Authenticity required: Director Billy Luther pays attention to detail in 'Frybread Face and Me'

Billy Luther is traveling as much as he can.

Every weekend he’s at another film festival promoting his new film.

At 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, Luther will be presenting his feature film, “Frybread Face and Me,” at the Santa Fe International Film Festival. The film will also screen at 7:15 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22.

Luther will also participate in a Q&A session after the film screening on Saturday.

“I loved traveling when I was younger,” he says with a laugh. “Now it’s tiring to go from place to place.”

“Frybread Face and Me” tells the story of Benny, a Native American boy growing up in San Diego.

Everything Benny thinks he knows about himself and his family is turned upside down when his parents send him to his Grandma Lorraine’s sheep ranch in Arizona.

Authenticity required: Director Billy Luther pays attention to detail in 'Frybread Face and Me'

There he meets his cousin Dawn — AKA Frybread Face — a pudgy 11-year-old vagabond, tough-as-nails tomboy.

Benny has never met anyone like her, and he is equally intimidated and impressed by her knowledge of Navajo language and tradition.

Luther filmed the production in Santa Fe in 2021.

“Ideally, I would have filmed on my grandmother’s ranch,” Luther says. “At the time, the Navajo Nation was closed. It was closed off to visitors and the ball was rolling. We went on this location scout. We looked at Gallup and Laguna Pueblo. A lot of places were very complicated. The New Mexico Film Office became really supportive of us filming in the state and helped find the perfect location at the Girl’s Ranch.”

Luther had a lot of land to play with and recreate his grandmother’s ranch.

“There was a plot of land that had nothing there, and you could turn the camera anywhere you wanted,” he says. “After the team finished building the set, it felt like grandma’s ranch. It was a big part of the story. The ranch was also a character in the film.”

Luther says the story is universal in the sense that we’ve all been plucked out of something and sent somewhere you didn’t want to be.

“As a kid, many were sent to camp or to relatives to spend some time with,” he says. “This is what Benny is experiencing. We’re seeing life through this kid’s eyes. Also, it was about bringing a non-Native audience into this world. We often don’t get to see this despite the Navajo Nation being in our backyard.”

Luther says the most important piece was making the set feel like his grandmother’s ranch.

“Sarah H. Natani plays the grandmother and she brought the energy to this world,” Luther says. “It helped for the actors to make this area feel like the land was lived in. Everyone respected it and it became comfortable. You have to, with your actors, create a space that feels real. It was definitely a component in the decision-making that I was doing. We had Navajo crew in each department.”

Being on set also brought back memories for Luther.

“The smells of the sheep and dust did it,” he says. “Just being in that world and opening it up for a bigger audience to see, it’s been an amazing journey.”

Luther’s been screening the film since March and is humbled by what people take away from the film.

“It brings back memories for many audience members,” he says. “Nothing is forced with this film. The goal was to make it feel real.”