Jax (Lily Gladstone) has been taking care of her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson) ever since her sister’s recent disappearance in Fancy Dance, the feature debut from Indigenous filmmaker Erica Tremblay. When two weeks pass without word from her, CPS shows up at Jax’s door and insists that she’s not a fit guardian for the young girl. As a last resort, she jets off with Roki to attend a powwow she’s long been anticipating—with the lingering hope that her mother might just show up there, as well. Editor Robert Grigsby Wilson talks about cutting the film, touching upon his previous collaboration […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 1, 2023Since the disappearance of her sister, Jax (Lily Gladstone) has been taking care of her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), both of them desperately hoping for her return. When she’s been officially declared “missing” for two weeks, CPS shows up at Jax’s door, leading to a dogged fight for her to keep caring for Rokii. The feature debut from writer-director Erica Tremblay, Fancy Dance explores womanhood and Indigenous identity through one family’s fractured ties. Cinematographer Carolina Costa talks about shooting the film, including a singular motto the team adopted during the shoot. See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here. […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 29, 2023Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? When we started production on Fancy Dance, we had originally planned to shoot our powwow scene at a community powwow, but as the shoot dates got closer, Oklahoma hit a spike in COVID cases and we were forced to rethink our plan. With COVID protocols in place, the only way to safely shoot the scene was to throw our own […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 25, 2023