Vancouver’s Acimow Media and Toronto’s White Pine Pictures have partnered for a feature doc inspired by award-winning Indigenous playwright, author and musician Tomson Highway’s 2021 memoir Permanent Astonishment.

Tomson Highway: Permanent Astonishment (working title), commissioned by CBC and APTN, is a CBC Documentary Channel original directed by Cree/Métis filmmaker and Acimow Media CEO Barbara Todd Hager (1491: The Untold Story of the Americas before Columbus). Hager produces alongside Peter Raymont (Plastic People), founder and CEO of White Pine Pictures.

The documentary is shooting in Highway’s birthplace of Northern Manitoba as well as Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. Production began on April 24 and is set to wrap on Sept. 15.

Highway (pictured), an Officer of the Order of Canada, is known for plays such as The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, both nominated for the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama. He has written a number of children’s books, including 2001’s Caribou Song and 2002’s Dragonfly Kites, and authored the 1998 novel Kiss of the Fur Queen.

Tomson Highway: Permanent Astonishment is expected to premiere on the Documentary Channel in the 2026-27 broadcast season and will debut on APTN the following month. It was supported by the Canada Media Fund’s POV Program and the Rogers Documentary Fund. White Pine Pictures is the film’s Canadian distributor.

“I saw The Rez Sisters, in 1993, and it changed my perception of Indigenous storytelling, and inspired me to pursue a career as an Indigenous writer,” said Hager. “It’s a tremendous honour to direct a documentary about Canada’s celebrated Cree creator, Tomson Highway.”

Image courtesy of Acimow Media