AIFF2022: Audience And Critiques Award Winners

 Here's the official lift of winners.  My previous post had my favorites.  

There are two sets of awards:

Audience Awards - after each film audience members rate the film they saw.  So these tend to be crowd pleasers and in Alaska that often includes Alaska themes and adventure films.  

Jury Awards - given my the official jurors of the Festival, these tend to rate the overall quality of the film

I'd note that today I saw a few more of the shorts I hadn't seen and I agree strongly with The Record getting the best animated short.

The rest is from the AIFF Facebook Page.

THE WINNERS OF THE 22ND ANCHORAGE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ARE ANNOUNCED!

Congratulations, everyone We have been so impressed by the work you have all done, it has been such a pleasure to watch all the films and see the amazing talent and the mind blowing stories. You all rock!

Thank you to our wonderful jury who have done an awesome job picking the winners, and thank you to our amazing audiences who have picked their favorites and to all the volunteers who have counted thousands of ballots You're all super stars!

AUDIENCE AWARDS GO TO:

NARRATIVE FEATURE

WINNER: The Wind & The Reckoning by David L Cunningham • USA

RUNNER-UP: Dealing With Dad by Tom Huang • USA

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WINNER: Pleistocene Park by Luke Griswold-Tergis • USA

RUNNER-UP: King of Kings : Chasing Edward Jones by Harriet Marin Jones • France

MADE IN ALASKA

WINNER: Safe Enough by Taliesin Black-Brown • USA

RUNNER-UP: Bad Bones by Scott Eggleston • USA

NARRATIVE SHORT

WINNER: Nakam by Andreas Kessler • Germany

RUNNER-UP: Burros by Jefferson Stein • USA

2nd RUNNER-UP: Anirudh by Raghav Puri • USA

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

WINNER: The Silent World of Barry Priori by Anne Tsoulis • Australia

RUNNER-UP: Queen Moorea by Christine Fugate • USA

ANIMATED SHORT

WINNER: Object of Life by Jack Parry • Australia

RUNNER-UP: The Social Chameleon by Alex Ross • USA

JURY AWARDS GO TO:

NARRATIVE FEATURE

WINNER: Where Life Begins by Stephane Freiss • Italy, France

WINNER: You Resemble Me by Dina Amer • USA

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

WINNER: Anonymous Sister by Jamie Boyle • USA

RUNNER-UP: Big Crow by Kris Kaczor • USA

MADE IN ALASKA

WINNER: Bering, Family Reunion by Lourdes Grobet • Mexico

RUNNER-UP: Safe Enough by Taliesin Black-Brown • USA

RUNNER-UP: Sheri by Page Buono, Tom Attwatter, James 'Q' Martin • USA

NARRATIVE SHORT

WINNER: Burros by Jefferson Stein • USA

RUNNER-UP: Too Rough by Sean Lìonadh • UK

2nd RUNNER-UP: No Ghost in the Morgue by Marilyn Cooke • Canada

2nd RUNNER-UP: An Encounter by Kelly Campbell • Ireland

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

WINNER: Never Again Para Nadie by Justin Reifert, Dan Frank, Anna Feder • USA

RUNNER-UP: Yours to Keep by Una S. Golmen • Norway

ANIMATED SHORT

WINNER: The Record by Jonathan Laskar • Switzerland

RUNNER-UP: Peanut Factory by Seongmin Kim South • Korea

FEATURE SCREENPLAYS:

- WINNER: "Eskimonaes" by Stephen C Settle

- RUNNER-UP: "Too Many Wades" by Stirling J McLaughlin, Wilder Konschak

- 2nd RUNNER UP: "Polar" by Christopher Kearney

SHORT SCREENPLAYS:

- WINNER: "In the Serge and the Broad Arrow" by Bobby Moloney

- RUNNER-UP: "Kim-Ly and the Bottled Up Emotions" by Anh Le

- 2nd RUNNER-UP: "Mousse" by Dean Friske

SPECIAL HONOR:

This year we had three special awards where the local community came together with the festival to pick three films and filmmakers they wish to honor:

Mother of Invention Feature, honoring a filmmaker who creates new genres:

- Quantum Cowboys, by Geoff Marslett

Mother of Invention Short, honoring a filmmaker who is telling important local stories as they happen:

- Purpose of Song, by Brad Hillwig

Mother of Cultural Exchange, honoring afilmmaker for creating communication between cultures around the world who try to preserve traditional ways:

- Last Birds of Passage, by Eren Danışman Boz

AIFF2022: While Awards Party On At Bear Paw, I'll Make My Own Awards Suggestions [UPDATED]

[December 10, 2022, 10:45pm: The Updates are bracketed and in red so you can see them easier]

[UPDATE Dec 11, 2022 4pm - Turns out the two features being shown today are the audience awards, not the AIFF awards.  Not sure what that means about the shorts.  I did see the two shorts programs and caught up on films I hadn't seen.  

Sheri is the story of the woman who made the first pacrrafts, and it makes sense this would have been an audience choice - lots of outdoor adventure with an amazing woman.  

The Record had incredible animation and told the story of a record that played the music you didn't remember.  

The Silent World of Barry Priori - The story of a deaf man in Australia who as a child at first was being forced to speak, but then found deaf friends and eventually became a teacher of Australian sign language.]

