DANCE ME OUTSIDE

Director: Bruce McDonald

Year of production: 1994

Actors: Ryan Black, Adam Beach, Michael Greyeyes, Lisa Lacroix, Jennyfer Podemski, Tamara Podemski, Hugh Dillon.

With this movie made by Canadian director Bruce McDonald we flight in Canada, in Kidabanesee reservation (North Ontario).

The date of creation of this movie is 1994: the '90 atmosphere is very strong, especially in the look of the young protagonists of this movie. The '90 are the years of thrash metal and it is not strange to see the Metallica t-shirt "Ride the lightning" on them.

Actually this movie is a good example of an american teenager story in Native sauce. All the main actors are teenagers and the topic is about some aspects of young Native Americans who live in the reservations.

The three main male characters (Silas Crow, Frank Fancepost and Gooch played by three famous, sexy and talented Native American actors, Ryan Black, Adam Beach and Michael Greyeyes, at that time very very very young) played all the movie with leather jackets, stonewashed bluejeans, sunglasses and long hair, Gooch even drives a motorbike: the spirit of '90 is between us. After watched this movie I can say that a Native American man with leather jacket, stonewashed jeans, sunglasses (Rayban !!) and long black hair could be the best icon of this years, especially with heavy metal music like soundtrack.

This movie is a choral story where all the characters are the protagonists: Silas Crow is a young boy confused about his direction in life, who wear strange clothes in dark style: an old black hat and a black trench coat, very long. His best friend is the nice Frank Fencepost (Adam Beach), an hilarious guy with a big sense of humour. The two guys look forward to admittance to a mechanics' school.

Silas's girlfriend is Sadie Maracle (Jennyfer Podemski), I don't know why but I have some problems to appreciate Sadie's personality, in my opinion this girl is a little bit annoying, despite Silas is so cute, but anyway this girl is a devote Native activist, the kind of girl who like doing something always (This can be a good point...). Michael Greyes plays the role of Gooch, a gloomy Indian guy released from jail and in love with Silas's sister, Illianna: Gooch is her ex boyfriend, he want a reconciliation but she is now married with an Anglo Canadian lawyer, Robert. If Gooch is gloomy (but maybe charming) Robert is hilarious almost stupid, and when the guy try an Indian rite with him his reaction (He starts to scream "I am the Wolverine !!") is one of the happiest scene.

The morning after a night party in a club in the reservation Frank and Silas found the corpse of his friend, Little Margaret (Tamara Podemski), brutally murdered by an unknow murder . The movie follow how the police try to don't find a guilty, that is obviously Clarence Gaskill (Hugh Dillon) a drugged up white racist. This will stimulate the community to find vengeance.

Despite it is a drama story “Dance me outside” is not a real sad story. Maybe is more a comedy than a drama, the characters (especially Silas and Frank) are very hilarious like many moments during the movie.

Very important is the conversation between the two guys and the policeman after their arrest:

Bald Cop: Name?

Frank Fencepost: Frank Fencepost
Bald Cop: Address?

Frank Fencepost: Where do I live?

Bald Cop: Yeah, where do you live?

Frank Fencepost: I live where the land meets the sky. Where the eagle and the raven fly free. I live under the sun and the moon.

Bald Cop: [to Silas] Where do you live?

Silas Crow: I'm his neighbour.

Very important in this movie is the soundtrack, made with famous songs: “Indian car” by Keith Secola and “Half breed” by Cher.

This movie is get from a book by W.P. Kinsella “Dance me outside”, Kinsella is a Canadian novelist with Irish origins, which was a collection of seventeen short stories narrated by a young Cree, Silas Ermineskin, who describes life on a First nations reservations in Alberta State. Kinsella was criticized for writing from the point of view of Native people. The author rejected the critics and said that a writer has the right to create anything he chooses.

Anyway this story is a good examination of the tension between Anglos and Natives in Canada at that time. From the book and the movie it was created also a tv show, called "The Rez" (First Nations, Canadian television serie) with Ryan Black as Silas and Darrell Dennis as Frank Fencepost.