AIFF 2025: Great Opening Night With Film Burt

The Bear Tooth was full on opening night to watch Burt on opening night of the Anchorage International Film Festival tonight.                      The clip above is from a brief audio Q&A with the leading character, Burt.                                               This was a truly unique film.  The main character played himself - a 69 year old guitarist with Parkinson Disease.  His remote Steve played himself.  Though the story was fictional.                       The film makers say they filmed this in seven days for $7000.  

In the Q&A director Burke said all his previous experience let him just go with the actors/characters with different cameras and that gave him enough to edit it into an absorbing film. He also credited Burt and Steve as natural actors who made this sort of film possible.  In the clip above Burt (facing us) is talking with the man who walks into his life claiming to be his son.

It's going on 1am and I have to get up early tomorrow.  I want to say a bit more about this film.  But for now, here is a bit of the Q&A with the film's director Joe Burke.  The audio isn't as clear as I'd like, but it is understandable.  He did take pretty fast for most of the Q&A.

And the post wouldn't be complete with my mentioning Witty Youngman, who played guitar after the movie - starting out with a song Burt sang in the movie.  She had a hauntingly lovely voice that kept people in the theater much longer than normal.  

AIFF2025: Nikolas and Katrine Are In Anchorage for the Film Festival

 

We picked up Nikolas and Katrina at the airport Wednesday night and brought them home.  Thursday we did a tour of AIFF sites (sights?) in Anchorage.  Above they are at the Baar Tooth with the poster for their German language film The World Outside, which will be shown next Friday - December 12 - at the Alaska Experience Theater at 8:30pm.  

Then we stopped at the museum to see the auditorium there and did a quick hello the pink polar bear.

Today we went to the Campbell Airstrip and walked through the snowy woods.  

T

Then we stopped to visit Dr. Margritt Engel who has just moved into a new apartment in Chester Park.  It's still full of boxes.  Dr. Engel is a Professor Emerita of German at the University of Alaska Anchorage.  And we had a lively conversation.  My brain was taxed (nicely) as they spoke in German and I did my best to use my rusty German as well.  There were lots of words I haven't heard spoken in a long time.  

When I was a student in Göttingen, German in the 1960s, I visited friends and relatives of my parents who were still alive.  My step-father's cousin invited me to visit them in Berlin, which I did several times during the year.  They had two children - Claudia was ten at the time and Stefan was 7 (I think.)

Long story short, Nikolas is Claudia's son.  I'd met him at his mom's house in Berlin about 15 years ago.  He'd worked on a film and we went to the premier.  Afterward I told him to apply to the Anchorage International Film Festival.  

While we were in Turkey recently, I got an email from Nikolas saying his new film which he made with his girlfriend Katrine, was accepted at AIFF and they were coming to Anchorage.  Naturally, we invited them to stay with us.  

So all that is to let you know I'm probably  a little biased here.  I haven't seen the film, but we've talked about it.  And I plan to do an interview before it is shown next Friday (December 12).  

It's about a woman with agoraphobia - fear of going outside.  But she gets an invitation to a good friend's wedding.  For me that sounds a little depressing, but they've assured me they endeavored to help people learn about and better understand agoraphobia and how it affects people, but in a way that is compelling and even funny at times.  I'm looking forward to seeing it - especially since Katrine is the main actor.  Nikolas gave me this still from the film which he likes much better than the one the Festival folks picked.

They are here for the whole festival, so look for them or for me and talk to them.  They are very friendly and their English is excellent.  And they are both lots of fun.  

And if you know any German speakers, or people with an interest in mental health issues, let them know about this film.  Again:

Friday, December 12 at the Alaska Experience Theater at 8:30pm.    The World Outside or in German Draußen die Welt.  (The ß is the German letter for a double S.)

See you tonight at the Bear Tooth for the opening film, Burt.

AIFF2025 - Sunday's Features

I'm trying to cover the Feature films showing at the Anchorage International Film Festival.  Here are the features - both narrative and documentary - playing on Sunday Dec. 7. 

Hide — Ian Sciacaluga

This is a UK film.

From Letterboxd:

"Angie, an illustrator, is focused on a new assignment - a graphic novel of magical realism. She uses her work to escape the reality of her fractious marriage to Edward, whose behaviour has become erratic under pressure from his failing business. Unexpectedly, Angie’s estranged mother dies. Inflamed by her death, Angie’s sister, Molly, makes an explosive revelation about the sisters’ family past, conjuring up memories of a childhood trauma that torment Angie’s mind and invade her illustrations. Her real and fictional worlds ominously fuse and come alive in the nightmarish woods of her horrific childhood. It’s up to her creative mind to release her from her damning past."

From an interview with director Ian Sciacaluga at Art Film Awards:

"What inspired you to pursue a career in filmmaking?

I was mesmerised by Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounter sof the Third Kind” when I saw it as a 12 year-old back in 1979 (it came out in 1978). It was a magical and, almost religious, experience for me and the first time that I felt I was being manipulated by a person behind the camera. It was a realisation that this medium called film could make true any story of imagination you could muster for a big audience and you could turn dreams into a celluloid reality with incredible worlds and unforgettable characters. As I grew older and acquired a Braun 561 Super 8 camera, I learned about, not only techniques, but the importance of themes and subtexts, character arcs and mise en scenes to convey narratives, which made the medium of film all the more fascinating and arousing."