I was planning to go to the awards party, but I just don't have the energy tonight.  I've been thinking about making my 'best film' nominations here instead and the actual winners should be posted tonight because tomorrow they will show the award winners at the museum, starting with 

12pm Made In Alaska [Shorts Program 1 - Mixes Documentary, Animated, and Made in Alaska

Peanut Factory • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri • Safe Enough]

2pm Short Films [2 - mixes Narrative shorts and Animation

Peanut Factory • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri • Safe Enough

4pm Narrative Features [The Wind And The Reckoning]

6pm Documentary Features [Pleistocene Park]

Best, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.  Blogging the festival over the years has forced me to think about and articulate different standards for best.  I wrote something on that the other day, but I'll reiterate here:

1.  Quality of the film making - Cinematography, sound, acting, editing are some of the factors here.  Ideally there won't be any flaws.  At best there will be some pushing of the envelope, using film to tell the story or make the point using new techniques or old techniques in new ways.  

2.  Quality of the story/message - Was it engaging?  Was it an important message?  Original?  Able to convey ideas or insights in new ways that might capture people who didn't know or resisted these ideas?

3.  Overall, what was the impact of the film on you?  Some films overcome flaws, or even their flaws add to the impact, to blow you away.  This is the most personal of the criteria.  It depends on you life experiences and whether the film comes to you at a time when you are receptive to it.  

That said, here are my picks:

Made in Alaska - I'm afraid I didn't see enough of these to pick a 'winner.'  Of the films I saw:

• Kakiñiit
• Sabor Ártico 
• Safe Enough

Of these three, I would go with Kakiñiit.  This was a short film in several 'chapters' about Inupiaq tattoos.  I liked how he connected the segments with a pause, showing a finely designed title like page.  It was unique and the first time it caught the audience off guard as we thought it was the end of the film.  

I also like Safe Enough, a story about an arts camp in Sitka where different students are featured explaining what the camp meant to them.  Mostly they said it allowed them to be themselves for the first time, and that the felt really good.  

Shorts -  I saw a fair number of shorts, both narrative and documentary, but there are still a lot more I missed.  

[The shorts winners are not clear.  There are two programs offered tomorrow with five shorts in each program.  I assume they are doing it this way to have a full program.  However it's not clear which films were the winners.  The films in the Narrative program tomorrow are:  Object of Life* • The Record* • Anirudh • The Silent World of Barry Priori • Nakam • Too Rough - *Animated]

Naratrive Shorts I saw: 

• Anirudh
• Brasier
• Burros
• Customs
• Dotting The 'i'
• Duet
• Honeymoon at Cold Hollow
• If You Were Me
• Jelly Bean
• Late Bloomer
• Lead/Follow
• Nakam
• No Ghost in the Morgue
• Sunday With Monica
• Synthbabe
• The Things That Keep Us Apart
• To Be Honest
• Too Rough

I guess I saw more than I realized.  Ones that stand out:

• Anirudh
• Dotting the 'i'
• Late Bloomer
• Nakam
• No Ghost in the Morgue
• Sunday With Monica
• Too Rough

My Choice is Nakam.  Second:  No Ghost in the Morgue;  Third:  Late Bloomer  

I really liked was Anirudh.  It's hard to choose.  

Nakam is a short story that took place in a small, German occupied  town in Ukraine during WWII.  Key German officers are going to have a dinner in a small in and request the piano player and the boy who accompanies him on the violin be there to make cheerful music for them.  The color and look of the film were beautiful.  

Documentary Shorts  The ones I saw were:

Abortion:  Add to the Cart

Gina

Herd

Never Again Para Nadie

Queen Moorea

The Body is A House of Familiar Rooms

[The shorts in the second program winners program are:

Peanut Factory* • Burros • Never Again Para Nadie • Sheri** • Safe Enough**   - *indicates animated and **Made In Alaska]]

Winner:  Queen Moorea - And I'm guessing this one has a good chance of winning with the judges. It's the story of a girl with a disability I didn't quite understand who becomes the homecoming queen at her high school.  That happens pretty much at the beginning.  Then the rest tells us the back story.  

Second:  Never Again Para Nadie - This is probably due to the story that was told - how the Jewish community got together to protest with the Latino community of their town in Rhode Island that had a prison that was used to hold undocumented immigrants.  

I also really liked the visuals in The Body is A House of Familiar Rooms

Animated Shorts - I saw:

• Birthday Wish
• Footprints in the Forest
• Object of Life
• Peanut Factory
• Rain
• Santa Doesn't Need Your Help
• Snowflakes
• Star-Crossed
• The Social Chameleon

I wasn't that excited.  I can only pick one:

Winner:  Rain - This story about a girl out with her family in the rain and who runs away to play in the rain had exquisite visual images of rain, splashes, and the general scene.  

Narrative Features  - This is hard.  All the films I saw:

Dealing With Dad

The Last Birds of Passage

The Wind And The Reckoning

You Resemble Me

were very good films.  This turns out to be all the Narrative Features listed. 

 [The Wind and the Reckoning]

Winner:  The Last Birds of Passage   Told the story of a family of Turkish nomads who every year drive their sheep 500 kilometers across parts of Turkey to the upper pastures.  But age and increasing regulations put this year's trip in doubt.  Lots of little touches as we learn about each of the key characters.  

But I would be fine with any of the others winning.  I'm guessing it will go to The Wind and The Reckoning.  

Documentary Features   [Festival Winner:  Pleistocene Park  the one I hadn't seen, so I can see it tomorrow evening]

• Big Crow
• Crows Are White
• Exposure
• King of Kings:  Chasing Edward Jones

My winner is Crows Are White.  I wrote at greater length about this film here. Also wrote about Big Crow there.  Crows Are White - got into my head.  The film itself embodied all the contradictions and conflicts that the film depicted.  Lots of angst and lots of humor.  This was the most honest and subtle film.  Probably the best film of the festival.  

