Games of the North, a distinctively Alaska documentary, is scheduled to debut on public television April 18. The film was supported with a $5,500 grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum. Games of the North follows Inuit athletes as they train and compete in time-honored Alaska Native games as well as deal with the challenges of balancing traditional ways of life in rural Alaska with the pressures of modern times.
Games of the North is a follow-up to the 2004 documentary To Play the Games, which was named best documentary short film at the Anchorage International Film Festival.
With segments shot in communities large and small around the state, Games of the North introduces the audience to several world-class athletes, including Big Bob Aiken, a world-record holder and once the biggest Eskimo in the world, and Elizabeth Rexford who juggles studies of her traditional Inupiat language with pre-med courses at Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. We also meet Jesse Frankson of Point Hope, who set the world record in 2008 with a 9' 8” One Foot High Kick and tries to break his record in Fairbanks. We also get to see Frankson stalking seals on the Arctic ice, where he puts the skills necessary to compete in the games to practical application while subsistence hunting.
Other athletes profiled in the film include: David Thomas of Palmer who, despite growing up in an urban setting, learned his heritage and values from his grandmother, an Inupiat elder; John Miller III, a high school senior from Barrow who has been breaking records since he was 15; and Brian Randazzo, a legend in the games whose road to recovery after a traumatic injury has been at times difficult, but full of hope.
Each of their stories reveals their personal relationship to the games and underscores the importance the Arctic Winter Games games play in forging a bond between Alaska Natives of varying backgrounds, urban and rural, as they compete in grueling tests of endurance, strength and agility.
The film is serenaded by a dramatic tribal-funk musical score provided by Pamyua and features gorgeous imagery from award-winning cinematographers Andrew MacLean, Greg Bernstein and Tom Pillifant. Steven Wounded Deer Alvarez, Director of Cultural Education and Strategic Initiatives for the Alaska Native Heritage Center served as the film's executive producer.
"The relevance of the games to today's northern territories – such as Alaska, Quebec, and Greenland just to name a few – is so crucial to the survival of the culture,” says Alvarez. “The harsh and unforgiving Arctic is not child's play. It takes knowledge from the past and one's personal strength to endure what mother nature gives you."
Games of the North was produced by Canadian Johnathon Stanton of Starseed Media. “When a friend first showed me the Native Games, I was blown away by the level of athleticism and the grueling strength of these athletes. I became immediately drawn-in as both an athlete and filmmaker,” says Stanton.
For more information on Games of the North, including photos, cast bios and the film's trailer, please visit the Games of the North website.
Arctic Winter Games athlete David Thomas, one of the film's subjects, is pictured below.
