RealScreen: TIFF ’22: Buffy Sainte-Marie doc to make world premiere at this year’s festival
Iconic singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, whose work has been covered and sampled by stars like Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Courtney Love and Kanye West, is the subject of a documentary feature premiering at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, the festival revealed on Wednesday (August 10).
The previously announced Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On takes an intimate look at the Indigenous singer’s journey and career as an artist, activist and teacher. The film is produced by Eagle Vision, White Pine Pictures and Paquin Entertainment.
Canadian filmmaker Madison Thomas (Taken, Ruthless Souls) directed the film, and also shares a writing credit with Andrea Warner (Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography).
The Tyee: Andrea Warner Is a Book Person
By Michelle Cyca 23 Jun 2021 | TheTyee.ca
”The last 12 years of my life have been about writing women and people of colour back into history,” says Andrea Warner, a critic, author and podcaster. “Our pop culture cannot just be what white men care about. I refuse to accept that. I’ve been resisting it since I was three years old, and I know that there are countless other people resisting that with me.”
Warner’s resistance is evident in her two published non-fiction books, which braid together her twin passions: feminism and music criticism. Her first book, We Oughta Know: How Four Women Ruled the ’90s and Changed Canadian Music, celebrates a powerhouse quartet of Canadian musicians— Alanis, Sarah, Shania and Céline — whose legacies have been diminished despite their tremendous commercial success and lasting musical influence. Her second book, Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography, is a revealing story of the Cree icon and activist.
“My friend Hannah McGregor named my style of writing ‘consent-based journalism,’ and I really love that idea,” explains Warner, who approached Saint-Marie’s biography as a collaborative exercise grounded in trust and respect. “I’m privileged because I work in media, and what I get to do with that space is make decisions about what I’m covering and who I’m writing about.”
“A lot of journalists want to pretend they have no power, but we know that’s a lie. We can see who used to be written about almost exclusively, and how they used to be written about. And it’s such a dangerous lie to tell yourself you have no power, because then you have no accountability, and you don’t have to look at your own complicity. I want to always, always be thinking about what my complicity is.”
Read more via the Tyee.
Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography
September 2018: Hardcover | Digital & E-readers | Audiobook (narrated by Andrea Warner and Buffy Sainte-Marie)
February 2021: Paperback
Order in Canada at your local bookstore, Amazon, or Indigo.
Order in the USA, at your local bookstore/Indiebound, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.
Press contact: publicity@greystonebooks.com
Advance praise
"Buffy Sainte-Marie is an icon and inspiration. This book is necessary—an authorized insight into the making of a legend." Terese Marie Mailhot, author of Heart Berries
"Warner's book draws decades of incredible, world-changing accomplishments together to make an irrefutable case for Sainte-Marie's place among the rock n’ roll and songwriting greats." Tanya Tagaq
“Long overdue, Andrea Warner’s expansive, authorized biography reveals the astonishing range and breadth of Buffy Sainte-Marie’s work as a musician and writer, activist, educator, and spiritual leader.... Sainte-Marie is a true star, and this book goes a long way toward showing us how and why.” Chris Kraus, author of I Love Dick and After Kathy Acker: A Biography
"A crucial and compelling book that further cements Buffy Sainte-Marie's place in music history." Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic
"Warner has composed an extraordinary portrait of one of our most extraordinary artists, a book that feels suffused with Buffy Sainte-Marie's personality and spirit." Sean Michaels, author of Us Conductors
"Buffy Sainte-Marie is a beacon: she shows us how unwavering vision and fierce independence go hand-in-hand with the work of creating solidarity, community, justice, and beauty. This book is the captivating story of that achievement." Naomi Klein, author of No is Not Enough and This Changes Everything
“For me, Buffy Sainte-Marie will always be that beautiful, raw piece of energy that burst into a television studio and energized the darkness with her light.
"I have known her through the years and yet only with this heartfelt and revealing book do I know all the details of Buffy Sainte-Marie that I had only guessed or that had been hinted: the dreadful, terrifying abuse she experienced as a tiny child; the misunderstanding and prejudice that she faced; the struggles to assert herself as Indigenous, and; her defiant affirmation as herself as a woman who could be known, simply, as “Buffy”. Her female qualities gave her the strength and the power which we now understand as being the source of all the great things that have happened to her in her career.
"I want anyone who has picked up this book to understand that only by reading a life like this— only by understanding he tremendous efforts that Buffy has made—can we come to the understanding of what we are and have been as a people. Buffy Sainte-Marie helped us to realize that not everything can be taken away. She made us realize that out of loss and denial can come enormous gifts and beauty.” Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada (1999-2005)
Press
Jezebel
Pitchfork
Vulture
NPR
Strombo
Q
Lainey Gossip
Literary Review of Canada
The Social
Digital Drum
Say Magazine
Discorder
Secret Feminist Agenda
Exclaim!
Now Toronto
Day 6
Vancouver Magazine
Quill & Quire
Read Local
Chatelaine
CBC Books fall preview
SAD Mag
The Star
CBC Books interview
We Oughta Know: How Four Women Ruled the '90s and Changed Canadian Music in the media
"Andrea Warner's We Oughta Know ... masterfully dismantles the sexist constructs often used to tear down the artistry of Celine Dion, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette and Shania Twain." — Josh O'Kane, the Globe & Mail
"[We Oughta Know] will make you wish more ‘historical’ reads were written like this... In a sea of endlessly polite Canadians, Andrea Warner’s bluntly quotable statements are here to stay. They seem to beckon to a new era where media criticism is truly about content, rather than coming from a place of privilege. As for the four hated/loved icons of Canadian music – is it possible to revisit those ’90s tracks with fresh ears? Well – just read the book. You’ll be unironically humming Dion in no time." — Vancity Buzz
"[Andrea Warner is] a warm, engaging writer who celebrates the power of girls and women and their voices, and critiques the culture that made all this happen." — Kerry Clare
"The book just takes this heartwrenching turn. I was caught off-guard that this was coming because I was expecting to read this cultural analysis. But the way Andrea inserts herself into this story is really compelling and touching. There was a point where I was like, 'Are we going to get back to the music talk, and the women?' Not because I was put off, but because I was so immersed in Andrea's life. There's a nice segue between that kind of personal discussion and back to the analysis." — Vish Khanna on Shelagh Rogers' The Next Chapter
“We Oughta Know is about four Canadian women who changed music in the 90s: Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLachlan, Shania Twain, and Celine Dion. And not just in Canada but EVERYWHERE. Also…how their music changed us. I’m a sh-t for not appreciating this sooner. Those were my formative years, formative years for many of you too. And these women weren’t just good, they were dominant.” — Lainey Gossip
"[We Oughta Know] excels at critiquing the gendered media attention all four artists received as they conquered the charts…Warner rips the critics to shreds, breaking down the misogyny in their language and reminding us again and again of the hyper-critical lens the media affixes to public women.” — The National Post
“Warner grants us a glimpse into her journey through feminism in the 90s, how these four women shaped her ideals and helped her through different parts of her life, and keeps it all relevant, interesting, and captivating.” — Lithium
Press
Kreative Kontrol with Vish Khanna / podcast