King of Kings would be my second choice.  A fascinating family story that also tells us a piece of Chicago history as the film maker investigates her grandfather who turns out to be an incredible person.  

The others are good as well, telling compelling stories, but the film making doesn't reach the same levels.  

Now I'll check the AIFF website and FB page to see who actually won.  I'll add that on here or possibly make a new page

AIFF2022: Saw Two Excellent Films - The Wind And The Reckoning and The King Of Kings

 There were film festivals in the past when I was up until 3am writing about that night's films.  But the Festival is reduced this year after two years of mostly virtual festival and my coverage is also reduced.  So tonight I'm just going to give brief comments on the two films we saw.  They deserve more, but this will have to do.   

The Wind and Reckoning featured gun battles with Hawaiian backdrop.  It's Native Hawaiian actors spoke to each other in Hawaiian on screen in this adaptation of a book written in Hawaiian by one of the characters in the story, that was only recently translated into English and then more time to be able to make the film.  Essentially we see what I took as civil war veterans rounding up Native Hawaiians suspected to having leprosy to be sent to the leper colony on Molokai.  The film focuses on one family whose home is invaded in the middle of the night and how they fought back.  It was a narrative based on the written account.  

The picture above was before the film when some of the cast members did an opening chant.  Aaron Leggett, President and Chair of the Eklutna Tribal Council (with the beaded sash) was there as was Mayor Dave Bronson, who said a few words about the importance of the values shown in the film.  I'm not sure who wrote that for him, but he left shortly after the film began.  That's a pity because he might have learned a lot from both the film and the discussion afterward.  The man in the middle is Leo and he's working on making Hawaii an independent nation as it was before the US took over by force in 1893. He handed out these flyers for people who want more information.

Ko'olau, if you haven't guessed, is the hero in the film along with his wife.  

The second film The King of Kings was a documentary by Harriet Marin Jones who first learned about her grandfather, Edward Jones when she was 17 on the way to university in the United States.  And what an amazing story it is.  Edward Jones' father was a well-to-do Black Baptist preacher in Mississippi who moved his family to Chicago in 1919 after the KKK showed up at his house.  There he had some odd jobs while going to Northwestern University, but transferred to Howard University to avoid the discrimination he felt at Northwestern.  When he returned to Chicago and got into the numbers business - what was called "Policy."  For a nickel people in the poor Black community could buy the hope of money for a decent dinner and for a few even getting rich.  Jones got rich and stayed pretty much off the radar of the white mob because his money business was in the Black community.  Again, to avoid discrimination, he moved his family to Paris, but then back to Chicago as WW II begins.  He moved the family again, this time to Mexico.  

Marin's family history becomes a wild tale about the richest Black man in the US, and one of the richest men in the US.  Essentially, his illegal business - running a numbers game = became legal much later when the State took it over and called it a lottery.  

Marin came to the festival from France and answered questions after the film.  Aside from the incredible story, I was also taken by how she put the film together - particularly the use of animation of photos.  Not animating the people, but how the pictures were animated in relation to each other - almost like a moving collage.  It was unique and added greatly to the telling of the story.  Here's more on Jones and the film maker from the Block Club Chicago.

There was one more film staring at 9pm - well later because the discussions after the first two films went way over time (and it was worth it) - but as much as I'd have liked to stay, I needed to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.  

Both films tonight continue a theme of bringing stories of outsiders as told by the outsiders themselves.  

AIFF2022: The Film Makers Went To Chena While It Snows Big In Anchorage - Thursday Schedule

There are fewer films being shown overall this year.  I asked whether this was in part due to the pandemic - there aren't as many films getting made.  John Gamache, the festival co-director wasn't sure how much the pandemic affecting things, but the quality wasn't as high.  But they'd also mentioned the other night that a number of big name festivals hadn't survived the pandemic.  But Anchorage keeps chugging along.  They also decided in this first year getting everyone back together in person it would be better to keep the audience together so the films got more eyeballs and the audience could reconnect for some and just meet new folks for others.  And that's been happening.  Though there are some overlapping films coming up starting Thursday.  Some at the Anchorage Museum and some at the E Street theater.  

So they also scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday film free and instead are taking the film makers to Chena Hot Springs. (The schedule for Thursday is below.)  They hadn't counted on the heavy snow we've gotten.  Aside from hot tubbing in Chena, they're going to have plenty of time to get to know each other on the looooong bus ride, which has gotten longer with all the snow.  It will be one of those adventures that will become more and more fun the longer it is in the past.  It was also mentioned that the Anchorage International Film Festival was name among the best for new film makers.  I've heard that from film makers over the years - how welcoming Anchorage folks are and how they get a chance to meet lots of other film makers.  And how it is a much lower pressure festival - more cooperative than competitive.  So this adventure fits in.  

Meanwhile I got my workout shoveling the driveway.  There's a bit over a foot of snow.  Not that much for some places, but a good amount for Anchorage.  Enough to cancel school today.  Here was my first pathway down to the mailbox.  

Then I decided to make a maze since I was only able to get one shovel full at a time because it was so deep.  (Usually I can push the snow down the hill or across the driveway before tossing it.)  Not particularly efficient, but more fun.  Then the second round it was much easier to get the driveway clear.  

This is a big file so you can click it to enlarge it and read it easier.

