The Business of Fancydancing

A distinctively empathetic meditation on how our choices often define our identity, The Business of Fancydancing is about an egotistical, intellectual, gay American Indian poet (Evan Adams) returning to the reservation 16 years after first leaving to make his fortune by publicly exploiting the heritage he privately shuns. The same writings, about life on "the rez," that have made him popular among the white literary intelligentsia have estranged him from his former friends and Spokane tribe members, whom he must now face when they all come together again for the funeral of a boyhood friend. Native American author-cum-filmmaker Sherman Alexie (writer of 1998's Smoke Signals) does an extraordinary job of bringing to life the fear, frustration, and bitterness of his characters, effectively exploring the blood ties and kinship that bind them together in spite of it all. Although the quality of the movie's imagery is diminished by the fact that it was shot on distractingly low-end digital video, this is a heartfelt, honest, strongly symbolic, and utterly absorbing film. Highly recommended. (R. Blackwelder)