Billy Luther’s Frybread Face and Me is a more subtle coming-of-age story set on a Reservation, but brings the charm. Read on for our full review.

Billy Luther was exhausted on the Monday morning in mid-October when he spoke with Pasatiempo from his Southern California office about his debut feature, Frybread Face and Me.

Billy Luther’s coming-of-age tale follows a pair of very different Navajo cousins as they spend one life-changing summer together on the reservation.

An 11-year-old boy from San Diego goes to live with his Navajo grandmother and spends time with his cousin.

Albuquerque Business First sat down with Billy Luther to talk about the creative process behind “Frybread Face and Me” and how to bring more Indigenous filmmakers into high-budget productions.

I have to be honest. This movie was very familiar to me; sometimes it was too familiar. I am part Navajo and many times as a kid my family would spend time in New Mexico to visit my dad’s family.

After premiering at SXSW earlier this year, filmmaker Billy Luther‘s (Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo) narrative feature debut Frybread Face and Me hit the festival circuit and GLAAD has followed it since.

Billy Luther’s “Frybread Face and Me” walks a fine line. The story of an indigenous boy’s summer on a Navajo reservation, its tone is light. In the Navajo community it shows, crime and poverty are present, but they don’t come close to defining it.

Benny (Keir Tallman) keeps his hair long, wears his mother’s hat, loves TV soap operas and Fleetwood Mac, and plays with dolls, though they are, technically speaking, action figurines.