Indigenous People Film Festival
Images in Williamstown
By: Images - Sep 18, 2026
Images Cinema will present a second edition of Indigenous Peoples Film Festival, its series featuring indigenous films from across the US and Canada, beginning Monday, October 5 and continuing weekly on Mondays through October 26th, with a finale on Thursday, October 29.
As with our first edition in November 2023, this edition’s films focus on indigenous stories from across the US and Canada. Most of the screenings will feature introductions by local leaders, community organizers, journalists, and academics, inviting audiences to consider the questions raised by the films and how those questions connect to our own communities.
This festival is co-curated by Dan Hudson, Executive Director, and Liz Redwing, community member (Dakota/Mohegan).
“Indigenous Peoples Film Festival is an opportunity to honor the original inhabitants and stewards of these lands,” says Dan Hudson, Executive Director of Images Cinema. “We’re really excited with this year’s lineup, which showcases the variety and depth of indigenous storytelling from the past couple of years! All genres and styles of cinema will be on display.”
The festival’s opening night film is Powwow People, one of the most programmed and celebrated indigenous feature films from the festival circuit. Filmmaker and visual artist Sky Hopinka will join us for a post-screening Q&A on Monday, October 5th.
For Indigenous Peoples Day, Monday, October 12th, Images Cinema will host a pre-screening reception from 6pm-7pm featuring a menu from local chef Melissa Baehr of Indigenous Deliciousness. The screening will include a short film by local filmmaker Joe Plante, which features Stockbridge-Munsee youth visiting their Homelands. Joe Plante will join us for an introduction. The main feature is Meadowlarks, an official selection of TIFF and featuring an incredible cast including Michael Greyeyes.
The closing night film on Monday, October 26th, is Aanikoobijigan [ancestor], a Sundance-award winning documentary feature with an original score by local band Lucky Dragons. Directors Adam and Zach Khalil are rising filmmakers recently named to the 25 Filmmakers to Watch list. The screening will feature some opening remarks and introduction from Christine DeLucia, Associate Professor of History at Williams College, and Bonnie Hartley, Tribal Historic Preservation Manager for the Stockbridge-Munsee.
Before each film in the festival will also be a social hour in the Images Cinema Lounge from 6pm-7pm, with opportunities for guests, organizers, and community members to gather. Throughout the series a tea blend made from a traditional local indigenous recipe will be available from Wild Soul River, all proceeds from the sale of this tea will be donated to the Stockbridge-Munsee.
Tickets for all festival screenings are available on a $0-$20, pay-what-you-can sliding scale. All screenings will take place at Images Cinema in our recently renovated, world class screening room at 50 Spring Street in Williamstown, MA. More information and tickets can be found at: imagescinema.org/series--festivals/
2026 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP
POWWOW PEOPLE
Monday, October 5 at 7pm (tickets)
Official opening night film.
Powwow People is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering.
There will be a post-screening conversation with filmmaker Sky Hopinka.
MEADOWLARKS w/SEVEN GENERATIONS OF HOPE
Monday, October 12 at 7pm (tickets)
The film tells the story of four Cree siblings, Connie, Marianne, Gwen, and Anthony, separated as babies through Canada’s notorious Sixties Scoop, which saw indigenous children taken from their homes to be adopted by white families. Excited and curious, but also scared and afraid of rejection, they agree to meet for the first time over a holiday weekend in the mountains of Banff.
The feature film will be preceded by Seven Generations of Hope, a short documentary by Joe Plante of New Media Storytellers. Joe is scheduled to attend and introduce the film. 170 years after forced removal from their ancestral homeland, nine members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Nation return to New York's Hudson Valley—not to ask permission, but to remember who they are.
REZ BALL
Monday, October 19 at 7pm (tickets)
After losing their star player, a high school basketball team rooted in Native American culture must unite to keep their state championship dreams alive. Written and produced by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs)
AANIKOOBIJIGAN [ANCESTOR]
Monday, October 26 at 7pm (tickets)
Official closing night film.
Trapped in museum archives, Ancestors bend time and space to find their way home. History, spirituality, and the law collide as tribal repatriation specialists fight to return and rebury Indigenous human remains, offering a revealing look at the still-pervasive worldviews that justified collecting them in the first place.
The screening will feature some opening remarks and introduction from Christine DeLucia, Associate Professor of History at Williams College, and Bonnie Hartley, Tribal Historic Preservation Manager for the Stockbridge-Munsee.
SEEDS
Thursday, October 29 at 7pm (tickets)
Bonus horror/comedy film presented as Halloween tie-in..
A Mohawk woman is hired as a social media influencer but gets caught in a deadly cat-and-mouse game, as she's forced to go to war to preserve her people's heritage from corporate interests.
The screening will feature some opening remarks and introduction from justin "Björn" adkins from Wild Soul River, who will present on three sisters farming and seed preservation.
For screening times, tickets, and updated Indigenous Peoples Film Festival information, visit www.imagescinema.org/series--festivals/.
ABOUT IMAGES CINEMA
A Berkshire tradition for over 100 years, Images Cinema is a nonprofit, community-supported movie theater dedicated to celebrating film as an art form, a source of entertainment and learning, and a means of cultivating an engaged community.
As a nonprofit organization, Images relies on support from the community through memberships, donations, and sponsorships from local businesses.
For more information and up-to-date programming, visit:
www.imagescinema.org