Sunday, Dec. 7, 1pm Alaska Experience Theater

Also at 1pm is You're No Indian, at the Museum,  I touched on that here.  

A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini — Davide Fiore

From Collective Eye Films: 

"Before banks in the U.S. had a branch on every corner, they were an exclusive service for the wealthy. For the poor, working, and immigrant class, saving money was as unreliable as stashing it under a mattress. But at the turn of the 20th century, Amadeo Peter (A.P.) Giannini, son of Italian immigrants, revolutionized the industry with his small Bank of Italy in San Francisco.

As a first-generation Italian-American, his goal was to serve “the little fellow” and breed prosperity within his immigrant community. But, by building trust and giving loans on a simple handshake, he created one of the largest banks in the country – Bank of America.

A Little Fellow tells the story of a man who struck fear into the heart of Wall Street while having everyday people in mind. Known as “People’s banker,” he gave a friendly face to a greedy industry. As one of the first investors in Hollywood, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Hewlett-Packard, his forward-thinking helped the country through two World Wars and the Great Depression."

From an interview with director Davide Fiore at Adobe Blog:

"How and where did you first learn to edit?

Back in high school, I had this little side gig — pranking my teachers. Nothing too crazy, just a couple of cameras, some staged scenes, and a whole lot of sneaky fun. It was my version of "no harm, no foul." I'd film the whole thing and then dive into editing. Honestly, editing was like a game to me at first, just figuring out what crazy stuff I could create.

Fast forward to college, and I decided to level up. I did 3 years of Virtual and Digital Design. I got my hands on Adobe Premiere and After Effects — those were my new toys. That’s when I first met motion graphics. It was 2008, 2009, and I was like, “Wait, this is magic, right?” That’s when I realized editing wasn't just about cutting footage, it was about making the impossible look cool." 

Sun, Dec 07 2025 3:30pm  Anchorage Museum 

The Ladder is at 6pm at Museum.  I posted on The Ladder here.

Crystal Cross - Richie James Follin

From Letterboxd:  

Synopsis

SOMETIMES LOVE MEANS NOT KILLING YOURSELF.

A quirky Christian singer and a suicidal dad drive cross-country, forging an unlikely bond through bad decisions, bizarre roadside attractions, and an all-original soundtrack. “Crystal Cross” is a hilarious, bittersweet road trip about two lost souls finding comfort (but not salvation) in each other’s messes.

Reviewer  Movieswithame at the Austin Film Festival begins:

In Richie James Follin’s Crystal Cross, you can actually sense the joy of making it radiating through the screen. It’s a road movie, a love story, a dark comedy, but more than anything, it’s a film that feels handmade in the best possible way. There’s a rawness to it that can’t be faked. Every frame, every imperfect camera wobble, every sun-flared highway shot carries the energy of a filmmaker who’s figuring it out as he goes, and somehow, that ends up being the film’s greatest strength.

Sun, Dec 07 2025 8:30pm  Anchorage Museum

Also at 8:30 pm - at Alaska Experience Theater - is The Mariana Trench which I posted about here

I'm getting a bit sleepy, so if anyone finds some errors - particularly when and where a film is showing, please let me know.  Thanks.  Just two more days to go.  

San Francisco Housing - Sunset District

Many, many San Francisco houses are attached, one to the other, block by block.  

My son's family lives in the Sunset District which is south of Golden Gate Park and stretches down to the ocean.  As we walk the neighborhood, I'm struck by how these houses were, for the most part, built up against each other.  There are minor cosmetic differences - window shapes particularly - but most have steps up to the front door and a tiny garage.  Many of the steps have been covered over, so they are now inside with an iron gate. And some use color to make their house more distinctive. 

Here are some examples:

A 2013 report by Mary Brown  for the San Francisco Planning Department - SUNSET DISTRICT

RESIDENTIAL BUILDERS, 1925-1950  Historic Context Statement - tells us:

"The vast majority of construction activity in the Sunset District occurred between 1925 and 1950. The mid-1920s witnessed the introduction of the form and massing of residential buildings constructed in the neighborhood for the following 25 years: a stucco-clad, single-family house, with integrated garage at the ground story and living spaces above. The houses were tightly packed on 25-foot-wide lots, giving the appearance of small-scale attached row houses. The end date of 1950 was chosen to mark the slowing down of the frenzied construction activity that occurred following the end of World War II and the shift from single-family houses to multi-family complexes and residential towers. Major factors that influenced design and construction of residential tracts during this 25-year period included infrastructure development, such as the construction of streetcar tunnels and graded streets to cross the sand dunes, the mass adoption of automobiles, the Great Depression and resultant federal government intervention to stimulate building and increase home ownership, population shifts associated with the defense industry, and the postwar population boom."

This is just one paragraph from the 115 page report, which includes lots of photos of houses, and descriptions of the different styles and architectural features.  