AIFF2022: Dealing With Dad and Bering Family Reunion

 Watching movies from noon until 8pm leaves me a little spacey.  The wifi was working today in the auditorium at the museum, but there just wasn't much time between events.  There were lots of short films during the day. Please excuse mistakes, it's late but I want to get this up already.

I'm finding I am mentally resurrecting an old evaluation standard for films:  

1. There are films that are technically well made 
2. There are films that have something important to say or to contribute
3. Films that do both 1 and 2 well
4. Films that do neither
5. And most films fall somewhere in the continuum of both those factors

Dealing With Dad did both 1 and 2 well.  The film is technically good enough to easily fit in on Netflix or another streaming channel.  The acting and pacing are all high quality. Yet it's much more than a slick formula film. It's a poignant story told with love and humor. 

What does it contribute? The director Tom Huang said after the film that the story is adapted from his own family experience with a domineering immigrant father who works hard so his kids can have a better life.   After Dad gets laid off and goes into a deep depression, the two older kids fly home to try to deal with this only to find that Mom and the 30 year old younger brother still living at home find life much easier now that Dad just stays in bed all day watching television.  The family reunion reveals old tensions among the siblings.  The younger brothers accuse the older sister of being a lot like Dad.  The younger brother has a long time crush on a high school friend who just returned from the Peace Corps, but is afraid to ask her out until the older sister older sisters him into asking her out. (That was the one part that didn't ring true to me - she had been in three or four different countries.  And while a volunteer can sign up for a second tour of duty after completing one, it's not common, and the way it was described in the film, she seemed to move around from country to country as part of her assignment.) The mother has already set up the middle son, who's having marital problems, with a date.  While there are dynamics that may be more common in a Chinese American family, the story is really a universal one.  It moved along quickly moving from heavy drama to humor and back seamlessly.  The humor wasn't added on, it was just part of the relationship.  Often it was funny to the audience, but often not to the characters themselves.  I think it was easier to watch than The Last Birds of Passage, but Birds, probably had a much weightier story to tell.  

The other full length film was the documentary Bering, Family Reunion.  Bering followed Etta Tall, an Inupiaq woman from Little Diomede as she searched for her relatives from Big Diomede.  These are two islands a few miles apart, Little D in Alaska and Big D in Russia.  Before WWII people from the two islands visited each other frequently and there were many family relations across the two islands.  The Soviet Union, at the beginning of WW II removed the islanders to the mainland and maid Bid D into a military base.  When Gorbachev and Reagan opened the border between Alaska and the Soviet Union, some of the first to travel across the border were Inupiats going to visit their relatives they hadn't seen in many years.  We see how the plans were made, how a family company that arranges arctic travel got asked to look for relatives when in Russia, and slowly how the reunion eventually comes to be.  This film involves families who were cut off from each other by war and geopolitics.  It considers culture, language, and people's undying compulsion to find their families.  A little slow at points, the film nevertheless has very high significance, documenting this story, a story that has been repeated around the world as national governments ignore indigenous and minority people's needs.  

The first question in my mind was "How did a Mexican film maker come to make this story?"  It just seemed odd.  And it was the first question asked of the woman who'd carried a list of names to Russia with her when she went to the Russian far-east, who answered questions after the film. She was a friend of the film director Lourdes Grobet (who passed away in July 2022) who wanted to make this film.  You can learn more about her at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia site where the film was show in October.

There were lots of shorts.  Some were well made.  Some told important stories. Some did both.  Some left me scratching my head.  I'll note a few that I reacted to most.

Queen Moorea had to be the most compelling, and one of the longest.  It told the story of a high school homecoming queen who was born with a genetic condition that made her different.  It wasn't clear to me exactly what her disability was (it was mentioned briefly I didn't catch it.)  The film was another with the theme of people who don't fit in.  Another audience member after the film said that people tend to categorize people with disabilities by the disability and that often keeps them from reaching their full potential.  This film portrayed Moorea was living up to her potential.  

Never Again Para Nadia - shows how the Jewish community in a Rhode Island prison town team up with the local Latino community to protest against immigrants being housed in a local prison.  To be clear, they are protesting that the prison is nearby, but that immigrants are being put into this private prisons for the financial gain of the prison owners and their shareholders.  The film documents the protest, a car driving through some protestors whose driver eventually gets acquitted.  It's an important record as far as it goes, but more statistics on the private prison and its profits and the numbers of immigrants housed in the prison.  

I liked Sunday With Monica - an interesting short story of a movie that left this viewer wanting to know more about.  I'm guessing this could be an early version of a future feature film.  The divorced father picks up his daughters from his ultra-orthodox Jewish ex-wife and takes them to meet his non-Jewish girlfriend who has horses and a riding rink.  One daughter is drawn to the horses and the other is thinking how Mom wouldn't approve.  

Gina is a brief portrait of a homeless woman in LA. We get to know this woman a little beyond what we might imagine of her if we just saw her on the street.  The Pastor who befriended Gina while handing out food to the homeless and eventually is impressed with Gina again reminds us not to judge people through our stereotypes, but to get to know them as people.  

Rain was a beautiful chocolate of a film - lots of beautiful animated images of rain and a little girl who plows through the puddles.  

And then there was Snowflakes another light animated film made for the Make A Wish Foundation, about a little girl with cancer just admitted into the hospital.  Another girl invites her to play but she's not in the mood, but does eventually get enticed.  It was all pretty innocuous, but I couldn't help being struck by the perfect faces - pretty lips, big eyes, and what appeared to me as lots of make-up. Someone connected to the film was there and answered questions.  My wife discouraged me from asking whether these perfect, make-upped images of very young little girls didn't perhaps send the wrong message.  So I didn't.  But someone else asked less directly about how the images of the little girls came about and we were told the animator determined that.  To be clear, their heads were shaved, but they were still model quality.  

