“Waiting For Buffalo” is an extremely affecting glimpse into life on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The film follows two Oglala Sioux men who are transporting buffalo into a pen on the reservation, with historical clips and information slides providing a greater context on the destruction of buffalo and the condition of the Sioux people. The two, we learn, are inextricably bound. The buffalo were intentionally eliminated as they were a crucial food source for Native Americans. The buffalo themselves are shown as both powerful and peaceful, racing by the camera as ferocious beasts and loitering in the pen as simple animals. It is hard to ignore tragedy when we see them, and the same is true of the Sioux people. The moment when the two men discuss selling buffalo calves to supplement the tribe’s income is devastating. As they stand alone in desolation, beside a skeletal pen, the suffering is impossible to evade. It’s unspeakable. “Waiting For Buffalo” is an exceptional confrontation with one of this country’s greatest ongoing tragedies. – Ayden Kowalski, Scene Writer