Frankfurt am Main | 14 – 22 October 2023

Fancy Dance

United States
By Erica Tremblay
Wed, 18 October 2023, 5:00 PM
Since her sister’s disappearance, Jax (Lily Gladstone) has cared for her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) by scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga Reservation in Oklahoma. Every spare minute goes into finding her missing sister while also helping Roki prepare for an upcoming powwow. At the risk of losing custody to Jax’s father, Frank (Shea Whigham), the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow. What begins as a search gradually turns into a far deeper investigation into the complexities and contradictions of Indigenous women moving through a colonized world and at the mercy of a failed justice system.

Film Info

Info

Title
Fancy Dance
Country
  • United States
Spoken language
  • English
Length
90 Minutes

Crew

Director
  • Erica Tremblay
  • Writer
  • Erica TREMBLAY
  • Miciana ALISE
  • Producers
  • Deidre BACKS
  • Erica TREMBLAY
  • Heather RAE
  • Nina YANG BONGIOVI
  • Tommy OLIVER
  • Cast

  • Lily GLADSTONE
  • Isabel DEROY-OLSON
  • Ryan BEGAY
  • Shea WHIGHAM
  • Audrey WASILEWSKI
  • Director

    • Erica Tremblay

      Erica Tremblay is a queer and Native American director, writer and producer from the Seneca-Cayuga Nation. Her work across film and television has quickly established her as one of the most exciting new voices working today. Her short film, "Little Chief", premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was named to IndieWire's "10 Must-See Short Films" at the festival. She is the recipient of the Walter Bernstein Screenwriting Fellowship, the Maja Kristin Directing Fellowship, the SFFILM Rainin Grant, and the Lynn Shelton "Of A Certain Age" Grant. Her work, including "Fancy Dance", has been extensively developed at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Directors Lab, Creative Producing Lab and Indigenous Intensive. Before devoting herself to writing and filmmaking full-time, Tremblay had a successful career in media, producing content at both Hearst Digital Media and the Bustle Digital Group. She currently resides in Upstate New York, where she studies her Indigenous language.

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