2024 Alaska Native Filmmakers Intensive, Sitnasuak (Nome) Alaska
Participants enhanced their filmmaking skills – delving into camera, audio, lighting, and editing techniques. Participants learned from Indigenous film professionals to foster mentor relationships within the industry. Training on narrative justice and photography was also provided. The footage is now going through a post-production process and screenings will be planned in the future.
Our teachers brought a diverse range of skills and knowledge to the intensive, covering critical theory, creative direction, cinematography, sound, visual style, photography, storytelling, and more. Each one contributed uniquely to the Alaska Native filmmakers participating in the program.
This included:
Princess Johnson: Expertise: Critical and creative theory in filmmaking.
Alex Sallee: Expertise: Direction, sound, visual style.
Robert Hunter III: Expertise: Cinematography, camera build.
Razelle Benally: Expertise: Direction, perspective, and story development.
Jenny Irene Miller: Expertise: Photography and photography theory.
Rachel Edwardson: Expertise: Preparatory session and pre-production.
Departing from conventional narratives, the final film will center on the drum's heartbeat as a symbol of resilience and unity. Amidst all that has happened in the community of Nome in the aftermath of Typhoon Merbok, in the community of Nome, the rhythm of the drum emerges as a guiding force, driving the community forward.
The role rotation system developed on set allowed students to gain practical experience in each of these essential filmmaking roles. This hands-on approach not only built technical skills but also fosters a well-rounded understanding of the collaborative nature of filmmaking. It's a great way for aspiring filmmakers to discover their strengths and interests within the industry. The students got to try out a different roles with including directing, lighting, sound, assisting camera and supporting talent.
A special thanks to instructors: Alex Sallee, Princess Johnson, Robert Hunter III, Razelle Benally, Jenny Irene Miller, and Rachel Edwardson. Quyana to our local partners, Kunaq Tahbone and the Katirvik Cultural Center, and the Community members from the community of Nome.
Photo by: Rodney Evans
Filmmaker Intensive: Stories for Climate Justice
Exhibited Sept. 30, 2022 – Winter 2023 at the Anchorage Museum
Produced during the inaugural Alaska Native Filmmakers Intensive, Stories for Climate Justice presents a selection of films examining how Indigenous Alaskans are responding to the impacts of climate change on their homelands and communities.
The Alaska Native Filmmakers Intensive, a partnership between Native Movement and the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Theatre and Film, aims to expand access for Alaska Native creatives in digital media production.
The 2021 session theme of “Stories for Climate Justice” encouraged participants to reflect on how they adapt to a changing climate and fight to protect the communities that they love. In addition to technical training and narrative development, participants learned about climate justice, action, and advocacy. (Banner Image: Shak’shaani Éesh / Konrad Frank, still from My Someday, 2021 )
2021 Film Intensive Instructors
Alex Anoruk Sallee
Princess is Neets'aii Gwich'in from Arctic Village, Alaska. She is the former Executive Director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. She is also a published writer, actor and film director. She is currently a producer on the PBS animated series Molly of Denali.
Princess Johnson
Maya Salganek (she/her) is a filmmaker and educator living on the unceded lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana river. Her cinematic work often features the people and stories of Alaska, which aim to decolonize the screen. Some of her work includes the PBS documentary We Breathe Again (Chamberlain; Peters, 2017), which focuses on Alaska Native healing from historical trauma and suicide, and the PBS childrens’ TV series Molly of Denali (Gilliam, 2019,2020) featuring a modern Koyukon Athabaskan girl whose adventures across Alaska educate and inform youth about informational text and traditional culture and values. Maya is a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) where she has developed the only film degree program in the state. Maya is also the founder and director of FRAME Film Production Services at UAF and routinely contracts with local and national clients to fulfill their film production needs. She works with diverse students on a daily basis to actuate their visions into time-based media. Her University teaching curriculum includes courses in Film Set Production, Previsualization and Preproduction, Film History, Film Theory, Cross-cultural Filmmaking, and Documentary Production through FRAME. Maya is a mother, partner, licensed yoga instructor, pilot, and gardener.
