PRODUCTION FANCY DANCE
WORDS Katie Kasperson
Created by Indigenous director Erica Tremblay, Fancy Dance maintains its authenticity as a look inside Native-American life. The setting – Oklahoma – is central to the story, with DOP Carolina Costa bringing out its beauty
F ancy Dance is a story deeply rooted in its setting. Native to Oklahoma – where the film takes place – and a member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation, writer/director Erica Tremblay crafts a nuanced tale of Indigenous life, focusing on the ‘missing and murdered’ epidemic while delivering an affecting family drama. A self-proclaimed ‘outsider’, DOP Carolina Costa assembled a team of locals and established a visual language that captures the ‘beauty in everyday life’. LAY OF THE LAND “Where do you find the magic?” asks Costa. “That’s the beautiful thing an outsider can bring to the table.” Originally from Brazil, Costa saw Oklahoma with fresh eyes. She immediately clicked with Tremblay; “Erica later told me that she knew, from that first meeting, that I was the right partner to make the movie with,” recalls Costa, likely because she related to the characters on a human level. ‘Floored’ by the script, Costa found Fancy Dance to be “a movie that was so necessary, that we have not seen on the screen.” Starring Lily Gladstone as Jax, a queer Indigenous woman, the film follows her and her niece Roki (Isabel Deroy- Olson) as they search for Roki’s missing mother. Refusing to shy away from the realities of life on the rez (reservation), Fancy Dance portrays the Indigenous experience as authentically as fiction can. To do so, Costa mustered a camera crew that could provide region-specific
youth was important in how we were going to keep the point of view of Isabel’s character,” describes Costa. “There is all the seriousness and all the horrible things that are happening to them – and then that kid has to become an adult to be able to deal with that stuff.” Jax steps in as the maternal figure for Roki, although she’s judged an unfit guardian by the state’s social services, who place Roki with her grandparents. Later, Jax finds Roki and convinces her to run away, landing Roki on the missing- persons list with Jax wanted for child abduction and endangerment. But still, there is a special relationship between the two women, captured in part by camera choice.
knowledge: “They know more about that land where we were shooting,” she says. “Erica had a want and need to go back to Oklahoma for this movie; it’s a story that belongs here.” The team consisted of local talent, including Indigenous creatives, with Costa at the helm. LITTLE WOMEN Although it spans several genres, Fancy Dance is – at its heart – a story of womanhood, dealing with a young girl who’s coming-of-age without her mother, and we watch the plot unfold largely from the perspective of a 13-year- old. “Andrea Arnold’s work was a huge reference; the way she photographs
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