Billy Luther (Navajo, Hopi and Laguna Pueblo) is the writer/director of the award-winning feature film Frybread Face and Me, executive produced by Taika Waititi and distributed by Ava DuVernay’s company Array for Netflix. The film was selected as part of SXSW 2023's Narrative Spotlight and TIFF 2023's Discovery and New Wave Selects. His feature documentary Miss Navajo premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on PBS’ Independent Lens that same year. His second documentary feature, Grab, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was screened at over 80 film festivals around the world. His short documentary film, Red Lake, had its world premiere at the 2016 LA Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary Short at the 2016 International Documentary Association Awards. In 2018, he launched his web series alter-NATIVE for PBS’ IndieLens StoryCast. He is currently a writer and director for the AMC series Dark Winds.
At MacDowell, Luther worked on the development of a screenplay based on the life of Native American stand-up comedian Charlie Hill (Oneida). He gathered personal accounts and interviews, researching personal stories and journals of Hill and those close to him. He outlined the storyline of the script and began the process of writing the script. During the first week of his residency, Luther kicked off the 2025 MacDowell Downtown season on March 7 with a presentation of his work to the MacDowell Community.
Portrait by Cybelle Codish
