Filmmaker Billy Luther ("Frybread Face & Me"): "I Just Knew I Had a Story To Tell"

Show Notes

Dennis is joined via Zoom by filmmaker Billy Luther to discuss his film Frybread Face and Me, which comes out in select theaters and on Netflix on the day after Thanksgiving, November 24th. The film is a coming-of-age story set on the Navajo reservation in Northern Arizona and is based on Billy's own experience of going to stay with his grandmother on the reservation when he was about 11. Billy talks about the parts of himself that he put into his lead character of Benny, how he was able to assemble the perfect cast, developing the project through the Sundance Lab and transitioning to narrative storytelling after years of making documentaries like Miss Navajo. Dennis and Billy also bond over growing up in Northern Arizona and going to the movies at the Roxy Theater in Dennis's hometown of Holbrook (Billy attending high school in the next town over Winslow and was actually class president twice. Other topics include: the deliciousness of fry bread, the gloriousness of Arizona skies, Billy's childhood touchstones like G.I Joe action figures, Cabbage Patch Dolls, Stevie Nicks and the movie Starman, his 20-year friendship with Taika Waititi, working on the TV show Dark Winds and waiting on a lot of tables on his way to making his cinematic dreams come true.