Meadowlarks
“The women of Meadowlarks are recognizable in so many ways.”
Title: Meadowlarks (2025)
Director: Tasha Hubbard 👩🏽🇨🇦 (Cree)
Writers: Tasha Hubbard 👩🏽🇨🇦 (Cree) and Emil Sher 👨🏼🇨🇦
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 4.5/5
There’s a reason why so many films are based on true stories: Nothing is more moving, or more cruel, than real life. Writer-director Tasha Hubbard takes this simple fact and pulls from her own experience as a 60s Scoop survivor, charting a first-time reunion between four Cree siblings, now adults in their 50s, after they were forcibly separated from their parents by the Canadian government as children.
The resulting narrative film, Meadowlarks, premiered this evening at the Toronto International Film Festival. The siblings Anthony (Michael Greyeyes), Connie (Carmen Moore), Marianne (Alex Rice), and Gwen (Michelle Thrush) start off awkwardly at their self-organized family retreat in Banff, exchanging gifts from their transplanted locations across Canada and Belgium while tiptoeing around potential landmines that they haven’t yet learned to avoid. Over the course of the movie, a microcosm of their vulnerabilities, coping mechanisms, and grief comes to the fore, bubbling over like a bloodletting.
Depending on your mileage for unrestrained and earnest drama, Meadowlarks can veer on the sappy side. Less debatable is Greyeyes’ powerful acting, which stands out as one of the film’s highlights. It’s incredible to reconcile his tough guy roles, from a terrifying sociopath in Wild Indian (2021) to the slick and confident dealmaker in Peacock comedy Rutherford Falls (2021–22), with Meadowlarks’ sweet, nervous Anthony. In press notes, Greyeyes shares, “I’m 6’2” but I’m playing a person who, emotionally, is 5’2”, a boy,” and he portrays that impeccably. In fact, all of the actors do well, creating an affecting family drama that’s supported by solid performances.
Gender: 5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES
Most of the characters are women, and they each develop crisscrossing relationships that show a range of women's experiences. They’re recognizable in so many ways: Connie tries to make sure everything is okay, all the time, and does this by being both controlling yet oblivious to her own needs. Older sister Gwen’s a forthright single mother, someone who papers over her past traumas and a history of substance abuse by donning a tough exterior. And Marianne’s a contrast to them all—someone who’s well-adjusted and generous after a “nice” upbringing in Antwerp, where she wasn’t neglected or abused. But as Marianne realizes, “‘nice’ isn’t enough.” She’s carried a hole in her heart everywhere she went and discovers that she can only fill it up by integrating her Indigenous roots with her current self. In each of the portraits, Hubbard adeptly showcases women who feel instantly familiar, in all their beautiful flaws, imperfections, and strengths.
Race: 5/5
In press notes, Hubbard praises the limited series Little Bird (2023) for bringing awareness to the 60s Scoop through a narrative story. “I wanted Meadowlarks to be a part of that,” she says, and her film does just that.
Better yet, Hubbard balances this painful history with radiant scenes of identity reclamation and Indigenous pride. When the siblings are invited to meet with elders Alma (Theda NewBreast) and Simon (Russell Badger), they’re immersed in rituals such as offering tobacco as a sign of respect and a smudging ceremony. These cultural touchpoints offer audiences both education and hope, showing the resilience of Indigenous peoples who—despite violent attempts by colonizers to grind away their culture—can still ask their grandson to sing an honor song that welcomes home his Indigenous kin.
Mediaversity Grade: A 4.83/5
While Meadowlarks occasionally lapses into melodrama, Hubbard’s film succeeds in its most important mission—elevating the stories of 60s Scoop survivors and providing catharsis for those affected by the cruel government policies that enables so many forced family separations. Hubbard excavates a painful history but offers us plenty of hard-earned hope to move forward with.
Like Meadowlarks? Try these other Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) premieres starring Indigenous characters.
Wildhood (2021)
Bones of Crows (2022)
Scarborough (2021)