The official trailer for Apple TV+’s Fancy Dance sees Lily Gladstone‘s Jax on a mission to find her missing sister, as the risk of losing custody of her niece, Roki (Isabel Deroy-Olson), looms.
Following her sister’s disappearance, Jax and Roki have been scraping by on the Seneca-Cayuga reservation in Oklahoma, according to the film’s description. As Roki prepares for the upcoming powwow, the women hit the road to try to find Roki’s mother in time for the event.
“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,” the logline reads.
Gladstone and Deroy-Olson star alongside Ryan Begay, Crystle Lightning, Audrey Wasilewski and Shea Whigham.
Fancy Dance premiered to critical acclaim at 2023’s Sundance Film Festival but didn’t receive distribution until over a year later. Gladstone’s fame began picking up that year as she won several best actress awards for Killers of the Flower Moon leading up to the Oscars, where Emma Stone took the prize for Poor Things.
In a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s co-writers Erica Tremblay and Miciana Alise wrote about their struggle to find distribution for the project as two Indigenous women filmmakers. The film also marked Tremblay’s directorial debut.
“We were under absolutely no illusion that Fancy Dance would receive the same kind of industry support as Killers of the Flower Moon, but the disparity is so great that it renders our film virtually invisible and leaves only one available perspective: the non-Native one,” they wrote.
This has been a big week for Gladstone, who also made her Met Gala debut on Monday. The Oscar-nominated actress stopped by Late Night With Seth Meyers the day after fashion’s biggest night and opened up about the meaning behind her stunning Met Gala look.
The Under the Bridge star wore a black gown and cape from Gabriela Hearst, adorned with stars made from recycled silver by Kiowa artist Keri Ataumbi. The stars on the ensemble were arranged to mirror the actual constellations visible on the summer solstice in the Northern Plains where Gladstone grew up, “which was a really powerful time of year for our people,” she explained to Seth Meyers.
“In both Kiowa, where Keri is from — her nation — and Blackfeet, where I’m from, our origin story is that we came from the stars,” the Reservation Dogs actress continued. “We came from Sky Woman who fell to earth and created everything for us. And then, when we pass away, we return to the stars. Blackfeet call the Milky Way the Wolf Trail, and you join your ancestors and walk with them for the rest of eternity. So, being draped in this cape with these stars was kind of Gabriela and Keri’s way of saying that I have my ancestors with me when I’m walking.”
