Powwow People Review: An Immersive Portrait of a Community Institution

Powwow People
(USA, 88min.)
Dir. Sky Hopinka
Programme: TIFF Docs (World premiere)

 

Move over, Morgan Freeman! There’s a new voiceover king in town. 

The comical drawl of master of ceremonies Ruben Little Head provides an immediate hook to Sky Hopinka’s Powwow People. This immersive observational documentary lets audiences experience a powwow and all the hands entailed in bringing the traditional dance ceremony to life. As Little Head emcees the proceedings, he shouts out all the dedicated parties, dancers, and elders who help keep the ritual alive. But make no mistake: this isn’t a National Geographic documentary, as Little Head drolly reminds Hopinka from behind the microphone. Powwow People is a portrait of Indigenous life through an Indigenous lens, told with the energy and excitement of the seventh hockey game in the Stanley Cup finals. 

Hopinka, working with cinematographer Shaandiin Tome, gives a cinéma vérité portrait of a three-day powwow. However, Powwow People hardly takes a fly-on-the-way approach to filming the community. Hopinka (Malni: Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore) and Tome have a clear presence in the film. Little Head frequently teases Hopinka from behind the microphone, jokingly directing the director and ribbing him a little throughout the events. The cameras stand proudly with the participants, rather than behind them, acting as all-seeing eyes. They capture the sound guys and folks in the crowd equally as they’re all in the dance, so to speak. It is community filmmaking in lieu of ethnographic filmmaking.

The film’s deceptive simplicity serves as its strength as the powwow unfolds with the cadence of a single day as opposed to the much longer event that provides coverage for the story. As the camera observes dancers taking their marks, elders handing out prizes to kids, and attendees grabbing some smoked salmon to munch on, the film captures the powwow as a living entity. The film does for the ceremony what Fred Wiseman does for libraries and galleries in his films, although Fred might want to consider giving Little Head a gig. The emcee lands another good joke when reminding folks about the smoked salmon that’s for sale, noting that its vendor sells it by the ounce–a complicated transaction that invites a zinger about other stuff that’s smoked.

Besides the quotidian sights from every angle of the powwow, Hopinka presents views from participants encountered throughout the film. Audio interviews overlay the vérité shots with further observations. A dancer named Jamie John, for example, speaks to the inclusive community of the powwow. John shares their concerns about being able to carry over their place among the dancers after transitioning, but notes that there was no before and after for them. Once a dancer, always a dancer in the community’s eyes.

Powwow People captivatingly draws audiences into the power of the ceremony in the film’s bravura final act. In one unbroken 30-minute long take, Hopinka captures a competition that brings the powwow to a close. The best dancers, including Sugarcane director Julian Brave Noisecat, take the field in an elimination dance-off. The camera moves around the field as dancers in full regalia jingle and jangle, feeling the rhythm and doing their communities proud. What this extended view captures is a collective spirit, and it draws everyone in the audience in to share the moment. The powerful ending gets a good mic drop from Little Head, too. He shoots, but they all score.

Powwow People screens at TIFF 2025.

Get more coverage from this year’s festival here.

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