© Dale Tsosie

© Dale Tsosie

© Dale Tsosie

© LeRoy DeJolie

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Robinson: I have one last question — really, of both of you. If there was only one moment or sequence that turns out brilliantly from this....

Tobias: How about "good"?

Robinson: Okay, "good." (laughs)

Tobias: I'll let Travis answer that one. He shot it.

Johnson: There's a lot of nice moments, but I guess there’s two things: the native dancers during the powwow, and the kids. Actually, the kids and the elders. I hope this will come across. He [LeRoy] is so polite — and I think that's kind of the key in his photography and capturing, and when he's working with people, in getting nice moments. He's very down-to-earth, he's very conversational, respectful, and when he's done taking the photograph, almost every single person, he would say to.... "Your mother is beautiful," talking to an adult about the elder. "Very beautiful." And he said numerous times he's proud to be a Navajo. So I think those little moments of him bonding with his people and stuff, were special shots.

Tobias: I would concur with that totally. I think the unexpected — just as we were convinced we were done shooting, last night, I'm getting looks from my crew, "It's been twelve hours, Michael. Let's get out of here. How much more can we shoot of the same thing?" And every time I'd try, I'd say, "Okay, that's it," and then I'd turn around and there was Travis shooting something else. I mean, you just.... You know, you see beauty and you have to shoot it, you have to film it, you want to film it. And at the very end, that group of children materialized, who were going to be part of the grand entrance [of the powwow], and they were all in their festive headdresses and moccasins and other animal by-products, and they were looking gorgeous, and fascinated by the camera. They started playing with Travis, and were fascinated by the lens. They'd never seen such a big video camera, and they all said, "TV! TV!" And so we got them all to sort of stand in line, and one after the other, poke their face into the lens, with about a half-inch proximity or less — nose to the lens, nose to the glass. And they just found that hysterically funny, and so did we. We must have filmed six or seven of them doing this, and I have high hopes for those shots. We have come up, in our little script, with a place for it — a perfect little "window," to be precise (chuckles) for those shots, which I think maybe, if it works right — we're not done shooting, but it may be the most astonishing cut or dissolve in the whole film — if it works. If it works. Going right through Window Rock to the faces. Given the fact Window Rock's the center of the Navajo Nation. 'Cause we did a zoom-in, right into the blue, sky through the rock. It might be a very powerful image.

Robinson: It sounds great! Thank you.

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