Powwow People

Visionary filmmaker Hopinka’s latest documentary marks a deliberate departure from his previous work, embracing a restrained observational mode that positions the powwow – and Indigenous culture more broadly – as a living, contemporary practice. In contrast to dominant tendencies to historicise Indigenous peoples, the film insists on presence, situating its subjects firmly in the here and now. Its patient, cinema vérité approach builds an intimate immediacy, drawing viewers into the textures of lived experience and collective gathering. The film becomes both a political assertion of contemporary Indigenous presence and a gesture toward cultural continuity. Toronto 2025.