Door 15

TV Debut Set for "Games of the North"

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.

Short Documentary By Athabascan Youths Wins Honor, Develops Into Larger Project

A short documentary film about the community of Nikolai, Alaska that was funded in part by a 2010 Alaska Humanities Forum mini-grant won honorable mention at the 10th annual Anchorage International Film Festival.

The film, Portrait of Nikolai, documents the daily life, history and culture of Nikolai, an Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan village located in the Alaska Interior on the south fork of the Kuskokwim River, about 50 air miles east of McGrath. About 90 people live in Nikolai.

Young people in Nikolai created Portrait of Nikolai in summer of 2010 during a film workshop put on by Atheneum School and Media Action. The film includes footage of renovations at the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, which was originally constructed in 1927, as well as artful environmental shots capturing the natural beauty of the surrounding area and interviews with Nikolai residents, including several of the youths involved in the documentary project.

A radio interview with two of the student filmmakers on the popular KSKA radio program "Hometown, Alaska" is available here.

The film was presented at the December film festival in the Snowdance category of films about Alaska and/or by Alaskans.

Its centerpiece is an interview with Nikolai elder Phillip Esai, Sr., whose charisma is equaled by his wisdom. The student filmmakers were so enamored with Esai that they, along with the Atheneum School and Media Action, put together a proposal to create a longer documentary about his life and perspectives.

Last month, that project received a $7,000 general grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum.

Student filmmaker Joricha Thomas, 19, is already plotting a third documentary. “My future for film making is growing. The experience of filming A Portrait of Nikolai has inspired me to continue to make films, and learn more about documentaries,” said Thomas.

“I would like to do a documentary about King Island, where my family originally came from. It is 40 miles west of Cape Douglas, and is south of Wales, Alaska. I'd like to interview elders who used to live there, before they pass away. I'd like to find out more about the history of the village, the traditions, the culture, the language and how life was then compared to now. I hope this is possible for me, because I think it's nice to find out where your family is originally from, and to find out the history about the place. To me, making a documentary about King Island is important because it was once a home and now is a ghost town.”

Portrait of Nikolai filmmaker Shawn Gover is pictured below.