The missing house below was a meth lab that blew up in February 2023..  The two next to it were badly damaged and many of the houses on the block had windows blown out.  \

Here's what it looked like a couple of days after the explosion.  You can see moe pictures of it here (below the Frank Lloyd Wright houses in Oak Park).

I'd note that this house is not far from Golden Gate Park which has bison in one area.  

AIFF 2025: Features Through Saturday Dec. 8 - From Burt to Fucktoys

Shorts are important at a film festival.  They're often the draft first chapters of feature length films.  

But the features - the longer films - are what many (most?) filmmakers are aiming for.  So I'm going to try to highlight the features being shown at the festival.  I'll try to cover those shown at the beginning and get others later.  

Burt - Joe Burke

This is the opening night movie.  That means people at the Festival really liked it.  

Friday, Dec 5, 2025 -  7:30 PM: Opening Night Film - Beartooth

From the filmmaker's webpage: 

Burt, a 69-year-old street musician living with Parkinson’s, has his life turned upside down when Sammy, a wayward young man from New York, shows up claiming to be his son. Having always dreamed of being a father, Burt embraces Sammy and invites him to stay for the weekend at his home, where he lives with his grumpy landlord, Steve.

Inspired by the real-life of singer/songwriter Burt Berger, who stars in the film alongside actor Oliver Cooper; this movie blurs the line between reality and fiction with disarming authenticity. An instant laugh-out-loud-and-cry indie darling. The movie is a powerful love letter to Burt, his music, and the filmmaker’s own father, who also lives with Parkinson’s.

The LA Times headline for its review of the film:  "They shot the film in seven days for $7,000"

[Editorial Comment:  But the page has a pop up that requires me to agree to arbitration and a class action waiver and all their cookies.  No opt outs.  So the headline is all I'll see of the review because I can't agree to that.  Folks, be good consumers - there are millions of websites out there.  If the site opt out options are onerous, don't just agree.  Delete the page and find one that's more user friendly.]

​Here's an interview with the two film makers on YouTube

 

In The Wake Of Justice Delayed  -   Mary Katzke

Saturday, Dec 6 , 2025, Alaska Experience Theater (AKEX)  10:00 AM

From the Alaska Beacon

"A new documentary profiles two Alaska Native families as they seek justice for their murdered loved ones, diving into the generational trauma of families and communities grappling with violence, barriers within the criminal justice system and years of grief and unanswered questions.  

The new film, “In the Wake of Justice Delayed,” follows five years in the families’ search for justice – in two cases of murder of Native women, one more recent murder in Palmer in 2019 and one decades ago in Point Hope in 1985 – and a diving into the interconnected grief and impacts of violence in the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, particularly women, in Alaska.

The documentary opens with the statement: “Native women and girls experience a murder rate 10 times higher than the national average,” by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

'Women are not just statistics. They are not just numbers,' said Alice Quannik Glenn, a journalist and podcast host from Utgiagvik featured in the film. 'They’re real people that influence the other people around them. They influence their communities. So when one of us isn’t safe, it makes us all vulnerable.'”

 

Sgt. Stubby: An Unlikely Hero — Richard Lanni

I'm not sure why this film is being shown at the festival this year.  All the reviews I've seen are dated 2018, which is much older than films are supposed to be to get into the festival.  

Saturday, Dec 6 , 2025, Alaska Experience Theater (AKEX)  3:30pm

From a Deseret News review in 2018. 

“'SGT. STUBBY: AN AMERICAN HERO' — 2 stars — Voices of Logan Lerman, Helena Bonham Carter, Gerard Depardieu, Jason Ezzell; PG (war action and some thematic elements); in general release

Based on a true story, Richard Lanni’s “Sgt. Stubby: An American Hero” follows the animated adventures of a dog that served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

For a brief moment, we see a small mutt deep in the trenches in France during March 1918, then we flash back six months to the United States, where a contingency of U.S. soldiers is training to enter World War I."

F*cktoys — Annapurna Sriram 

I'd note, from what I can tell, the film itself doesn't have an *.  

Definitely the most provocative title in the festival.  

Saturday, Dec 6 , 2025,  Museum  6:30 PM

From PurpleHour:

"The five of cups, the hanged man, and the sun—even if you don’t know how to read tarot, that’s fine, because Annapurna Sriram’s boldly titled Fucktoys tells us that the combination is plan ol’ bad luck. Our hero AP (Sriram herself) begins her journey in the middle of a huge swamp, where a tarot reader (iconic genderfluid bounce artist Big Freedia) tells her frankly, that she’s been cursed. Those teeth that have been falling out? Yeah, that’s black magic. Capitalism, of course, is her way out: the only way she can undo the magic is by gathering one thousand dollars to have the tarot reader lift the curse, involving a ritual slaughter of a baby lamb. If not, then bad, bad things will happen.

What else is AP to do but hop on her crystal blue moped, adorned with a sparkly unicorn, and begin to gather the money—a delightful fairytale-like starter to Sriram’s debut feature. . . "

IndieWire has a piece on this film titled, "Why the F*ck has Nobody Bought F*cktoys?" (*s in the original).  Basically, the answer is she hasn't gotten the right offer yet.  The last line of the article:

“I would never let a client talk down my rate,” she said. “Why would I let a distributor?”

