After proving he could pull off comedy and suspense with the local hit The Great Salish Heist, writer-director Darrell Dennis proves his versatility with this charming love story about two young people who meet cute on BC’s Pow Wow circuit. Jinny (Tatyana Rose Baptiste) is 17, beautiful, and destined for law school — that is, according to her mom, Cara, who is Chief of the Coyote Lake Tribe. But what Jinny really wants to do is dance. Then there’s Riley (Joshua Odjick), from the rival White Bluff Indian Reserve. Chief Cara knows he’s trouble from the moment she lays eyes on him…
Around the edges the film points to issues like addiction, diabetes, and generational trauma, but at its heart this is (as the title suggests) a sweet, affirmative romance about attractive and likable teenagers finding their way.
Apr 11 & 12: Q&A with producer Leslie Bland
Darrell Dennis
Tatyana Rose Baptiste, Joshua Odjick, Graham Greene, Tanis Parenteau
Canada
2025
English
Audience Award, Victoria Film Festival
Violence, coarse language
Open to youth!
$10 youth tickets available
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits
Producer
Leslie D. Bland, Harold C. Joe
Screenwriter
Darrell Dennis, Katya Gardner
Cinematography
Daniel Carruthers
Editor
Gavin Andrews
Original Music
Wayne Lavallee
Production Design
Lisa Hageman Yahgulanaas
Art Director
Sam Higgins
Also in This Series
Canadian Film Week spotlights 18 features, including six Vancouver premieres and four brand new films from BC filmmakers, plus returning classics, new favourites, and free screenings on National Canadian Film Day.
Incandescence
Filmed across the Okanagan before, during and after several devastating fires by veteran non-fiction filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper (Metamorphosis; ScaredSacred), Incandescence is a mesmerizing cinematic contemplation of the power of wildfires.
Universal Language
In a wintery, Farsi-speaking city that’s equal measures Winnipeg and Tehran, storylines entangle and the concepts of space, time, and identity grow increasingly opaque. Inventive and absurd, Rankin's poetic fable reminds us that Winnipeg is a wonderland. Rated: G
Are We Done Now?
Down River director Ben Immanuel returns with a wry, self-aware Covid comedy in which a socially distant Vancouver documentarian checks in with a stressed-out therapist (Gabrielle Miller) and several of her patients over the course of the pandemic.