AIFF2022 - Saturday Review - Big Crow and White Crows and More

[After sleeping on this, I've added a few thoughts on Crows are White.  They are [bracketed]].

Got to the museum a little late (gave up trying for the 10am Children's program) and there was nothing showing in the auditorium.  They'd had a glitch and so we got to see most of Big Crow.  A lot of amateur footage, but it was edited together to tell a powerful story about a young woman who took her Pine Ridge reservation team to win the state championship.  Her death soon after brough lots of folks together and inspired lots of improvements for the reservation and relations off reservation.  Sad but inspiring.  

I was going to post a few short posts, but then the wifi no longer worked.  (Later I found out I could get it in the museum, but it was spotty in the auditorium.  

And I got hijacked by Crows Are White and I want to focus on that movie, but first a quick overview of the rest of the day, which all took place in the museum. 

The woman collecting the audience ratings of the films said that the morning kids program, really was very dark and the only thing kid about it, possibly, was that it was animated shorts.  

Big Crow I wrote about above.  I liked it.  

Then came three shorts made in Alaska.  The first Sabor Artico: Latinos en Alaska was about Latinos in Alaska.  Interesting, but not exceptional film making.  

Safe Enough  was a about the Sitka summer arts camp and highlighted a number of the young artists attending.  The theme seemed to be that this was a safe space where these artistic teens could actually be themselves and explore who they were.  It was safe, unlike the world they binomially live in.  It was uplifting, except that this escape only lasted two weeks.  I couldn't help thinking that it shouldn't be so hard to envision communities where people who had unique talents could feel comfortable.  And then I thought about how most people are just better able to conform, but that they too are denying who they really are to fit in.  A film that stimulates you to move your understanding of things further is, in my book, a good film.

And the third short in this program, Kakińiik was by Patrick Hoffman whom I spoke to and whose video I put up before I went to bed last night.  It's always tricky when you interview someone before you see their film.  Sometimes the film doesn't work for you and you have this connection, albeit short, with the film maker.  But that wasn't a problem in this case.  This was a beautiful film, made up of a series of talks by women getting traditional Inupiat tattoos and how the tattoos connect them to their ancestors and their culture.  There are also a couple of vignettes by the tattoo artist - talking about the styles of tattoos, traditional food and its relation to doing tattoos, and her own thigh tattoos.  Each vignette is preceded by a stylized screen, which confused some of us in the audience the first time who weren't sure if this was the end.  It wasn't.  And we weren't fooled the next time either.  It was like a book with several chapters separated by this artful page.  

Then we got to Crows are White, which swept me away.  Spoiler Alert:  I'm going to write about the film in ways that assume the reader has either seen it or won't be able to see it.  But in another way, it's the film itself that is what is so enjoyable and thought provoking and what I write shouldn't change that experience.

This was a film done in the style of a This American Life piece, with a narrator outlining the project and how things proceed throughout.   The filmmaker, Ahsen Nadeem, narrates in a voice and tone not unlike Ira Glass, but the story he's pursuing, turns out to be his own. There are so many aspects of this film that are both amazing and bizarre.  People who are noble and flawed.  The photography was exquisite as was the music. 

Crows AreWhite refers to a story someone tells about a monk who tells his disciples that crows are white, and while they all know this isn't true, they cannot contradict the monk.  They must say, yes, crows are white.  

My take is that the film is about people being forced to deal with contradictions to their understanding of how the world works.  Ahsen's basic contradiction is that he's fallen in love with a non-Muslim and he knows his parents will disown him if he marries her.  But we don't know this until after we've been set up to believe there are more general spiritual issues he's pursuing rather than answers to his very personal dilemma.  [A film version of the guy climbing the rocky mountain to ask the monk on top the meaning of life.]

Another contradiction is that as a Muslim, he searches for answers from a Buddhist monk.  But he learns that the head monk, Kamahori, he wants to pose his questions to has taken a vow of silence.  And these monks are the ultramarathoners of Buddhist monks.  They take a vow to walk a certain distance every day (something like 20 kilometers) and they have to do this until they've walked the equivalent of walking the circumference of the world.  And part of the vow is that if they miss a day, they have to commit suicide. 

Ahsen himself comes across as sincere and disarming not unlike ira Glass. But when you think about it, he's also so full of himself that he thinks he has the right to interrupt the lives of monks in this Japanese monastery with his film crew and persistence in trying to meet with the head monk.  He gets kicked out when his cell phone rings during a secret ceremony they've allowed him to film. [But you can also ask why did the monks give him permission to film them in the first place?  They are supposed to be focused on enlightenment and to not care about what others think. To indulge him?  To spread Buddhist wisdom? To get publicity for the monastery? To increase their income?]

That's when he meets Ryushin, a monk assigned to greet visitors and answer questions in the monastery gift shop.  Ryushin is probably the most honest and likable character in the movie.  And his life dilemma is not unlike Ahsen's.  His father and grandfather had been important monks at this monastery, but he really would rather be a sheep farmer in New Zealand, he thinks.  But while he professes to be unhappy, he doesn't obsess on the contradictions.  Yes, he's a monk, but he takes a drink now and then, loves ice cream, and goes to heavy metal concerts.  

