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The Business of Fancydancing, a Great New Native Film
by Christina Berry

The Business of Fancydancing (2002)
Written and Directed by Sherman Alexie

When Sherman Alexie, the author of several books and screenwriter of Smoke Signals, decided to make his own film the result was a fabulous addition to the genre of Native film and a huge step forward for Indians in the movies.

In this film, Smoke Signals' star Evan Adams plays Seymour Polatkin, a successful, gay Indian poet. To achieve his success, however, he left the Spokane reservation and his friends behind. When an old friend of his dies, he returns to confront the past and the friends who consider his writing an invasion and betrayal.

The Business of Fancydancing is about Native identity in contemporary American culture. Is Seymour an Indian poet, a poet who's Indian, or just a poet? To white America he's the voice of contemporary Indian life, but to his Spokane friends he is a fraud and a traitor.

His identity changes throughout the film as his poems and stories come to life through the memories of others. The story jumps around in an appropriately non-linear style, weaving between characters and identities, foward and backward in time, and between the narrative story and symbolic imagery.

All of this might sound heavy-handed and depressing, and the movie could've easily become a predictable melodrama. Alexie's style and humor, however, make the story funny, sad, and perfectly understated. The Business of Fancydancing didn't receive the same widespread attention as Smoke Signals, but is certainly worth a watch.