Fred Martinez was nádleehí—someone who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits—a special gift according to his traditional Navajo culture. But his determination to express his truest identity tragically cost him his life. At age sixteen, he was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was murdered in Cortez, Colorado.

Two Spirits tells a nuanced story of what it means to be poor, transgendered, and Navajo, and examines the lives of Fred Martinez, his friends, family, the police, and those in the larger community who were most affected by his murder.

The documentary explores Freds short and compelling life, his terrible death, and his enduring legacy—one that has led to renewed resolve by many people of the several cultures of the Four Corners region not only to accept diversity, but to honor it, and to help ensure that people are free to express the totality of who they are. Two Spirits demonstrates that we have much to gain from making our communities safe for people like Fred Martinez and it poses the question asked by his grieving mother, Why are people killed for being who they are?

The narrative is grounded in the events foreshadowing the murder, the horrible reality of what happened on a night when one boy bludgeoned another with a large rock, then bragged to friends that he had "bug-smashed a fag," and the police work that brought the killer to justice. But the larger ambition of Two Spirits is to reach beyond an account of violence and hatred to explore issues of gender, sexuality, and spirituality in compelling ways.