animated short, Pow!
By Wade Sheldon, Tulalip News
On Friday, May 16, the Hibulb Cultural Center hosted a special screening of two films highlighting Native storytelling and resilience: Pow! and Remaining Native. The event featured the return of comedian and television writer/producer Joey Clift, a Cowlitz tribal member who grew up on the Tulalip Reservation. This marked the first time Pow!—his animated short—was screened in the community that helped raise him.
Clift, said the film was inspired by his experiences at powwows in Tulalip. “The powwows I went to as a kid were on this reservation,” he shared. “I went to Tulalip Elementary, Tulalip option school, and spent way too many summers blowing stuff up with fireworks from Boom City.”
Pow! follows a young boy who attends a powwow with his family and faces the seemingly simple challenge of trying to find an outlet to charge his Game Boy. He learns profound lessons about family, culture, and connection.
Clift described Pow! as “kind of like a Looney Tunes short,” but noted it was also an effort to bring contemporary Native stories into animated comedy. He broke down the film’s creative use of visual styles, each one representing a different character’s perspective. A retro 16-bit aesthetic, inspired by early video games from the 1980s and 90s, reflects how the main character, Jake, sees the world through his Game Boy’s pixelated, digital lens. A soft watercolor style using gentle brushstrokes and flowing color represents how Jake’s parents view the powwow experience—grounded in tradition, emotion, and community.
For the grandmother’s memories, Clift used ledger art, a style rooted in 19th-century Native storytelling, where images were drawn or painted onto old accounting ledger paper to document tribal history and personal stories. Combining these styles, the film offers a layered, multi-generational visual narrative that bridges the past and present.
Now living in Los Angeles, Clift has spent over 15 years working in television. His credits include Paw Patrol, Looney Tunes, Cocomelon, Molly of Denali, and Spirit Rangers. He’s also written jokes for high-profile celebrities like Tracy Morgan, John Cena, Shrek, and the Jonas Brothers.
He recounted how he originally set out to become a weatherman until college professors pulled him aside and encouraged him to pursue comedy. “That was 15 years ago,” he said. “I didn’t see people like me in those jobs, so I didn’t think I had permission to work in those fields.”
Clift emphasized how representation in media is changing and why that matters. “I’ve talked to Native folks in school who’ve sent me letters saying that because of the shows I’ve worked on, they want to work in TV too,” he said. “That’s my hope with Pow!—to create as much contemporary Native representation as possible so that I can show other Native kids who grew up on the Tulalip Rez, or any rez, that you can grow up laughing, drawing, and make cartoons too.”
Remaining Native, a powerful documentary directed by Paige Bethmann, a Haudenosaunee woman (Mohawk/Oneida), follows Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American long-distance runner from the Yerington Paiute Reservation in Nevada, preparing to attend the University of Oregon. Alongside his athletic dreams, Ku also confronts his family’s painful past—his grandfather is a survivor of the U.S. Indian boarding school system.
Ku attended the screening and participated in a Q&A afterward, sharing how the experience of making the film and navigating his senior year shaped him. “It was a life-altering year,” he said. When asked about living up to his Paiute name, Kutoven, which means “brings the light to the dark,” he responded, “I don’t think I’m there yet. People tell me that bringing my story to different communities is living up to my name, but I’m always chasing what I will be like ten years from now. We always strive to improve in anything and everything we do.”
The film’s emotional depth resonated with the audience, including Shoshone tribal elder and boarding school survivor, Matthew Warbonnet. “It’s not just then, it’s now,” Warbonnet said during the Q&A. “Thank you for sharing the resilience of your people and grandparents.”
Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills, who also attended the event to support Remaining Native, praised the film as a tribute to survival and legacy. “Ku speaks the truth about our struggles. That’s why he’s my hero,” Mills said. “Truth should never be too severe to learn from.”
Both Pow! and Remaining Native will be featured in the Seattle International Film Festival on May 24. For release dates and upcoming screenings, visit joeyclift.com and remainingnativedocumentary.com.