Powwow People

Following his Persistence of Vision Award at the 2025 San Francisco International Film Festival, Sky Hopinka returns with a stirring new vérité documentary. Presented as a single day at a contemporary powwow gathering, Hopinka observes rituals, regalia, and song. The film team organized the powwow event themselves, inviting dancers, singers, and vendors to both participate and help make this film. In documenting the shared and the personal experience, Hopinka interrogates the act of viewing and the construct of filmmaking. His loose structure allows viewers to experience the rhythm and movements of dancing, the sacrality of traditions, and pull of heritage. It is both a powerfully immersive experience and a cinematic testament on the strength of the Indigenous community. – Jessie Fairbanks