Maya Salganek
Oglala Lakota/Diné film director and writer Razelle Benally holds a BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and is a 3rd year MFA candidate of Film Production at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She was a 2015 Sundance Institute NativeLab Short Film Production Fellow with her first short narrative I am Thy Weapon. In 2017 her two-hundred dollar budgeted thesis film Raven traveled the international film festival circuit and found local success winning several awards including best short narrative at: the Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, Native Cinema Showcase, and the New Mexico Film Foundation. In 2018 Benally directed a PSA promoting the Indigenous Vote featuring Mark Ruffalo, Tonia Jo Hall, and Shailene Woodley. Her latest short narrative Ókiya was funded by Academy Award Winner Spike Lee. She is in development of two feature-length narratives: Winter in Black Mesa (pre-production 2022), and War Cries (pre-production 2023). She received support from Sundance Institute's 2018 Creative Producing Summit and was supported through the 2020 Sundance Institute Feature Film Program as part of the Screenwriters Intensive track. She is represented by Rain Management Group, based in LA.
Razelle Benally
2021 Student Cohort & Their Films
Uvaŋa Uva Nuna (I am Here Land) by Erin Gingrich
Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich is a Koyukon Athabaskan, Inupiaq and settler carver, painter and beadworker whose work connects with the historically traditional beliefs of her ancestors on the value of our natural environment as gifts gathered from the land. A childhood spent across the state of Alaska imposed a personal impression of Alaska’s biological diversity, mixed with experience of Alaska’s sacred subsistence life ways, the true value of our state's ecosystems are immeasurable, and a gatherable gift that was cared for by our ancestors. To establish these beliefs, Erin’s work explores representations of these resources that make our environment unique through carved, painted and beaded sculptural mask forms. Erin’s family connections are to the communities of Nome, Nulato and Utqiagvik and she currently lives and works on the Denaʼina Homelands of Anchorage and Cohoe, Alaska.
The masks featured in Uvaŋa Uva Nuna (I am Here Land) are Erin’s carved work and the locations are wild places found in and around Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city. Erin’s film is centered on the lands that make her, the work that feeds her and the places that heal her.
My Some Day by Konrad frank
Shak’shaani Éesh aya áx saayí. Shak’shaani Éesh is what I am called. But I also go by Konrad Frank. I grew up on the land of my fathers and grandfathers people. The l’eineidí and the deisheetaan. But currently live on the lands of my great grandfather's people, the Aak’w kwaan. Lingít people learned a lot from the land. The language itself came from these lands we were raised on.
We are not separate. I wanted to acknowledge that. Where we came from.
And share how we honor and pass on those relations in one of the ways I knew how. With dance.
Ldakát át a yáa Ayaduwanéi (All things are Respected) by Dantea Basco
I was born in Juneau, Alaska on June 25, 1998. I am a Tlingit eagle of the Dakl'aweidi killer whale clan. My family is from Klukwan and Deishu, Alaska. After graduating high school from Juneau-Douglas High School in 2016, I spent several years in New Mexico and California as a construction worker and farmer. Since making my way back home to Deishu and Klukwan, I have been learning about my family history, culture, and language which I have shared in my video.
As I Walk the Two World's Trailby rodney evans
My name is Rodney Evans and I am a multimedia artist based in Fairbanks, Alaska. Specializing in photography and video productions, I’ve built a name for myself doing freelance work and taking part in various school-sponsored contests. I am from the traditional Yukon River village of Rampart, Alaska, and am of Koyukon Athabascan, Inupiaq, and Gwich’in descent; sharing my Alaskan Native heritage is my passion! The contrast of the life I’ve lived in the city, versus my life in the village of Rampart, is where I found the inspiration for my short film, As I Walk the Two World’s Trail.
When We Eat, We Heal. by Eva Dawn Burk
To restore her Denaakk’e (Koyukon) and Lower Tanana Dene’ Athabascan traditional harvesting practices, Eva Dawn Burk is returning to a semi-nomadic lifestyle, living in relationship with her family’s ancestral lands and waters. To help make this transition, she spent the last few years volunteering and working for her village of Toghotthele (Nenana) as a Wellness and Culture Camp Leader, Fisherwoman, Cook, and Laborer. She is a research assistant and is working on a Master of Science in Natural Resources and Environment with a focus on “Healing Through Food and Culture.”
