Film

SWEET SUMMER POW WOW

A young Indigenous couple get a break from their troubled lives when they find each other through a summer of love on the Pow-Wow circuit.

The summer Pow-wow circuit in British Columbia is spread out throughout the province, held in a different location every weekend. Thousands of singers, dancers, drummers, and vendors congregate every weekend to celebrate their culture, visit with relations, meet new friends, and especially, to fall in love. Or as it is known in Indian country- “snagging”.

JINNY, 17, lives on the Shuswap Reserve. Her diabetic mother Cara is the Chief and expects her daughter to get a law degree, return home. and follow in her footsteps. But Jinny loves dancing, not Native fancy dancing, but contemporary dance. Jinny agrees to spend her last summer on the Pow Wow circuit with her mother. On a nearby Reserve, lives Riley, 17. His single dad, MILES, 40s, is a drunk. Luckily for Riley, his Uncle LUKE, 40, has shown up to take him on the Pow Wow circuit before Riley goes to live with him in Vancouver. When Jinny and Riley meet, they are mesmerized by each other. Just as their whirlwind romance is flourishing, Cara goes into diabetic shock. Cara recovers but blames the incident on her stress over Jinny and Riley’s relationship. The guilt is too much for Jinny to bear. In a heartbreaking decision, she breaks up with Riley, but she is overwhelmed by the weight of her lost love and a future she does not want to live. What will Jinny do?