Miss Navajo: The Movie
Filmmaker to release documentary on pageant at Sundance Festival

Gavin Spencer films Miss Navajo Nation 2005-2006, Rachelle James, during her coronation acceptance speech at the Navajo Nation Education Center in Window Rock on Aug. 31, 2005. Wynn is part of a film crew that has spent the past year making a full-length documentary on the Miss Navajo Nation pagent. The film is expected to premier at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Pamela G. Dempsey
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — It's more than just looking pretty and writer/director Billy Luther plans to share it with the rest of the world at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Luther, 30, just wrapped up filming of his first feature-length film tentatively titled "Miss Navajo," a documentary on the Miss Navajo Nation Pageant.

Luther and his crew spent the last year filming the annual pageant and interviewing former title holders. The idea came from a conversation with his mother, Miss Navajo 1966 Sarah Johnson.

"I realized these ladies had so much experience that I couldn't focus on just one," Luther said.

He changed his direction and expanded the focus of his film to include every former Miss Navajo.

"I was going to talk to whoever would speak with me," Luther said.

But it isn't just about beauty queens.

"I wanted to get an inside on Navajo youth and their relationships with their families, mothers, and grandmothers," Luther said.

The Miss Navajo Nation Pageant draws interest world-wide as the contest itself requires contestants to demonstrate their traditional and cultural skills. Pageant events have included sheep butchering and fry-bread making, as well as weaving and interviews entirely in Navajo.

From the second Miss Navajo, Ida Gail Organick, to more recent ones, such as Radmilla Cody, Luther wanted the chance to ask each subject her take on Navajo culture and language as it has evolved over the years.

Luther, who is Navajo, Hopi, and Laguna, said language was a connecting point he had with this year's contestants.

"I realize how important it is to learn that language," he said. "The most important thing is to get that language and soon and fast."

Luther has spent the past several years working in Los Angeles and New York in the film industry.

He said this documentary has the help of Fenton Bailey writer, producer, and director of many films, including "Party Monster" and "Monica in Black and White" who has contributed equipment, editing, and his connections.

Although filming is completed, Luther said they will also include animation to address Changing Woman and Navajo philosophy.

His hopes to include his film in the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, where he worked for six years.

"We left Arizona feeling very positive," he said.