Erica Tremblay

Erica Tremblay (born 1980, Oklahoma ) is a Native American filmmaker known primarily for her documentaries.

She made her debut as a director of feature films with Fancy Dance (2023). Before that, Tremblay was known for her short documentaries In the Turn (2014), Heartland: A Portrait of Survival (2012), and Tiny Red Universe (2007).

Early life and career
Tremblay grew up in Seneca, Missouri, a rural community near Joplin, Missouri. She is a member of the Seneca-Cayuga Nation and attended local schools.

In 2007, she moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. There she made her first documentary film, Tiny Red Universe (2007), serving as screenwriter, producer and lead actor. The short film aired on IFC.

In 2012, she released ''Heartland: A Portrait of Survival. '' The film documents the effects of the 2011 Joplin tornado, an EF5 storm that destroyed a quarter of the city and caused about $2.8 billion worth of damage.

Tremblay was living in Los Angeles at the time but had previously lived in Joplin, and had relatives still living there, so was touched by the disaster.

She traveled to the town with a film crew and for four weeks documented the aftermath of the storm. The film features several aspects of the recovery effort, such as the Joplin Found Photos project, which returned thousands of scattered photographs to tornado survivors.

The documentary was shown at the Omaha Film Festival, and at the St. Louis International Film Festival.

In 2014, Tremblay released In the Turn, a documentary film that revolves around Crystal, a ten-year-old transgender girl from Timmins, Ontario. Tremblay had originally gained Kickstarter funding for her conception of the film as a documentary to profile the Vagine Regime, "a queer roller derby collective". She intended to explore participation by lesbian, queer and transgender women in the sport. During development, she was contacted by the mother of a 10-year-old transgender girl. The mother recounted her daughter's difficulties and the resistance she encountered to asserting her gender identity. For example, her school would not let her participate in sports. Tremblay decided to refocus her film around Crystal.

She is based in Ithaca, where she lives on the original lands of the Seneca Cayuga Nation.

Honors and awards
In 2016, Tremblay was awarded a National Artist Fellowship at the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.

As of March 2017, Tremblay serves as Bustle's director of video. Before joining that magazine, she worked for Hearst Digital Media.

In 2023, Tremblay made her feature film directorial debut with the drama Fancy Dance, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It stars Lily Gladstone. It was supported in part by the Cherokee Nation film initiative.

Filmography

 * Tiny Red Universe (documentary, writer, director, 2007)
 * Heartland: Portrait of Survival (documentary, writer, director, 2012)
 * In the Turn (documentary, writer, director, 2014)
 * Little Chief (writer, director, 2020)
 * Dark Winds (television series, contributing writer, 2022)
 * Fancy Dance (feature film, writer, director, 2023)