1 / 1 Tatyana Rose Baptiste and Joshua Odjick star in Sweet Summer Pow Wow, a film inspired by Director Darrell Dennis' youth in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. Orca Cove Media Advertisement
In the mid 1980s, a boy called Darrell Dennis was living in Esk'et (Alkali Lake), taking the bus every day to Williams Lake Junior Secondary School (WLJSS), when he got bit by a bug.
This wasn't just any bug - it was the drama bug, and he hasn't been able to shake it since. Not that he'd want to - Dennis is now living full time in Los Angeles as an actor, writer, director and producer, and starting Friday, Sept. 26, his latest film will be screening in Williams Lake.
"I'm very excited for it to be coming to Williams Lake," said Dennis in an interview with the Tribune. Growing up in the area, Dennis remembers a time when he really could have used a film reflecting himself in it, and he hopes to do the same for today's Indigenous youth in the Cariboo and across Canada.
"I didn't have that kind of representation growing up in that area...that's why it means so much to me to bring it back here," Dennis said.
Sweet Summer Pow Wow is a film about young love, and while filmed in and around Duncan on Vancouver Island, is partly inspired by Dennis' youth in the Cariboo.
"The film is very much my love letter to my youth, to pow wow culture and to Indigenous culture," Dennis said. "It's kind of based on my experiences on the powwow circuit."
Dennis is Secwépemc (Shuswap) of the Adams Lake Indian Band, about 45 minutes outside of Kamloops, but spent most of his childhood growing up in Esk'et and Williams Lake before moving to Vancouver. He went to Marie Sharpe Elementary School before attending WLJSS, where he took his first drama classes.
"I was one of the very few native student to take drama there," Dennis recalled. "That's where I got bitten by the drama bug."
At 17 years old, Dennis was cast as Brian Potter in the '90s CBC teen drama Northwood, which took the original time slot for Degrassi. It was here in Vancouver that his career in film and television began to take off, but it was not a simple path.
"There's huge highs and huge lows, but I kept plugging away, because it was my first love," he said about a career in the industry.
Dennis said that, as an Indigenous actor, the roles which he was being considered for did not impress him. They called them "leather and feather roles," where Indigenous actors always represented figures of the past.
"We don't ever get to see ourselves in the same movies that almost every other culture gets to see," Dennis said about Indigenous people. He wanted to make actors like himself mainstream, playing the hero, lover or lawyer.
"We were trying to be considered actors first and our race second," Dennis said.
So, he started writing.
"The characters I wrote were witty, smart...very much the people I grew up with," Dennis said.
He harnessed that humour from his youth, but also from his days with The Second City in Toronto, a training ground where comedians such as Mike Myers, Catherine O'Hara and John Candy got started.
"As far as we know, I am the very first Indigenous cast member there," Dennis said.
The Second City also contributed to his ability to write quickly and with instinct.
Dennis wrote a one-man, semi-autobiographical play called Tales of an Urban Indian, which he once brought to Williams Lake to perform. The play earned him a nomination for a Dora Mavor Moore Award.
"That kind of got me a bit of attention in the theatre world," he said.
From there, he started picking up writing gigs, working on scripts for television and slowly sliding into being a director. He directed Guilt Free Zone for two seasons, where he developed the confidence to take on his own projects.
Now, Dennis has written and directed two feature films, and his next project will be an adaptation of his play Tales of an Urban Indian.
"My mission as a filmmaker was to try putting a more modern and contemporary slant on Indigenous representation," Dennis said. He wants to see Indigenous actors play the everyday character, as well as in comedy.
His first film, the Great Salish Heist was, as far as he knows, the very first Indigenous heist film. His latest film, Sweet Summer Pow Wow, follows a storyline you could easily find in any film on Netflix. Just "kids finding their way through love."
Both films feature the late Canadian actor Graham Greene, whose Oscar nomination for his performance in Dancing with Wolves was received just as Dennis was getting his career started. Greene, who died on Sept. 1, 2025, was known for pushing the status quo, appearing on screen with actors such as Kevin Costern, Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis, and for challenging 'type-casting,' performing in roles such as a police officer in Die Hard and a judge in Molly's Game.
"Graham was the exception to the rule," Dennis said, noting how the actor was an inspiration for his success and for playing in "roles where he didn't have to be Indigenous."
Dennis said he was grateful for becoming friends with Dennis in the actor's later life. They worked on several projects together and were in the early stages of developing another movie.
"He loved the script," Dennis said.
It's a full-circle moment for Dennis, from growing into the industry with Greene's support to writing scripts for Greene to act in.
"He's been a huge supporter of mine."
Sweet Summer Pow Wow made its way through Cineplex theatres across Canada, and now it is coming to the town which contributed to its very inspiration.
"It means a huge amount for these people (whom he grew up with in the Cariboo) to see those movies and to see Indigenous people represented in a good way and celebrated in a positive way," Dennis said.