Another character who is relatively normal is Ahsen's girlfriend and later wife.  I particularly cheered when she questioned Ahsen's taking cameras in to film his parents when he tells them he's been married to a non-Muslim for three years.  Seems crass to her. But she understands that this is necessary to complete the film he's spent so much time on.  

This could have been a mockumentary - a fictional documentary spoofing documentaries.  [Part of me was wondering if it was while I was watching and hoping it was.] But all the contradictions and conflicts between what people ought to do and what they really do and how they reconcile it is what makes this such a good movie.  And, of course the beautiful cinematography and the unexpected but perfect music. 

Everything together works to make this an outstanding film. 

And up through this point of the festival, all the films were about people who didn't quite fit in the societies they lived in - the nomads in Friday nights Last Birds of Passage, the Lakota reservation girls gaining self confidence and pride through basketball, the Latinos in Alaska, the campers in Sitka, and the Inupiat women regaining their heritage through traditional tattoos.

A Body Is a House of Familiar Rooms

The afternoon shorts program didn't impress me.  The one film that stood out - The Body Is A House Of Familiar Rooms  - did so because of the colors and patterns that were so striking. 

Also the paper programs are now available.  Here's the Sunday schedule.

And finally, there's You Resemble Me which rounded out the night and I'm still processing that one.  My biggest difficulty was subtitles when they weren't on dark backgrounds.  A truly heartbreaking film of Arab refugee sisters put into foster homes with a disastrous result in one case.  

AIFF2022: Busy Saturday Starts With Kids Program, Ends With Recommended French Film - All at Museum

I started thinking about the Anchorage International Film Festival late this year, so I'm not as organized as I have been in past years.  

My sense, from reading the online program, was that there are a lot fewer films, turned out to be correct.  Just 75.  But the positive spin is that none are shown in conflict, so you can see them all.  

Friday night's Turkish film The Last Birds of Passage, was a poignant narrative feature on a Turkish minority group that travels 400 kilometers with its goats and camels to the summer grazing grounds and 400 back.  The migration in the film is faced with lots of obstacles - from within the family and from changes in the landscape they have to cross.  The filmmaker was there for a charming Q&A by Zoom after the film and is scheduled to be in Anchorage Wednesday.

I haven't figured out how to find a page on the website that shows all the films for one day AND when they are playing.  So I've tried to  put that altogether here.  

But here's the Saturday lineup - all at the Anchorage Museum Auditorium

Saturday

10am  Shorts - Kids A Bonanza

Birthday Wish • 

Footprints in the Forest • 

Rain • 

Santa Doesn''t Need Your Help • 

Snowflakes • 

SPIRIT: A Martian Story • 

The Social Chameleon

12pm  Big Crow  -  

"Born in 1974 on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SuAnne had become one of the state’s best basketball players by age 14. By the time of her tragic death in a car accident at age 17, her wisdom, leadership, and determination had made her a household name across the Great Plains. 27 years later, SuAnne’s legacy has proven legendary - everyone you meet on “the Rez” has a story about how SuAnne’s spirit continues to galvanize the Lakota in their fight to reclaim their language and save their culture, embracing what Su called “a better way”. From AIFF website

2pm  Shorts - Made in Alaska

Kakiñiit •  I talked to the director Patrick Hoffman at the opening.  His film is about traditional Alaska Native tattooing.

Sabor Ártico: Latinos En Alaska (Arctic Flavor: Latinos in Alaska) • 

Safe Enough

4pm  Crows are White - Museum

"For over a thousand years, a secretive Buddhist sect has lived in an isolated monastery in Japan performing acts of extreme physical endurance in their pursuit of enlightenment. In CROWS ARE WHITE, filmmaker Ahsen Nadeem is struggling to reconcile his desires with his faith and sets off to the strict monastery in search of answers. Ahsen is not immediately welcomed and the only monk who will speak with him is an outcast who prefers ice cream and Slayer to meditation. Together they forge an unlikely friendship that leads them to higher truths and occasionally, a little trouble. Shot over five years on three continents, CROWS ARE WHITE is an exploration of truth, faith and love, from the top of a mountain to the bottom of a sundae." From AIFF2022 site.

6pm - SHORTS: Different Kind of Love Stories

Burros • 

Honeymoon at Cold Hollow • 

Jelly Bean • 

Lead/Follow • 

Peanut Factory • 

Star-Crossed • 

The Body is a House of Familiar Rooms • T

oo Rough

8pm  You Resemble Me - Museum - This one got strong reviews from people I spoke to.

"Cultural and intergenerational trauma erupt in this story about two sisters on the outskirts of Paris. After the siblings are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. Director Dina Amer takes on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructs it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging."  From AIFF website.

AIFF 2022: Anchorage International Film Festival Begins Friday With Turkish Entry At The Bear Tooth

I once was totally on top of the Anchorage International Film Festival each year.  I've fallen behind this year, but this should get you into the mood.  

You can get tickets for individual films or passes for the whole festival at the AIFF website.  $100 passes for all films is a good deal if you have time to see more than eight or nine films.  I checked a couple and they were $12 each.  

Venues will be mostly Bear Tooth and the Museum.  

Also, check on the AIFF Facebook Page.

Feature Films

NARRATIVE FEATURES  - Note:  Three of these are by women film makers.  

“Dealing With Dad” by Tom Huang • USA

Interview with Director Tom Huang from Oxford Eagle

“The Last Birds of Passage” by Iffet Eren Danisman Boz • Turkey

OPENING NIGHT FILM, FRIDAY DEC. 2, 2022 

From an article on this film from Business Mirror.  It seems pretty relevant to issues faced by Alaska's ancient peoples.

