Miss Navajo

From World of Wonder Productions and filmmaker Billy Luther, whose own mother was crowned Miss Navajo 1966, the film reveals the inner beauty of the young women who compete in this celebration of womanhood. Not only must contestants exhibit poise and grace as those in typical pageants, but they must also answer tough questions in Navajo and demonstrate proficiency in skills essential to daily tribal life: fry-bread making, rug weaving and sheep butchering.

The film follows the path of 21-year-old Crystal Frazier, a not-so-fluent Navajo speaker and self-professed introvert, as she undertakes the challenges of the pageant. It is through Crystal's quiet perseverance that we see the strength and power of Navajo womanhood revealed. No matter who takes the crown, this is a journey that will change her life. Interspersed with pageant activities are interviews with former Miss Navajos, whose cheerful recollections of past pageants break the tension the current contestants are undergoing.

Their memories provide a glimpse into the varying roles Miss Navajo is called upon to perform: role model, teacher, advisor and goodwill ambassador to the community and the world at large. For more than 50 years, Miss Navajo Nation has celebrated women and their traditional values, language and inner beauty.

As winners of the pageant, women are challenged to take on greater responsibility, becoming community leaders fluent in the Navajo language and knowledgeable about their culture and history. The film reveals the importance of cultural preservation, the role of women in continuing dying traditions and the surprising role that a beauty pageant can play.

Trailer

Credits

Director/Producer: Billy Luther
Executive Producers: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Cinematographer: Gavin Wynn
Editor: Mike Rysavy
Composer: David Benjamin Steinberg
Running time: 60 min.
Website: www.missnavajomovie.com

About the Filmmaker

BILLY LUTHER studied film at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and worked on projects for the Smithsonian Institution's New York City National Museum of the American Indian Film and Video Center. A past honoree of Film Independent's Project: Involve program, Luther was recently selected for the 2006 Sundance Institute/Ford Foundation Fellowship, Corporation for Public Broadcasting/PBS Producers Academy at WGBH in Boston, and Tribeca Institute's All Access Program with his feature documentary Miss Navajo, which world-premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, had its national television premiere on Independent Lens on PBS and is the winner of Michael Moore's 2007 Special Founders Prize. He is in production on the documentaries Grab and The Untitled Indian Marching Band Project. Luther belongs to the Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo Tribes.