Remaining Native — Paige Bethmann 

I've already spotlighted this on November 18.  

Saturday, Dec 6 , 2025,  Bear Tooth  12:00 pm

Drink and Be Merry — Adam Volerich

Saturday, Dec 6 , 2025,  Bear Tooth  3:00 pm

From the Tallahassee Film Festival: 

"Set at a struggling New York dive bar in the days leading up to Christmas, 2019. Its protagonist, Chet (Jefferson White), is a beleaguered bartender in a state of extended arrested development, who must balance taking care of his misanthropic, aging regulars — who have nowhere else to go, and rely on him for far more than pouring drinks — with his naive desires to muster some Christmas spirit."

I can't find much more than this on the film.  There are reports that they wrapped up filming in February of this year, so it hasn't been to many festivals yet.  I guess. This isn't a topic I enjoy watching, but there have been excellent films about alcohol addiction.  It's playing at the Bear Tooth, so someone thought it would get a good crowd. 

The GOP's Despicable Demonization Of Transgender People

[Introduction:  As I watch people posting charts and citing statistics to make various cases online, I also realize that only 37+ percent of adult USians* have four year college degrees.  That means that many, if not most, only have the sketchiest grasp of how to read graphs, or even to understand basic ideas like percentages.  The same is true of a lot of words - they are not in many people's vocabulary and they have a vague or even wrong understanding of many words.  Of course that's not true of my readers :), but sometimes I feel the need to get more basic in my explanations just in case someone wants to use something I write to expand a friend or relative's understanding about a topic.]

I've been thinking about a post like this for a while.  A post somewhere this morning saying it was Transgender Awareness Week, seems to have pushed me to write this today.  Though there's probably enough reminders today and I'd be better off putting this up another time.  But, here are my thoughts on this.  I'm trying to give people as many links as possible to expand their knowledge on this topic.  

The current administration makes a habit of demonizing groups of people its base has little or no actual contact with.  They made up stories about Haitian immigrants who were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.  (A subheading of that Psychology Today story says the immigrants were 'mistakenly' accused.  There was no 'mistakenly.'  The campaign saw an inflammatory story and ran with it, intentionally adding another log into their firestorm of hatred.)  

The campaign constantly talked about immigrants who were criminals, drug dealers, murderers, and rapists.  Those who didn't know it was all flagrant falsehoods to stir them up to vote for their criminal rapist candidate, are now shocked when ICE comes after the immigrants who look after their children, grow their food, clean their cars, build their houses, and even are their relatives, their spouses. 

They also attacked non-Christians, especially Muslims, even though their presidential candidate was chummy with the Middle Eastern prince who chopped up an American journalist.  Again, there was no danger to USians from non-Christians that was greater than the danger from Christians themselves.  It was just another fictional class of villains to scare voters.  And there are campaigns against "anti-Christian bias"  which seems to mean any criticism of Christian values enacted into law to govern the behavior of non-Christians in this predominantly Christian nation.

Among the relatively unknown minorities in the US are transgender folks.  By 'unknown' I mean few people actually know someone who is transgender.  And the campaign made transgender folks a major campaign target.  This is my focus today.

Targeting transgender folks gains traction for several reasons:

1.  The idea of a clear cut dichotomy between male and female just seems so natural.  We ask whether new babies are girls or boys.  The difference between a vagina and a penis is pretty convincing.  

The idea of the world being flat makes perfect sense for someone living on what appears to be and feels like flat ground.  But from different perspectives, with greater information, it eventually becomes clear that the earth - like the round moon in the sky - is a sphere.  

And with greater context and from different perspectives, it's also clear that the dichotomy of male or female is also a gross simplification.  

Some societies have long recognized there were people who didn't fit into that either/or category.  See:

PBS - A Map of Gender Diverse Cultures

Anthropology Review - Non-Binary Gender Identities in Different Cultures

2.  Most people have little or no personal contact with a transgender person.  A PewResearch study says 42% of US population say the know someone who is transgender, with the percent higher among the youngest.  But it doesn't clarify what exactly 'know' means.  Have they spoken to the person?  About transgender issues?  Have they had them over for dinner?  We don't know.  Our schools do little or nothing to help students understand anything about trans people, and Evangelical congregations do their best to demonize them.     

• About 10% of the population are left-handed. 
• About 2 million men per year beat their partners, according to the F.B.I.  (That's not a percentage, but that's more than all the transgender people in the US. according to the study below, though others offer a higher number.)  
• Approximately 1.5 million people attempted suicide in 2023.  49,000 successfully.
• 804,926 Americans were arrested for suspected DUI in 2024, representing 11% of all arrests nationwide.  12,429 people were killed by drunk drivers.
• New data on violence against transgender people in the U.S. shows there have been at least 399 cases of fatal violence against trans people since 2013, including 27 murders in the past year alone, with no indication the trend is slowing.
• 86% of people don't fact check news on social media  and here's a related study showing people are not that good at spotting fake news, and it differs for Democrats and Republicans
• 10% of US population believe the earth is flat. Another 9% aren't sure

I was just trying to find some numbers to put the number of transgender people into context.  Raw numbers without context, without other numbers, don't mean that much to most people.  You can look up other numbers that might be more relevant.  