Eva Dawn is dedicated to improving food sovereignty and security and community well-being through maintaining traditional lifestyles, advocacy, and opening educational spaces on ancestral lands. Her short film “When We Eat We Heal” focuses on returning to the land to seek healing through harvesting and spending time with family processing and preparing traditional foods such as Noya’a (beaver). Family tragedies and ecosystem collapses affect her family’s ability to fully maintain their traditional harvesting practices. She sings a grieving son to honor her late brothers and encourage others to spend time on the land. When you are connected to the land, you understand its pain, and work harder to protect it.
HOMELAND by Morrigan Shaw
Morrigan Shaw is Dakl’aweidi Tlingit Eagle Killer Whale, Dorsal Fin House (Keet Gooshi Hit.) She lives in the Chilkat Indian Village in Klukwan, where she works as the Environmental Planner. She holds a Master’s Degree in American Indian Studies from UCLA and her undergraduate background includes Marine Microbiology research and raising awareness of Environmental Justice inequalities faced by Native Tribes in Alaska and Northern Canada.
The Chilkat Indian Village where she lives is facing major threats to their traditional way of life due to a potential mine being opened upstream from the Chilkat River, home to all five species of Pacific Salmon. Like other Alaskan tribes, they also face dwindling salmon populations as a result of deep-sea trawlers that catch so much Salmon hardly any are left for the trip up river to reproduce. Morrigan plans to use her newly acquired filmmaking skills to document these and other issues threatening the wellbeing of her community.
Where the Caribou Roam by Terry Mann
My name is Terry Mann. I am originally from Kokhanok, Alaska. I currently live in Dillingham, Alaska which is in the same region. I am an aspiring independent filmmaker. I have a beautiful family, we commercial fish in the summer and subsistence fish and hunt all year long. My film is about the caribou and industry with my personal experience about what happens when companies come in and start using the land and what happens to a migratory animal like the caribou.
The land and I heal one another by Brittany Woods-Orrison
My name is Brittany Woods-Orrison, I am Koyukon Denè and I’m from the village of Rampart, Alaska that sits alongside the Yukon River. The school shutdown when I was going to start kindergarten, instead I spent summers living the subsistence fishing lifestyle with my family and winters in Fairbanks, Alaska attending elementary school. I went to Sitka, Alaska to attend Mt. Edgecumbe High School and went to Menlo College in Atherton, California where I wrestled for the women’s program and earned my psychology degree. Now I’m on a journey road-tripping around Turtle Island connecting with relatives, learning about the land, listening to stories, and telling my own stories while working remotely as a broadband specialist.
First Hunt by James Johnson III
I’ve always had a strong interest in filmmaking and editing. As early as 2010, I was working on short evaluation films for programs that we were working with for my job. During this time, I was also tasked with creating a personal story to showcase at the American Evaluation Association conference in Anaheim of 2011. Fast forward 10 years and I’m back in the editor’s seat helping develop and edit a short story film for Nia Tero Foundation. Through all of this, I’m constantly reminded of the need for more indigenous and more specifically, Alaska Native filmmakers and videographers to join in the effort in producing our own work. And I feel that now is finally the time to get in on this indigenous renaissance taking place and help push those boundaries in the right direction.
St. Paul Island Alaska Climate Change by Gregory B. Fratis
WHAT PARTICIPANTS WILL LEARN:
Basic filmmaking tools to continue with telling our own stories from our own perspectives as Indigenous peoples. Course will include, but is not limited to:
Story development
Basic video camera setup and operations
Basic microphone setups and operations
Basic lighting setups and operations.
Video editing and post-production tools
Career development and networking
Screening opportunities
PARTICIPANTS WILL RECEIVE:
A monetary stipend
Possibility of 3 UAF College Credits, pass/fail course
Filmmaking Skills!
Connections to experts in media making
Travel, housing, food costs covered during the in-person Anchorage session
Access to quality filmmaking equipment (you do not need to have your own equipment)
