Fancy Dance | Director Erica Tremblay on writing, community and learning Cayuga
Ahead of its release, we sat down with Fancy Dance director Erica Tremblay to talk about her narrative debut with Lily Gladstone.
Fancy Dance will mean different things to different people. For a start, no one seems able to describe what genre of film it is. Since its Sundance debut last year, it’s been described as a road trip movie, a coming-of-age story and a crime drama. More than those, though, it feels like a window into life on a modern-day Seneca-Cayuga Nation reservation; a snapshot still rarely put on the big screen, let alone one given a profile like Apple have given this one.
Starring Lily Gladstone as tough-as-nails grifter, Jax, and Isabel Deroy-Olson as her niece, Roki, the film starts days after the disappearance of Jax’s sister (and Roki’s mother), Tawi. Together, they fight child services and Roki’s white grandparents to track Tawi down – and prepare for a dance at the upcoming powwow while they’re at it.
With a profile boosted by Gladstone’s Killers Of The Flower Moon Oscar nomination, the film arrives on Apple TV+ on Friday. We sat down with its director, Erica Tremblay, to talk Gladstone, building believable characters and making the jump from documentary filmmaking.
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