"In one scene in the film, the nomads are invited to a kind of cultural festival in the city. They are declared as the real Yoruks, an identity important for them. Their presence is applauded and people take their photographs as if they are museum specimens. In real life, the director admits to a prejudice these people experience. It is a discrimination that is more subtle and implicit, and which comes out only in conflicts that arise because of the fact that there are people who move from one place to another, their incursion into lands not ably validated by license or ownership. Thus even on the way to the mountains, these people have to be careful not to tread on plantations owned by other people. Their supply of fresh and clean water is also endangered because mining and other human activities that allow humans to stay put have occupied lands and endangered the surroundings."

“Where Life Begins” by Stéphane Freiss • Italy, France 

From Home MCR:

"26-year-old Esther, the daughter of a rabbi from Aix-les-Bains, joins her ultra-Orthodox family on their annual trip to a farm in southern Italy, where they perform the sacred task of harvesting lemons. While Esther is expected to marry a man she does not yet know, her budding friendship with Elio, the farm owner, encourages her to follow her desire to leave religion and live life on her own terms. Set in the beautiful Italian countryside, Where Life Begins is a tender yet thought-provoking exploration of tradition, family and self-realisation."

 

The Wind & The Reckoning” by David L Cunningham • USA

From Cinema Clock:

"1893. The Hawaiian Kingdom has been overthrown by a Western power just as an outbreak of leprosy engulfs the tropical paradise. The new government orders all Native Hawaiians suspected of having the foreign disease banished permanently to a remote colony on the island of Moloka'i that is known as 'the island of the living grave'. When a local cowboy named Ko'olau and his young son Kalei contract the dreaded disease, they refuse to allow their family to be separated, sparking an armed clash with brutal white island authorities that will make Ko'olau and his wife, Pi'ilani heroes for the ages."

“You Resemble Me” by Dina Amer • USA

From the Press Kit (download at bottom of this page):  

SYNOPSIS

Cultural and intergenerational trauma erupt in this story about two sisters

on the outskirts of Paris. After the siblings are torn apart, the eldest, Hasna, struggles to find her identity, leading to a choice that shocks the world. Director Dina Amer takes on one of the darkest issues of our time and deconstructs it in an intimate story about family, love, sisterhood, and belonging.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

As a Muslim Egyptian woman living in the West, I’ve struggled to reconcile pieces of my identity that feel contradictory. I am a woman who has spent the majority of my life praying discreetly in public spaces (airports are the hardest). And yet I don’t look like what most of society envisions as a Muslim woman. I don’t wear a hijab and I love Cardi B. Throughout my life I’ve lived through the shadow of how the failure to reconcile a Muslim Western identity with such clear contradictions can result in a haunting headline. [This is just a short excerpt]

I couldn't get an embed code, but here's a link to the trailer.  I'd recommend watching it.

From the AIFF Facebook page, here's some other films at the Bear Tooth

AIFF 2022 Poster And Reaching Avanos (Metacyclicly) [UPDATED September 28, 2022]

My brain has been wandering.  I've got half a dozen posts either in draft form or in that wandering brain.  But sitting down to type them up here has been a challenge.  For one thing, I just got a copy of the 2022 Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) poster.  

I think it looks great and I'm trying to find out the artist [UPDATE:  Jessica Thorton] so I can give credit here.  The festival will be all live this year, not much Bear Tooth, a lot of museum if I remember right.  

My summer biking Anchorage trails in real life/from Istanbul to Cappadocia in my head is complete. 

Actually, Cappadocia is a region with several major towns..  The biker whose map I was following on RidewithGPS ended up at the far end of Cappadocia in the town of Avanos.  Here are some pictures from https://visitmyturkey.com/en/avanos/.

These are out in the country side nearby.  From Wikipedia:

"Old Avanos is riddled with a network of small underground "cities" which may once have been residential but are now mainly used by the many pottery enterprises. Although there is no documentary evidence to prove when these structures were carved out of the earth, it is probable that work on some of them began in the Hittite period.

As Venessa, the ancient Avanos was the third most important town in the Kingdom of Cappadocia (332BC-17AD) according to the geographer Strabo.[5] Although it was the site of an important temple of Zeus, nothing remains of it today. [5]In Roman and Byzantine times Avanos had a large Christian population who were responsible for the rock-cut Dereyamanlı Kilisesi. [6]Unusually, this is still occasionally used even today."

Avanos, by the route map I was following, is 891 km from Istanbul.  I made it to 897 km on Saturday and today went on to 912 km.  (900 km = 559.23 miles)  Weather permitting, I'm now hoping to hit 1000 km (621 miles).  I thought that was pretty good for the summer until I talked to a friend the other day who did over 600 miles in 13 days in France.  Oh well.  

But I'm hoping that by 2024 at the latest I will have been to Istanbul and Avanos in person.  

Then there's the follow up on the Words in the Constitution post.  

Dimitrios Alexiadis

I've also got pictures from an ACLU event on prisons and the people in them that was co-sponsored with several other organizations that work with prisoners.  Just putting up pictures is relatively easy, but there were important messages as well.  But if I wait too long I'll forget the details.  

And more.  But the bike, the yard, Netflix (watching the rescue of the Thai soccer team from the flooded caves series now - finished two episodes and the international cave divers have reached the boys, and there's still a bunch more episodes to go; enjoying trying to catch as much Thai as I can; don't think this is a spoiler since we saw this live in the news a couple of years ago), and other things steal from blogging.  Oh yeah, got my bivalent booster and flu shot the other day too.  Slightly sore arms, but that was all.  

