have, how many moments of connection or conflict, but it’s still shared memory. Why would you expect that closeness to be there because someone is your blood sibling? That takes time. And this film is really about that accelerated journey over four days to get that connection and understanding of one another.

EFN: Tell me about the casting – particularly with Marianne, the sister from Belgium. I assume that wasn’t an easy role to find.

TH: It’s funny. Michael (Greyeyes) and I had worked together in 1998, and kept in touch, so very early on in the wiring process I started thinking about him as Anthony. I talked to him in 2020 and said ‘when we’re ready can I send you a draft?’. He loved it, so we knew he was attached.

We were, of course, concerned about Marianne being from Europe. I asked someone who did research on the diaspora of the 60s Scoop and where people ended up. She gave me a list, and we picked Belgium because there’s a French population there. But we had a backup if we couldn’t find an actor who could do a French accent. Maybe there is an Indigenous actor who can do an Irish accent, a Scottish accent. Even New Zealand and Australia – we knew people went there. The funny thing is, we were so worried, but Alex Rice put herself on tape, sent it in, and we pressed play and were immediately like ‘oh my God, there she is. That’s her.’ She was actually the second one cast. We thought it was going to take much more to find her.

EFN: You make an interesting decision at the very beginning of the film to not depict the first moments that the siblings meet each other. Can you talk about that decision?

TH: I think sometimes, with Indigenous films, there is an expectation, and sometimes a burden put on, to teach theaudience. I look at other films from other parts of the world, and they don’t have that, ‘hey, were going to teach you first and then tell the story’. So I’ve been really resistant teach the audience.

I trust you, as an audience, to do that reading. What I want from audiences is to trust me, to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end. And so we just decided, let’s just go into it. And it really begins when they walk in that house and you’re seeing the distance between them in the car and that awkwardness.

EFN: Early on in the film there’s an Indigenous artisan market scene which is quite complex, where a character seems to be experiencing her Indigeneity for the first time. What inspired that scene?

TH: That was a totally new scene, there’s nothing like it in the doc. I always had in my mind the journeys for the characters, and for Marianne it was this acceptance and understanding ghat she is Indigenous because she’s been so far removed. So for her to have this experience with authentic Indigenous cultural and creative expression, which contrastswith this shop of mass produced souvenirs. We worked very hard with the production designer, and said it absolutely has to be Indigenous artisans. It can’t be stuff we buy and just put an Indigenous background person there. So it took a lot to pull hat off. It was a meaningful scene to shoot, and a few of the artisans were part of the 60s Scoop as well, so it was meaningful to them.

It is so importation to see our creativity represented in contrast with the souvenir mass produced dream catchers. It was this moment for Marianne to be completely immersed in and awed by her culture.

EFN: There’s also a very powerful scene on a bridge, which is one of the most epic yet intimate scenes of the film. Was that scene technically difficult to pull off?

TH: There were a lot of layers to that. We asked all the actors if they were afraid of heights and they all said no. But then, one by one, they revealed, besides Michelle, that there kind of were afraid of heights.

We went to skybridge in BC. In the doc they go to the skywalk (in Alberta). As soon as they went to the skybridge, I thought this dramatic and cinematic, and can be this metaphor for the things they needed to cross. We knew it would be challenging. It was. We shot it on our second day, because the park was closed and that was the day we could get access. It’s a scary bridge, you feel your stomach drop when you go across, but we knew it would be beautiful, so we made it work. And I’m really proud of it and what the performers brought to it.

EFN: So the fear in the eyes of the actors might not have been acting?

TH: (laughs) Maybe.

EFN: What has it been like to share this film with audiences, and have you had any response from residential school or 60s Scoop survivors?

TH: We had our premiere at TIFF, which was was great. It was my first dramatic feature, so it was wonderful to be selected. We were in a Special Presentation category, which is also difficult to get. We had an amazing first night premiere, there was so much joy and sorrow and understanding and shared experience in that. And there were people who have gone through the experience who were there, and shared what it meant to have that experience represented. We’ve won the audience award in our category at (Vancouver International Film Festival), and we got top 10 in Calgary. Those are the main three festivals we’re in. We’re really seeing that response and excited we’re getting a theatrical launch. I think that’s not a given for making an Indigenous film, or any film in Canada, to have a theatrical release. It’s an amazing thing. So I’m really excited to have audiences experience the film.