Doc Talks: Sky Hopinka and Adam Piron
Description
Doc Talks’s final gathering profiles Sky Hopinka (SFFILM POV Award, 2025) and producer Adam Piron to discuss their film, Powwow People. Join us as they share lessons learned from selecting the right producing partners and plans for strategic festival engagement.
ATTENDEE INFORMATION
Doc Talks is a series of filmmaker conversations exploring both the creative and practical realities of documentary storytelling. They feature acclaimed directors and producers sharing insights into their process and strategy, and are designed for both filmmakers and film lovers. If you haven’t yet, make sure to get your tickets for Powwow People.
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Born and raised in Ferndale, WA, Sky Hopinka is a descendant of the Ho-Chunk Nation and the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians. He is a video artist, photographer, writer, and teacher, in addition to being a filmmaker. His films include Trade (2013), Jáaji Approx. (Festival 2016), Visions of an Island (2016), Dislocation Blues (2017), Lore (2019), Kicking the Clouds (2022), and Sunflower Siege Engine (2023), and maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Festival 2025). He is the recipient of a 2022 MacArthur Fellowship and the 2025 SFFILM Persistence of Vision Award.
Adam Piron (Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma and Mohawk) is a Southern California-based filmmaker, writer, and curator. He is a co-founder of COUSIN: a film collective dedicated to supporting Indigenous artists experimenting with, and pushing the boundaries, of the moving image. His films have screened at the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, MoMA Doc Fortnight, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, and various other festivals and programs. His writings have appeared in The Criterion Collection’s Current, MUBI Notebook, Cinema Scope Magazine, the Metrograph Journal, and CNN.
