Coyote Stories Indigenous Film Festival Puts Indigenous Filmmakers Centre Stage in Kamloops

Indigenous film, performance and community storytelling are taking centre stage in Kamloops this weekend as the fifth annual Stseptékwles re Sk’elép (Coyote Stories) Indigenous Film Festival returns September 25–27, 2026. Presented by the Kamloops Film Society in collaboration with Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc, the three-day event is built around Indigenous filmmakers, artists and stories, creating a space where audiences can experience contemporary Indigenous creativity on the big screen and beyond.\n\nThe 2026 program is substantial: five feature films, 18 short films and 20 Indigenous filmmakers and artists are part of the festival, alongside artist conversations, performances, an opening-night red carpet reception, a free family event and a closing-night Two-Spirit drag show. That combination makes Coyote Stories more than a conventional film festival. It is a gathering where cinema connects with live performance, conversation and community.\n\nThe festival opens with Tea Creek, a documentary that follows an Indigenous-led food sovereignty movement in northern British Columbia. Across the weekend, the broader program gives audiences access to Indigenous-made work spanning different styles and perspectives while creating opportunities for filmmakers and artists to engage directly with the people watching their work.\n\nThat direct connection matters. Indigenous film has grown into one of the most dynamic areas of Canadian screen culture, but festivals rooted in community offer something that a streaming release cannot fully reproduce: filmmakers, artists and audiences sharing the same room, discussing the work and building relationships around it. Coyote Stories is deliberately structured around that experience.\n\nThe festival’s collaboration with Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc also grounds the event in the territory and community where it takes place. Festival organizers describe storytelling as an important way to share knowledge, culture and lived experience in Secwépemcú7ecw and the Tkʼemlúps region. Rather than treating Indigenous stories as a programming category on the side, the festival places those voices at the centre of the weekend.\n\nThere is also a strong emerging-artist dimension to the event. Bringing established creators, new filmmakers, performers and community members together creates the kind of environment where younger Indigenous creatives can see viable pathways into film and media. For audiences, it offers a chance to discover work that may not yet have reached mainstream theatres or major platforms.\n\nThe growth of Coyote Stories to its fifth edition is itself worth recognizing. Sustainable Indigenous cultural infrastructure is built through recurring events, audiences that return, artists who participate and organizations willing to keep creating space. Every successful edition strengthens the network available to Indigenous storytellers and gives communities another platform where their own voices determine how their stories are presented.\n\nFor Dopest Natives Alive, that is the part worth highlighting: Indigenous creators are not waiting for somebody else to tell their stories. Filmmakers, performers, organizers and communities are building their own stages, screens and audiences. Coyote Stories is another example of that creative momentum in action.\n\nThe fifth annual Stseptékwles re Sk’elép (Coyote Stories) Indigenous Film Festival runs September 25–27, 2026 at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Kamloops, British Columbia. Full programming and festival information are available from the Kamloops Film Society.

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DNA coverage was developed from verified reporting and publicly available information. Kamloops Film Society.