Films offer insight into Navajo culture and oil industry

Drunktown's Finest

Deepwater Horizon

"Drunktown's Finest" is set in the fictional town of Dry Lake, New Mexico, which is pretty clearly a stand-in for Gallup, New Mexico. If you're familiar with Gallup, there'll be plenty of local landmarks you'll recognize. I saw a motel I stayed in once. Gallup/Dry Lake is right on the edge of the Navajo reservation and the movie is about three different Navajos who go back and forth between dominant culture in the city and Navajo culture on the reservation, each in different ways.

Sick Boy (Jeremiah Bitsui) is just a few days away from joining the Army; if...