Bur my basic point is that transgender people are simply not a major danger to anyone compared to other things we ought to be spending time and money on.  

3.   People don't know that much about the science of gender, even people who support transgender rights.  This is hard to prove, but this study by PewResearch seems to support it:

"When asked what has influenced their views on gender identity – specifically, whether they believe a person can be a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth – those who believe gender can be different from sex at birth and those who do not point to different factors. For the former group, the most influential factors shaping their views are what they’ve learned from science (40%) say this has influenced their views a great deal or a fair amount) and knowing someone who is transgender (38%). Some 46% of those who say gender is determined by sex at birth also point to what they’ve learned from science, but this group is far more likely than those who say a person’s gender can be different from their sex at birth to say their religious beliefs have had at least a fair amount of influence on their opinion (41% vs. 9%)."  .  

If 40% rely on science, that means 60% do not.   And exactly what science are the 'gender is determined by sex at birth' crowd reading?  

This map is interactive online

From World Population Data where this map is interactive.  While it gives percentages for each state, it doesn't give percentage for the United States as a whole.  It does give a US total of 1,337,200 transgender people in the US but no percentage.  Further, that number is probably low because it is hard to identify transgender people - particularly those who haven't publicly identified themselves as transgender.  Using a US population figure of 347,999,881 from Worldometer, I get a total percentage of .0038 for the United States. I'll use that as a rough estimate, given the total population is more recent than the study itself.  A further complication is that the number I used is of people 18 and older.  The site says that younger people identify as transgender at a higher percent of the population than older transgender folks.  In any case, the number of transgender people is quite small.  

What do we learn from this map?

1.  Less than one percent of USians* identify as transgender.  That means for a group of 100 randomly selected people, there maybe one or no people who identify as transgender.  The Alaska number was .7% of the Alaska population.  That means out of 100 people .7 identify as transgender.  But, of course, we know, we don't have any .7 people walking around.  If we double the sample size from 100 to 200, then we'd double the number of people from .7 to 1.4.  Again, there are no .4 people walking around.  So let's go up to 300.  That would yield 2.1 people.  So, essentially 2 people for every 300 people.

 

That means most people don't know, or aren't aware they know, a transgender person.  And if they do, most of the 300 people have never had a heart to heart talk with that person to gain an understanding of what being transgender means to that person, how the person figured out they were transgender, or anything else other than the fact that the person is transgender.  

One can also learn about transgender people through other sources:  books, movies, media.  There are a number of books written about transgender people - fiction, biography, science.  

OVERCOMING IGNORANCE

Mayo Clinic:  Transgender Facts - basically a list of definitions

American Psychological Society - Understanding transgender people, gender identity and gender expression

The above two are basically sciency definitions.  The next one is similar, but adds a bit of human experience into it.

Advocates for Trans Equality - Trans 101

The ones below  offer books by trans folks themselves.  

19thNews - 21 books bringing transgender visibility to book lovers

GLAAD - Eight Books from Trans Authors to Read for Trans Awareness Week

*USians is a term some people use instead of Americans as a way of recognizing that all people who live in the Western Hemisphere - from Canada to Argentina - are Americans, not just people in the United States.  

AIFF2025: Festival Passes, Nazi Art Thief, Remaining Native Or Not - UPDATED

 The button on the film festival website is now working and you can buy all film passes.  Last year the new  directors of the AIFF Pat McGee and Adam Linkenhelt did away with all film passes altogether.  There was some pushback and some were made available.  I was told there will be a limited number of passes this year.  The price is $200 each, considerably more than in the past.  That's still a lot cheaper than buying tickets one-by-one if you're going to as many films as you can.  There are a number of folks who have been doing that for many years.  It's still not clear on the website  a) how to buy individual tickets for events, or b) how much they will cost this year.  [UPDATED: Nov 19, 2025 - You can purchase tickets for individual showings for $12.  So if you're going to see more than 16 events a pass is the way to go. And you don't have to buy tickets each time. In the past you did have to get tickets at the Bear Tooth by showing your pass. (You could do one Friday, five on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday each.  There are more showings than that, but they are at the same time.)]

But if you want a festival pass, I suggest getting on the website and scrolling down until you see the link to buy passes.  

This year there are a lot of films showing at the same time.  If you have a lot of programs (showings of a feature film, or showing of a block of shorts) this will, inevitably happen.  But looking at Monday's programming, both the Alaska Experience Theater and F Street Theater have 10:30am and 1 pm showings.  Bear Tooth has a 5:30 showing.  So one of the downtown venues could have started at 10:30am and the other at noon, with a 2:30 or 3pm showing.  Then there would have only been one overlapping event.  The second Saturday, they have spaced things out so there is no overlap. 

I'd also note that on Thursday, December 11 in the online schedule as of my writing this, at 7:00 30 pm in the Museum it says:  "Jewish Museum Feature."  I'm guessing that was a place holder until the webmaster got the name of the film.  I spoke to the director of the Jewish Museum here in Anchorage and she said the film was:

Plunderer:  The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief - Hugo MacGregor.  