TJ Leaves; Rich Russian Penis Vocabulary; AIFF 2022 Calls For Film Submissions; Housing Shortage Though People Leaving; Helping Ukraine

There are so many things to talk about.  This post is just going to give you a glimpse of a few and you can check out the links yourself.  

Redistricting Board Changes

TJ Presley resigned as Deputy director of the Alaska Redistricting Board to become Bill Walker's campaign manager.  According to Executive Director Peter Torkelson, TJ gave several weeks notice and his resignation was effective February 16, 2022.  I'd note that TJ and Peter worked closely together and were responsible for the website and the Board's efforts to insure as much public input as possible to the Board.  Unfortunately, they were not responsible for whether the Board listened to the public's input, and as Judge Matthews noted in his decision, they clearly did not in the Eagle River pairings nor in the Skagway house districts.  

"Not To Be Penis-Like"... Explaining the Brilliance and Insanity of the Russian Language

This blog post by Russian-American Slava Malamud, begins with a comparison of English airport customs signs and the equivalent signs in Russian.

"When you arrive at the Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow (did you notice how Russian passengers applauded the pilot for landing the plane without killing anyone?) and survive the passport control by the openly hostile female junior lieutenant of the Border and Customs Service, you are immediately greeted by two signs. One of them says the following:

“TOVAROV, PODLEZHASHCHIKH OBYAZATEL’NOMU TAMOZHENNOMU DEKLARIROVANIYU, NYET.”

Can you say all of this ten times fast? Or, really, fuck it, just say it one time slow.

Luckily, there is the second sign. It is the accurate, literal English translation of the above. It says:

'NOTHING TO DECLARE.'”

While Malamud tells us that English is far more efficient than Russian, he also says:

 But, as already hinted above, one area in which English can never compare to us is in relaying emotions and nuances of feelings. This is a task that Russian, with its myriad of suffixes, its glut of diminutives, its gender sensitivity and its poetic verbosity is uniquely suited to, leaving the directness and punctuality of English at a loss.

Wanna see how this works?

So, let’s consider the phrase “Yob tvoyu mat, kak zhe khuyovo-to, blya!”, uttered by pretty much every Russian male upon waking up hung over. It’s seven words, plus an emphasis word “to” (pronounced “toh”), which carry almost zero relevant information, while expressing rich layers of emotion that English is not equipped to relay. 

This phrase contains three profanities, all of them of carnal nature (the only type of profanities that exist in Russian).

The link will take you into a world you never knew existed.  (Unless you're a native Russian speaker or close to it.)  

Anchorage International Film Festival

If you know film makers, encourage them to send their best work to our festival.

The day is FINALLY here! Calling all filmmakers and screenplay writers: you can now send your film/screenplay to Anchorage International Film Festival to be considered for the 2022 program! We can not wait to watch and read all the new, exciting works , and equally share the joy here displayed by one of the wonderful filmmakers attending the festival last year (and having a blast, it looks like), Pat McGee

Spread the word to any and all filmmakers you know, all the scr…

See more

Housing Shortage Along With Loss of Population

I'm sure there's a good explanation for this and if it weren't after 5pm on Friday, I'd make some phone calls to see if I could find it.  Today we had this story in the ADN:

Average home price tops $420K amid ‘scary’ low inventory

Bill Popp quoted:

"Just over 3,600 single-family homes sold last year, an increase from 2020, when sales topped 3,200 and were the highest in at least 12 years.

A key factor is the limited number of houses on the market, realtors say, as residential construction has slowed in recent years.

The industry built fewer homes than expected last year. Popp said residential construction fell 7% compared to 2020, amid rising costs and shortages of material and labor during the pandemic."

But in late January Mr. Popp was lamenting declining population in Anchorage.  

Anchorage’s declining population creates strains on local economy

 "Anchorage lost a total of 1,550 residents from April 2020 to July 2021, eliminating part of the adult working-age population in the city. Anchorage has been decreasing in population, Popp said, since 2016.

I can think of a number of explanations, but it would be nice if the reporter of this most recent story had asked Popup to explain the apparent contradiction.  If we have 1500 fewer people, why don't we have more available housing?  Is this about people wanting to move out of apartments into new houses?  Is it about investors buying up houses and using them as rental units or B&Bs, while they wait for their investments to gain in value?  There's a lot more to this story than just having Mr. Popp's limited explanation.  

Helping Ukraine

And if you feel helpless as you watch the destruction of Ukraine, there are ways to help.  It's always hazardous to send money to online 'charities' especially when there is an emergency and scammers pop up all over waiting to take advantage of your generosity.  But for left leaning folks, you might give these Obama Foundation Leader* recommendations a look.  But try to double check nevertheless. 

How You Can Help the People of Ukraine - From the Obama Foundation - a list of organizations that their fellows in the field recommend for donations.  With links.  Just do it.  If $10 is all you can give, remember 1000 people giving that is $10,000.  

*What's an Obama Foundation leader?

The Leaders program launched in Africa in 2018, expanded to Asia Pacific in 2019, and inaugurated a virtual program in Europe in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Obama Foundation Leaders hail from a wide variety of nations and territories, work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and address a full range of social impact issues.

The Leaders program offers practical skill building for social change, leadership coaching, discussion of critical issues, and small group support.

Obama Leaders also participate in various virtual experiences and special events, including one-on-one conversations with experienced mentors in the Foundation’s global network.