Premieres Sundays, Nov. 5 - Dec. 10, 2023 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
LITTLE BIRD, a six-part series, explores universal themes of resilience in the face of trauma and loss. It follows Bezhig Little Bird (Darla Contois) as she embarks on a path to find her birth family and uncover the hidden truth of her family history. Removed from her home in Long Pine Reserve in Saskatchewan, Bezhig Little Bird is adopted into a Montréal Jewish family at age five, becoming Esther Rosenblum.
Now in her 20s, Bezhig longs for the family she lost and is willing to sacrifice everything to find them. Her search lands her in the Canadian Prairies, worlds apart from everything she knows. As she begins to track down her siblings, she unravels the mystery behind her adoption and discovers that her apprehension was connected to a racist government policy, now known as the Sixties Scoop. Bezhig's sense of identity shatters, and she is forced to reckon with who she is and who she wants to become.
Led by Contois, the character-driven drama features a talented cast of Indigenous actors, including: Ellyn Jade; Osawa Muskwa; Joshua Odjick; Imajyn Cardinal; Braeden Clarke; Eric Schweig; and Michelle Thrush. Rounding out the cast is Lisa Edelstein (HOUSE, M.D., GIRLFRIENDS’ GUIDE TO DIVORCE) who plays Esther’s adoptive mother, Golda Rosenblum.
Film Awards:
The recent winner of the coveted Audience Award at the 2023 SERIES MANIA Festival in Lille, France, LITTLE BIRD was filmed in and around Winnipeg, in Brokenhead Ojibway Nation on Treaty 1 territory and in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation. LITTLE BIRD showrunner Jennifer Podemski was also recently presented with an Academy Board Of Directors’ Tribute Award at the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards.
EPISODE GUIDE: (schedule subject to change)
“Love is all Around” Sunday Nov. 5 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV - 1968: Bezhig Little Bird, her sister and brother are ripped away from their mother by police to be put up for adoption. Now, 18 years later, Bezhig, renamed Esther Rosenblum, doesn’t feel a sense of belonging in her comfortable life.
”So Put Together” Sunday, Nov. 12 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV - Esther finds her adoption papers, and a news clipping that evokes memories on the Long Pine Reserve, before she was adopted. Determined to learn more, she uproots her life, sacrificing everything in search of her family and who she is.
“The Land that Takes You” Sunday, Nov. 19 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV - Patti Little Bird is desperate to get her kids back, but she doesn’t know where they have been taken. Eighteen years later, Bezhig/Esther is desperate to find her family. Both women are lost, tangled in the exact same place, decades apart.
“Burning Down The House” Sunday, Nov. 26 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV - Esther finds members of her family who help her put together the pieces of the past. She returns to Montreal to confront her adoptive mother about the revelations that shine a light on their life and change the way they look at the past.
“I Want My Mom” Premieres Sunday, Dec. 3. 9 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV - Esther returns to the prairies and continues her pursuit of uncovering her past. Reconnecting the severed ties of a broken family is not easy. When tragedy strikes, Esther realizes that she needs her mother, Golda, more than anything.
“Bineshi Kwe” Sunday, Dec. 10 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV - The Little Bird family comes together to mourn death and celebrate life. Esther and Golda are both changed from this journey of self-discovery, but it has strengthened their bond. Esther has finally found what she’s been looking for.
PBS presents COMING HOME, a 90-minute companion documentary providing historical context about the Sixties Scoop on October 12. Directed by Erica Daniels (Run as One), COMING HOME explores the connections between the ground-breaking movement for Indigenous narrative sovereignty and the impact ofthe child welfare system as experienced through the LITTLE BIRD series’ Indigenous creatives, crew, and Sixties Scoop advisors. COMING HOME provides a structuring through-line, interwoven with interviews with cast, crew, and community members revealing personal connections to the Sixties Scoop.
Watch On Your Schedule:
LITTLE BIRD and COMING HOME are available to stream on all station-branded PBS platforms including PBS.org, and the PBS App, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast, and VIZIO.
Credits:
Led by an Indigenous creative team, LITTLE BIRD is developed by showrunner, Jennifer Podemski and Rezolution Pictures, and created by Podemski and head writer Hannah Moscovitch. The creative team includes directors Zoe Hopkins and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and was written by Hopkins and Moscovitch. The series is executive produced by Christina Fon, Ernest Webb, Catherine Bainbridge, Linda Ludwick (Rezolution Pictures), Kim Todd, Nicholas Hirst (Original Pictures), Jennifer Podemski, Hannah Moscovitch, Zoe Hopkins, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Jeremy Podeswa, along with Christian Vesper and Dante Di Loreto (Fremantle). Producers are Tanya Brunel and Jessica Dunn (OP Little Bird), Claire MacKinnon and Philippe Chabot Rezolution Pictures) and Lori Lozinski and Ellen Rutter. Fremantle handles global sales. For Bell Media, Alison Korogyi is Development Executive; Rachel Goldstein-Couto is Head of Development, Original Programming; Mitch Geddes is Production Executive; Sarah Fowlie is Head of Production, Original Programming; Carlyn Klebuc is General Manager, Original Programming; Tory Jennings is Director of Content, Crave; Justin Stockman is Vice-President, Content Development & Programming; and Karine Moses is Senior Vice-President, Content Development & News, Bell Media and Vice Chair, Québec, Bell. For APTN, Adam Garnet Jones is Director of TV Content and Special Events, Danelle Granger is Executive in charge of Development and Scripted Content, and Lisa Ducharme is director of online content and deliverables
