Fancy Dance
November 4, 2024 7:15 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 Jax losing custody to Roki’s grandfather, Frank (Shea Whigham), the pair hit the road and scour the backcountry to track down Roki’s mother in time for the powwow.
Monday November 4, 7:15 p.m.
90 min
Season Sponsor: Rastins PharmaChoice
Film Date Sponsor: MacKay Brehm & Smith, Professional Corporation
Proceeds to the Hamilton Out of the Cold
Winner: Excellence in Narrative Filmmaking, Hampton's Film Festival
Winner: Cinematography, SXSW Film Festival
Winner: Breaktrough Actress (Gladston), Austin Film Critics Award
Winner: Audience Award, Mill Valley Film Festival
Winner: Best Narrative, Tacoma Film Festival
Winner: Best Narrative, Sun Valley Film Festival
Winner: Oklahoma Independent Filmmaking Award, Oklahoma Film Critics
Winner: Best Supporting Actress (Isabel Deroy-Olson), Film Club's Lost Weekend
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 while at the mercy of a failed justice system.
This one finds its heart in the gray areas. Tremblay and her actors show us characters compelled to do reckless and inexplicable things for painstakingly human reasons. Robert Levin/NewsdayLily Gladstone appeared in two films in 2023. Martin Scorsese’s white-centered Killers of the Flower Moon received all the attention, but Erica Tremblay’s Fancy Dance is so far superior that it feels like an insult to even compare them. Noah Berlatsky/Chicago ReaderErica Tremblay has a background in documentary-making and brings an unflinching eye to her depiction of life on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma. Ed Power/Daily Telegraph (UK)One of those small-scale indie films that examine social issues through the micro-lens of individual lives, so that the audience gets a sense of the systemic problems that impact the characters’ choices without the director ever having to mount a soapbox. Dana Stevens/Slate
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