Review: 'Jingle Dress' follows Indian family in an urban setting

Shot in 2013 in northeast Minneapolis and other familiar city locations, the film follows the Red Elk family as they transition from a relatively peaceful life on the White Earth reservation to a noisier, more crowded and more eventful urban existence.

Rose’s father, John (Chaske Spencer, best known as a wolf-pack alpha from the “Twilight” series), is on a quest to find out more about the death of his uncle, found frozen to death under a bridge.

Writer/director William Eigen uses the point of view of Rose (S’Nya Sanchez-Hohenstein, whose screen presence radiates a sweet, constant warmth) to narrate his spare, quietly effective story. She loves to climb trees to “see far and be closer to the sky,” and is awaiting her own jingle dress at a ceremony where she will be given her own Indian name.

Meanwhile, John and his buddies look into whether Uncle Norton, who turns out to have been a talented artist, was killed or died naturally, and Rose’s older brother, Chris (S’Nya’s real-life sibling Mauricimo Sanchez-Hohenstein), befriends some mischievous neighborhood boys who want to explore dangerous caves.