Indigenous-centered filmmaking and storytelling by Ivan and Ivy MacDonald
My sister, Ivy, and I will be sharing parts of our journey to becoming filmmakers. We will discuss the various projects we’ve completed which all tell indigenous stories. We will also speak to how we blend our worldview as Blackfeet people with our filmmaking practice.
When: Wednesday, February 11, 2026 at Noon
Where: Online
Cost: Free
Register Here for the online event: https://form.jotform.com/252436280155050
Upon registration, a meeting link will be sent to you.
About the Artists:
Ivy MacDonald is a director, producer, screenplay writer, and cinematographer based in Montana. She is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet tribe. Her most recent project, Bring Them Home, premiered at the 2024 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival. Bring Them Home is executive-produced and narrated by Academy Award nominee Lily Gladstone. In late 2023, Ivy co-wrote and co-directed her first narrative short film titled Buffalo Spirit, which premiered at the 2025 Hollyshorts Film Festival. Buffalo Spirit will also have its television premiere on PBS later this year.
She also helped produce Murder in Bighorn, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on Showtime. Ivy won an Emmy for her producing work on the 2020 ESPN short documentary, Blackfeet Boxing: Not Invisible. She is currently directing, alongside her brother, her second feature-length documentary: When They Were Here. A documentary about the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls crisis within their community. When They Were Here has received support from Sundance, IDA and ITVS.
Ivan MacDonald is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker who is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Tribe. His most recent project Murder In Big Horn, premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on Showtime. He was an inaugural fellow of the Illuminative and Netflix Producers Fellowship and is alumni of the Firelight Media Documentary Lab, along with his sister Ivy. He has co-directed the feature-length documentary titled Bring Them Home about his tribe's bison conservation efforts. Bring Them Home is executive-produced by actress Lily Gladstone. His film, When They Were Here, is currently in production and has been supported by ITVS, Chicken and Egg Pictures, and Sundance.
The Indigenous Art, Indigenous Minds Speaker Series is a project of Open AIR’s Indigenous Initiatives Committee, established to elevate Indigenous Leadership and creative practices in Montana and beyond. All presentations are available on Open AIR’s YouTube Channel.