OKANAGAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Healing, Community, Craft and Tradition: Film Screenings

The Okanagan International Film Festival (OKIFF) celebrates Canadian, international and Indigenous cinema while supporting the continued growth of the Okanagan’s film and television industry. By bringing filmmakers, audiences and industry leaders together, OKIFF creates opportunities for connection and collaboration while showcasing the region as a premier destination for film production and creative talent.

Films, in order of presentation:

Wawahtew (Canada, language: English) 5:54 minutes
Documentary Short on Emery Wesley an indigenous man who tells his story on how immersing himself in his culture and becoming a POW WOW singer and drummer saved his life.

Raised by the Canoe (Canada, language: English) 16:31 minutes
The Terry Lee Canoe Club, from Sts’ailes First Nation (Chehalis) , began decades ago as a family-based crew. This beautiful dugout canoe brought family and friends together. It's history is rich with culture and stories shared by the founders and early members. Today, the club is experiencing a powerful resurgence as the next generation carries on the canoe culture and strives to nurture and care for its reestablishment.

Amid modern distractions and challenges faced by Indigenous peoples striving to stay connected to culture can be challenging. Cathrine Paul and her husband, Devin, now guide the club into the future with the support of many knowledge keepers. Devin has become a canoe builder, combining the skills he has developed through the years and also recently added strip canoe building from Cathrine’s father, a respected seventh-generation Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) canoe carver and paddler.

Success on the water requires tremendous commitment. Canoe pullers must train consistently, maintain their fitness, follow disciplined routines, and rely on one another to paddle as one. The dedication is demanding but the rewards are profound. From one generation to the next the paddle never left our hands.

Everlasting (Canada, language: English) 11:04 minutes
This experimental short film—a research-creation blending documentary and archival research in the cinema verité format—follows the place-keeping power of unbroken ties to territory through local seed saving and hide tanning initiatives. These ways of being and doing refuse settler partitions of land and city challenging settler geographies of terra nullius. Interlacing past-present-future across the backdrop of a shape-shifting metropolis, the short film affirms Indigenous peoples’ connection to the land beyond the past—as everlasting.

Buffalo (Canada) 15:33 minutes
Michelle Tweed is an Indigenous drum maker based in Rockfield, Nova Scotia. We follow her as she crafts a drum using buffalo hide sourced from Verhagan Bison Farms. Michelle collaborates with students from the Pictou County Forestry School to create this drum, highlighting the power of community learning alongside Mother Nature and the spirit of the land. This journey brings people together, culminating in a celebration where handmade drums are presented to the Verhagen family.

Back to the Fire (Canada, language: English) 1:01:00 minutes
Leaders of Squamish Nation in British Columbia share personal stories and the teachings learned around the fire, that propelled them through adversity to become a billion-dollar corporation reshaping the Vancouver skyline.

Learn more at: www.okiff.org

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Price per screening time

General Admission $15.00 ($12.37 base price + $2.63 service charge)

All above prices are CAD and include GST.

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A service fee is added for box office costs, card processing, and taxes. Okanagan International Film Festival tickets and their applicable fees are non-refundable.