FANCY DANCE

DIR. ERICA TREMBLAY | USA | 90 MIN. SATURDAY | JULY 15 | 7:15PM | DGA 1

With her first narrative feature, director Erica Tremblay crafts a moving family drama about community, sisterhood, and Native identity. Lily Gladstone gives a standout performance as Jax, a queer Native woman scraping by as best she can while struggling to keep her family together. When Jax’s troubled sister disappears and law enforcement responds by threatening to remove Jax’s teenage niece Roki (impressive newcomer Isabel Deroy-Olson) from her home—quietly highlighting the oppressiveness of institutions like the FBI that prioritize the safety of white citizens over the Indigenous people who were the first to live on the land—Jax hits the road with Roki to find answers. As their journey deepens and complicates their bond, these two remarkable women provide a sense of warmth that makes Fancy Dance linger in the heart long after the credits roll.