Non Western (2020)

We join Thaddeus and Nanci, a Native / Non Native Montanan couple, in the lead up to their wedding, as they face their biggest challenge yet. Thaddeus wants Nanci to convert to his Northern Cheyenne way of life, even if it means that Nanci needs to take on a subordinate role. Both Nanci and Thaddeus were adopted as teenagers by families with different ethnicity: Thaddeus by a white Christian family, and Nanci by the Lakota tribe. It's no coincidence they have sought shared experience and understanding in one another. Thaddeus believes in returning to his Cheyenne culture and through running sweats he finds peace and healing from the PTSD he suffers. Nanci wants to please him and to find a balance between life in the modern world and her Native traditions. Under the strain of trying to co-habit and survive together, we see the cracks in their values showing through. Cracks which reveal not just the trauma they suffered growing up, but the chain of oppression and generational trauma.