TULSA – The Philbrook Museum of Art has expanded its mission of creating community through art to include film with its series of events, titled Films at the Museum. It began with a Jan. 30 screening of the documentary “POWWOW PEOPLE,” directed by Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk, Pechenga).
Prior to the screening, a panel including Hopinka, Executive Producer Sterlin Harjo (Seminole, Mvskoke), and Producer and Director of the Sundance Institute’s Indigenous Program Adam Piron (Kiowa, Mohawk). During the panel, Hopinka, Piron, and Harjo spoke about why they made the film, the process of organizing the powwow, and taking the film to be screened across the country.
According to the filmmakers, rather than attending an ongoing powwow, they formed their own. They even hosted it early in the week to avoid conflicts with previously scheduled gatherings. The filmmakers invited singers, dancers, drummers, merch and food vendors, and the wider community to take part.
As Hopinka says on his website, the documentary also follows four particular people as filmmakers go through the process of designing and hosting the powwow, which was filmed at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle, WA, in 2023.
Hopinka and the film’s producers felt it was necessary to show an honest, authentic depiction of gatherings like powwows. Harjo even joked that modern depictions often revolve around stereotypes.
“I think that the world sometimes feels like we can just drive out to the tall grass prairie somewhere, and if you look hard enough, you’re going to see an Indian, in regalia, dancing alone for absolutely no reason,” Harjo said.
Harjo spoke of how it’s vital to see a depiction of a powwow, and all of the work that goes into it, giving it the respect it deserves.
“It’s so refreshing just to see these intimate close shots with the people that are participating in this, and kind of showing how community builds this event. It sort of shows that it speaks to the things that we miss when people from the outside are shooting slow-motion B-roll of dancers at a powwow to be put over some dramatic music,” he continued.
To quote Hopinka’s description on his website, the goal of this depiction is to draw the viewer “into the textures, movement, and collective presence of the powwow,” even describing it as “both a reflection of a beloved and complicated community and a gesture toward the continuities of Native life.”
For more information on Sky Hopinka’s work, visit his website at https://www.skyhopinka.com/
For more information on future events at the Philbrook Museum of Art, such as more of their Films at the Museum series, visit their website at https://philbrook.org/
