Sweet Summer Pow Wow: Teens in Love, Amid Dance, Drums and Parental Interference
By Liz Braun
Rating: B
Tatyana Rose Baptiste and Joshua Odjick star in Sweet Summer Pow Wow, a dramedy about unexpected romance and young people on the cusp of adult life. Their performances carry this endearing story.
Set in British Columbia and filmed on Vancouver Island, Sweet Summer Pow Wow unfolds during First Nations summer festivities.
Tatyana Rose Baptiste and Joshua Odjick in Sweet Summer Pow Wow
Jinny (Baptiste) lives on the Shuswap Reserve where her accomplished mother (Tanis Parenteau) is the Chief. Expectations are high for Jinny, a clever young woman on her way to a law degree and a future spent, in her words, “fighting for the sovereignty of my people.”
Jinny is skilled at traditional dance and is part of the Pow Wow circuit, spending time with her mother on this last summer before she leaves for college. Secretly, however, Jinny loves modern dance. Although her path through life has already been laid out for her by her formidable parent, Jinny fantasizes about moving to Vancouver and joining a dance studio.
At one Pow Wow, Jinny meets Riley (Odjick), who introduces himself and says he lives on the White Bluff reserve. Both are 17; both are highly motivated.
Riley intends to become a designer and move to the city, but he has a very different background from Jinny. His mother died when he was an infant, and his father is troubled and abusive. Riley goes to Pow Wow with his uncle (Joel Montgrand), to be part of a drum group.
He and Jinny are immediately attracted to one another. But the course of true love never did run smooth.
Jinny’s mother has ambitions for her daughter. No upstart guy is going to derail those plans. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, etc.
Sweet Summer Pow Wow is a love story that delves into tradition and identity, even as it investigates the extra pressure teens endure from their parents — whether those parents are overbearing or woefully uninvolved. Both Jinny and Riley must figure out how they’re going to live their lives and achieve their dreams.
The cast of Sweet Summer Pow Wow includes Graham Greene, who plays the MC at the Pow Wow and who includes bits of wisdom, philosophy and comedy in his announcements There’s also Lisa C. Ravensbergen as Jinny’s madcap aunt, and Tyler Peters as a local kid who looks up to Riley and longs to be a superhero.
The film is charming and often funny and the characters are appealing.
First Nations filmmaker Darrell Dennis (The Great Salish Heist) has spoken about the importance of Indigenous stories coming from a place of strength rather than trauma. He has created attractive young heroes in the characters of Jinny and Riley.
Sweet Summer Pow Wow debuted at the Victoria Film Festival earlier this year, where it won the Audience Favourite Award.
Sweet Summer Pow Wow. Directed by Darrell Dennis, co-written by Darrell Dennis and Katya Gardner. Stars Tatyana Rose Baptiste, Joshua Odjick, Graham Greene, Tanis Parenteau, Joel Montgrand. In theatres Friday, August 22.