Image from 7th Art

From MFABoston: 

“'It’s not every day that you meet an old Nazi.' So begins historian Jonathan Petropoulos, recalling the day in 1998 when he first met Bruno Lohse, Hermann Göring’s art agent in Paris during World War II. Once an obscure art dealer, Lohse rose to prominence in Göring’s inner circle, personally orchestrating history’s most infamous art theft ring for Hitler’s right-hand man.

Filmed over five years and in seven countries, Plunderer: The Life and Times of a Nazi Art Thief unfolds as a detective story with Petropoulos detailing Lohse’s role in stealing countless masterpieces from liquidated Jews across Europe, and the web of postwar complicity that shielded the Nazi criminal from meaningful justice. This compelling tale exposes the art market’s disregard for provenance and confronts the enduring human cost of these crimes. It also raises questions about the ethical consequences when a writer falls prey to a source and becomes a part of the story. Produced by John Friedman under the aegis of the National Center for Jewish Film."

[UPDATED NOV 19 - It's still listed as Jewish Museum Feature and if you search that, you can get tickets now.]

And here are a few more film previews:  Remaining Native and You're Not Native.  It seems these two really should be listed together.  

Thursday, December 11  7:00 pm in the Museum

Remaining Native - Paige Bethmann

From Variety:

"Director Paige Bethmann’s technically polished and utterly absorbing film skillfully forges a link between past and present by focusing on Kutoven “Ku” Stevens,  a 17-year-old Native American determined to earn a University of Oregon scholarship in track — despite his living on the Yerington Paiute reservation in Northwest Nevada, a place rarely if ever visited by college scouts, and being the only cross-country runner at a high school that lacks a track coach.

Ku’s parents strongly support his pursuit of his daunting goal — especially as they attend track meets where Ku runs so far ahead of his competitors he appears to be moving into a different zip code. And he’s lucky enough to be spotted by Lupe Cabada, a running coach who recognizes Ku’s formidable abilities, and guides him toward competing in meets where the young runner can be seen by the right people.

But there’s more to Ku’s obsession than his O of U dreams. As he runs across the rural Nevada landscapes, he is driven by stories he has been told about his great-grandfather, Frank Quinn, who at age eight fled from confinement at an especially brutal Indian Boarding School by literally running away — 50 miles away, to be precise — after two failed attempts at escape.

“Maybe they got tired of chasing him,” Ku speculates. Many other students, however, weren’t nearly so lucky. Indeed, as “Remaining Native” progresses, and the first waves of accounts about unmarked graves discovered at former Indian Boarding Schools hit the news, the horrors are exposed and the estimated death count escalates."

You're No Indian - Ryan Flynn

From ITC:

"Directed by Ryan Flynn, the film gained the support of Wes Studi and Tantoo Cardinal who joined the project as executive producers.

Cardinal, a celebrated Métis actor with Cree, Nakota and Dene heritage, told ICT: “‘You’re No Indian’ is a powerful story that needed to be told. Our people are being erased, by our own tribal governments, and that truth struck a nerve. The stories in this film lit a fire in me. You see families broken apart, identity stolen, communities suffering in silence. I couldn’t ignore that. Many are too afraid to speak up, knowing they could be next. I joined this project to help lift their voices.”

Why has disenrollment become such a major issue?

“Disenrollment is not new,” Cardinal says. “It’s a modern-day extension of the same forces that have tried to erase Indigenous identity for generations. More than 11,000 people have already been disenrolled, and many more were never acknowledged at all. Their stories speak to a crisis hiding in plain sight. ‘You’re No Indian’ confronts that silence, revealing just how widespread, and devastating, this injustice truly is.

'It’s about the money,' director Flynn told ICT. “It’s unfortunately underreported – entire families and histories are wiped out with no recourse. We created this film to shine a light on this practice and amplify the voices of those affected. One person gets disenrolled and it wipes out the whole lineage.'” 

 Sunday, Dec. 7, 1pm at the Museum

I haven't seen any of the films I've featured in this post and the two previous posts.  They were simply selected based on the screenshots up on the AIFF 2025 website and the titles.  Or, in the case of Plunderer,  which I've added because it isn't on the website yet at all.  This is a way for me to find out more about what is coming and to share with you.  These aren't necessarily recommendations.  

AIFF 2025 More Appetizers For The Anchorage International Film Festival

 At this point the Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) website doesn't give us much info about the films - the name of the film and filmmaker, a screenshot, the category it's in (feature or short basically), and when and where it will be shown.  There's still a few weeks to go to get more up, but in the meantime, I've just gone through the screenshots and picked some that jumped out at me.  The first set was posted here.  

This is the second set.  It's not totally random.  It's based on the visual impact on me of the screenshot, which is not insignificant for a film.  But each of us will pick different shots. Since most of the films in the festival are shorts, most of the ones so far are also shorts.  

As I'm doing this and the previous post, it does seem that the screenshots are posted more or less in the order they are showing.  So these first two posts get us through the first weekend and up to Tuesday (Chasing Fins.)

So consider this an appetizer for the festival which starts Friday December 5.  Go check out the AIFF website yourself.

