The Return of Navajo Boy chronicles the extraordinary journey of the Cly family, whose lives are forever altered by the rediscovery of a 1950s film reel. For decades, the Cly family has been captured in photographs and films shot in Monument Valley, including Hollywood Westerns and a rare home-movie by John Ford. But when Bill Kennedy, a white man from Chicago, arrives in 1997 with a silent film titled Navajo Boy, he unknowingly sparks a remarkable chain of events. The film, made by his late father, features the Cly family and reveals the long-lost presence of Elsie Mae Cly Begay’s infant brother, John Wayne Cly, who was adopted by white missionaries in the 1950s and vanished without a trace. As Elsie watches the film, she recognizes her younger self and family members, including her late mother, and begins to share her family’s untold history of the American West, Native representation in film, and the effects of uranium mining in Monument Valley. When John Wayne, now living in New Mexico, learns of the film’s return, he reaches out to the Clys, and the film culminates in an emotional reunion, marking the long-awaited return of a lost brother. This Sundance Film Festival selection offers a poignant exploration of family, identity, and the power of forgotten images to heal old wounds.