Ellie - Vinny O’Brien

As I regular cyclist, I immediately saw this as someone riding a bicycle, though I realized later it could also be a motorcycle.  And he has such a determined look on his face.  And the top of his head is cut off.    And, as you read below, here's another Alaskan film maker.  

From Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival:

"'Ellie,' directed by Vinny O'Brien, is a refreshing addition to the world of independent action filmmaking. O'Brien, a former Golden Glove champion and Alaskan commercial fisherman turned filmmaker, makes his directorial and producer debut with this project.

It skillfully navigates the delicate balance between drama and action, seamlessly blending heart-wrenching moments of familial connection with adrenaline-pumping sequences, creating a captivating cinematic experience."

The plot revolves around a father on the run from ruthless foes, using games to distract his daughter from the impending danger. Unintentionally, he prepares her for the perilous journey ahead, relying on resourcefulness to protect her and strengthen their bond. The premise is a clever idea, and O'Brien executes it with finesse.

The film shines in various aspects, starting with its well-written script that explores the intricate dynamics of the father-daughter relationship. The acting is commendable, capturing the emotional nuances required for such a narrative. The cinematography adds depth to the storytelling, capturing both the tender moments and the intensity of the perilous journey. . . "

Saturday, December 6  Part of Shorts Program "Thrillers" starting at 8:30pm at Alaska Experience Theater

But I'm A Shoe -  Chen Drachman

 I've been through a number of airports in the last couple of months, so I'm guessing that influenced my decision to include this one.  And I like the style of the animation.  

From the Jewish Standard:

"After flying around the country attending back-to-back festivals and award events, Ms. Drachman was exhausted. “In my state of sleep-deprived delirium, I was conversing with myself,” she recalled.

She dubbed the two voices in her inner dialogue “Chen A” and “Chen B.”

“Chen A said, ‘I just do not have the energy to deal with air travel right now. I wish I could turn myself into a small object for the duration of the flight.’

“And Chen B was like, ‘What would you turn yourself into if you could?’

“Chen A said, ‘I think I would turn myself into a shoe — I’d split my consciousness between two shoes.’

“Chen B said, ‘Oh yeah! The TSA officer would be like, ‘Please take off your shoes,’ and I would be like, ‘But I am a shoe!’

“A few days after I got home, I wrote it down and started to think practically how I might do it,” Ms. Drachman concluded."

Okay, readers.  Your assignment is to think about how you might turn this into a movie.  Then on Saturday, December 6, at 10am you can compare your version to the filmmaker's version at Shorts Animation Program at the Museum. 

Guanaco - Mercedes Jerkovic & Martin Fisner 

This one is so bizarre that I just had to include it.  Could I make up a story that would include these characters?  Sure, but it would take a while.  

"Filmed in Ushuaia and inspired by a real event, this is a portrait of the torment of living at the end of the world. Between the majesty of the Andes and the mysterious custody of the Selknam spirits, from the island of Tierra del Fuego you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

Monday, December 7 at the Alaska Experience Theater in the Uncensored Shorts Block that begins at 10:30am 

Lemon  - Beth Curry

The sofa is yellow, but where is the lemon?  The camera caught this kid being a kid.  (Turns out the kid is Lemon.)  There's a fair amount about the screenwriter Beth Curry, including a long paywalled series on Medium, but not much on Lemon. There is a Lemon website, but it's mostly pictures. A brief bio of the filmmaker.  Here's a bit about the film itself. 

"We are in a time where fear seems ever-present. Lemon has been conditioned to fear the outside world. But soon, she learns to let go of that conditioning and dares to see what life has to offer. Perhaps we could all learn a thing or two from Lemon...to let go of fear and to LIVE!"

And there's a brief video trailer. 

It's showing Monday, December 8, at 5:30 pm at the Bear Tooth in the Shorts Program:  Female Filmmakers Showcase. 

 

Breaking The Tide -  Katrin York

Having grown up on the beaches of Southern California, how can I not pick this shot.  The surfboard leash is still attached to the ankle, so it's probably on the other side of the wave.  

This film is in the same program as Lemon: Monday, December 8, at 5:30 pm at the Bear Tooth in the Shorts Program:  Female Filmmakers Showcase. 

From the Hawaiian International Film Festival (the perfect festival for this film):

"On the North Shore of Oahu, siblings Jesse and Hunter are shaped by the unforgiving surf culture and their father''s relentless pressure. What begins as playful dares escalates into a dangerous rivalry, pushing them toward a life-altering reckoning with their fears, their bond, and the powerful tides that control them both."

You can see a trailer at Seed&Spark. 

Chasing Fins - Tomas Koeck

How can this shot not grab my attention?  This shark seems to be looking right at me.  

This film is part of a series Ocean State, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy and others.  From The Nature Conservancy:

"Earlier this year, Silent Flight Studios released the Ocean State pilot episode, Chasing Fins, which received enthusiastic feedback from audiences. The special, focusing on the lives and migrations of Rhode Island’s shark species and featuring the Atlantic Shark Institute, aired locally on Ocean State Media in August and is now available on PBS.org and its streaming platform.

Tomas Koeck is an award-winning filmmaker, journalist and expeditionist recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists for excellence in reporting and storytelling. Koeck has been on assignment for National Geographic, PBS Nature, Smithsonian Channel and the National Audubon Society, among others."

Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) 2025 Judging A Film By Its Cover

 At this point there isn’t much more to go on

The AIFF website has shifted from the one that was just sitting there with old news about the long past deadline for submitting a film, to a new shiny one with a screenshot for every film, a schedule of when they’ll be shown, and a link to getting festival passes that takes you back to the top of the page.

At this point as a blogger, I’ve got little to help me to decide which films to find out more about, other than the film screenshots, the titles, and the categories,  My favorite screenshot?  This was the first one that really grabbed me. 

I think it was the lighting at first, but also the setting and the posture of the characters,  If I had to pick one shot to represent my film, I’d pick the one that was most compelling, whether that is just the visual quality of the picture or how the scene draws the viewer to imagine a story to explain what they see.  Preferably both.  The Ladder screenshot does that.  [Dec. 17 - I reformatted parts of this to match the next post.]

The Ladder - Emilio Miguel Torres   (Feature)

 Wow.  I just looked it up and it turns out to be an Alaskan film.  From KRBD:

“Torres is an NYU film school graduate who grew up in Ketchikan. For him, it was a no-brainer to shoot his first film here. 

“One of the reasons I made this film is I think Ketchikan is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, and I think the film is a testament to the artistic community in Ketchikan,” Torres said over the phone, from his home in Arizona.

In many ways, “The Ladder” is a film about aging. It centers on Arthur, a commercial fisherman who’s getting too old to fish. Early in the film, audiences learn that Arthur’s wife died and his son lives in New York City. The aging protagonist wants his son to move back to Alaska, but they have a somewhat strained relationship.” 

It plays at 6pm on Sunday December 7 at the Museum.  

Dark Matter - Leo Berkeley

The first short I found online called Dark Matter was a film about snow boarding down almost vertical slopes.  Perfect for an Alaskan film festival, but the sound was badly edited.  A second one, in the right time period was a Malayalam film about paranormal disappearances in Kerala.  Neither had this image.  In the schedule (it plays Sunday at the Alaska Experience Theater at 3:30 pm in the International Gems program) I found the director (also writer and star) was Leo Berkeley.  From Leo Berkeley Films:

“Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a short diary film which explores the experience of living full-time in a wheelchair. Suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, I spend my days staring out the window of my apartment, my mind turning to topics from cigarette butts to quantum particles.”

This appears to be an Australian film.

The Mariana Trench - Eileen Byrne  (Feature)

This picture is just so lush.  And who are these people?  A man and his daughter?  Grand daughter?  What are they toasting?  From Cineuropa:

“A debut feature film by director Eileen Byrne, The Mariana Trench [+] is a road movie exploring profound themes such as suffering, loss and feelings of guilt. Originally from Luxembourg, Byrne graduated from Monaco’s HFF with a short film entitled Touch Me, about how being diagnosed with a breast tumour impacts the relationship between a woman and her partner which had previously been known for its intensity. Based on Jasmin Schreiber’s bestselling novel of the same name, The Mariana Trench follows the journey embarked upon by a pair of seemingly incompatible characters: Paula, played by young Swiss actress Luna Wedler (a Shooting Star of 2018) and Helmut, embodied by one of the most famous German character actors, Edgar Selge (who’s 76 years old and mostly known in Germany as Commissioner Tauber from the TV series Polizeiruf 110).”

Sunday, December 7,  8:30pm at the Alaska Experience Theater

Death In the Desert -  Anna Long 

From the Tucson   Film Festival: 

“Death comes across a wayward soul hiking in the desert, who resists moving on to the afterlife. This encounter sparks an unexpected bargain that fosters an unlikely friendship between them.”

This comment is long compared to the others I saw.  The link also has a bit of video from this short film.  It plays in the “Now for Something Different”  shorts category on Monday Dec. 8, at the E Street Theater starting at 1pm. 

Hearts of Stone - Tom van Avermaet

Before I even saw the title, I wondered if she was a statue.  And then I realized he wasn’t quite normal either.  

From noomi-rapace.com  

“In a sculpture park in the heart of a bustling metropolis, Paula (Noomi Rapace), a lonely street artist, entertains people as a living statue. She longs with an impossible love for Agatha (Jessica Baren), a stone sculpture next to her regular spot. When a festival for living statues arrives in the park, Paula is dismayed to find that Agatha has been replaced by a new, modern sculpture. After a frantic search, she finds Agatha in a group of discarded statues, ready to be taken away. Almost as a farewell, she kisses the object of her affection. Later, at the festival’s closing party, Paula meets Agatha in the flesh.”

Hearts of Stone is also in the “Now for Something Different”  shorts category on Monday Dec. 8, at the E Street Theater starting at 1pm

So this is my intro to the Anchorage International Film Festival 2025.  Somewhat random, but not really.  Based on screenshots that caught my eye.  These were only the first five.  There are a lot more than these.  Go look at the site yourself.  

Often the Festival website is a work in progress.  It always tends to start a bit late because the webmaster has to wait until the films are chosen and then assigned a time and location.  So the webmaster has to sit around and wait and then suddenly there’s a ton to do.