AIFF 2023: The Winners Announced Saturday Night

 I got the names of the winners at the Awards Event.  Well, the ones I could hear clearly.  I tried to get the names of the ones I missed but they seemed to want to post them on the Festival website before I did, so I let it go.  

 Later, I'll compare them to my favorites, but I'm back at the airport headed south to meet family in LA.  Overall I think the choices are reasonable.  There are some I never got to see.  More than normal, especially for  a festival that had fewer films than normal.  And there were no opportunities to see a film again if you missed it when it was shown.  

They will show 'the best of the fest' Sunday, Dec. 16 at the Alaska Experience Theater.  They said it would be an all day showing of films and they'll put up the list sometime this week.  

There were lots of shorts, but the number of feature documentaries and narrative films seemed thin.  I think this is reflected in the fact that there was only one winner in the Narrative Features category.  And the one comment I will make now, is that Ariel: Back To Buenos Aires which was an excellent film - the story was important and well told, the actors were terrific, and the cinematography was strong.  There were no gratuitous shots of Buenos Aires, they all added to the story.  It should have gotten an award.  I'm not quibbling about Farewell Mr Haffmann.  It was an excellent film and I could easily argue it was the best.  But Ariel was also an excellent film that got shortchanged in my opinion.  

Festival Directors Ida Myklebost and John Gamache
at the Awards Ceremony

Here are the winners as posted on the AIFF Facebook page:

THE WINNERS

of the 23rd edition of the Anchorage International Film Festival are...

...drumroll...

...:

AUDIENCE AWARDS

---Documentary Feature---

WINNER: "Dusty & Stones" by Jesse Rudoy

2nd place: "The Body Politic" by Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough

3rd place: "Ranger" by Austin Peck

---Narrative Feature---

WINNER: "Farewell, Mr. Haffmann" by Fred Cavayé

---Made in Alaska---

WINNER: "One with the Whale" by Peter Chelkowski & Jim Wickens

2nd place: "A Piece of Myself" by Vivienne Ayres, Nidhi Kumar & Audrey Shuppert

3rd Place: "Nourishing The Kenai" by Emrys Eller

---Short Animated---

WINNER: "Mano" by Brittany Biggs

2nd place: "Witchfairy" by Cedric Igodt & David Van de Weyer

3rd Place: "love bubbles" by Marcel Hobi

---Short Documentary---

WINNER: "Seeds of Change" by Maximilian Armstrong

2nd place: "This Is Where I Learned Not To Sleep" by Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly

3rd Place: "The Winterkeeper" by Laurence Topham & David Levene

---Short Narrative---

3rd Place: "Barely Breathing" by Derek Evans & Neal Reddy

2nd place: "Infraction" by Timothy Blackwood

WINNER: "The Bond" by Jahmil Eady

JURY AWARDS

---Documentary Feature---

WINNER: "Wild Life – The Lance Mackey Story" by Finn-Erik Rognan

2nd place: "Dusty & Stones" by Jesse Rudoy

3rd Place: "Karen Carpenter: Starving For Perfection" by Randy Martin

---Narrative Feature---

WINNER: "Farewell, Mr. Haffmann" by Fred Cavayé

---Made in Alaska---

WINNER: "A Piece of Myself" by Vivienne Ayres, Nidhi Kumar & Audrey Shuppert

2nd place: "One With The Whale" by Peter Chelkowski & Jim Wickens

3rd Place: "School of Fish" by Colin Arisman & Oliver Sutro

---Short Animated---

WINNER: "Little Hurts" by Deborah Solomon

2nd place: "Mano" by Brittany Biggs

3rd Place: "Awakening: The First Day" by Jos Diaz Contreras & Santiago Carrasquilla

---Short Documentary---

WINNER: "This Is Where I Learned Not To Sleep" by Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly

2nd place: "Funny Not Funny" by Ben Feldman & Marc D'Agostino

3rd Place: "The Winterkeeper" by Laurence Topham & David Levene

---Short Narrative---

WINNER: "The Stupid Boy" by Phil Dunn

2nd place: "The Old Young Crow" by Liam LoPinto

3rd Place: "Limite" by George Nicholas

SCREENPLAY AWARDS

---Short Screenplay---

WINNER: "Pending" by Jennifer Rapaport

2nd place: "Wildflower" by Peter Salisbury

3rd Place: "Devil’s Instrument" by Frederik Ehrhardt

---Feature Screenplay---

WINNER: "Gramps" by John Stimpson, Geoffrey Taylor and Rapaport

2nd place: "Wreckage" by Colin Scott

3rd Place: "The Most Marvelous Man in the World" by Colin Scott and Kris Burton

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL

It was a good festival and I'll post a few more posts.  One, as I said, comparing my favorites to the winners.  Another to share my thoughts about the festival itself overall.  

AIFF: Sunday Offers Impressive Crime/Prison Lessons

 I missed the noon movie Sunday.  I just needed a little more time to recuperate. 

Saturday morning had a great set of Alaska themed or made films.  I was very pleased that we are past the days when Alaska films were any Alaskan project where someone writes a story and goes out (usually) into the woods and experiments with how their cameras and mics work.  

That elation didn't survive Sunday's Alaska Shorts Program.  There were good ones mostly.  And that's all I'll say.  

The afternoon Documentary Feature - The Body Politic - was a riveting look at Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott.   We see Scott elected into office as a young Black man who saw his first shooting at 10, and vowed that the basic approach of mass arresting of Black men had to be replaced.  The alternative was to give people options in life other than crime and prison.    He comes into office after 327 (maybe it was 37) people had been murdered in the previous year, vowing to cut murders by 15%.  But pro-active reaching out to folks is a long term strategy and takes a while to work.  He monitored every murder as they outpaced his target.  The Republican governor, who controlled prisons, parole, and critical social services, refused to meet with Scott and said he needed to beef up the police to stop the crime.

The discussion afterward included director Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough, film subject Erricka Bridgeford, and another film maker whose name and role I didn't quite catch.  Ida, the director of the festival is on the right.  Ericka is in the middle.  

You can read more about the film from a Baltimore paper and read an interview with the director here.

The next shorts program began with another excellent film - The Bond - which was short and packed a powerful punch as we see an incarcerated woman having her baby, shackled, and then having the baby taken from her.  The filming, the story, the acting were all just right.  

The last program were three films related to prison and domestic violence.  

Infraction told the true story of an inmate who the judge had, at some point concluded was innocent, but was still locked up.

Seeds of Change told the story of a farmer who takes on the project of setting up a farm adjacent to a prison and then utilizing prisoners to work on the farm.  The fresh food is served in the prison.  The film shows the effect of the farm work on the prisoners who worked there and the effects of having fresh food prepared well on the prisoners. 

Where I Learned Not to Sleep  - The camera follows two retired police who grew up with domestic violence, doing training programs for police on how to approach domestic violence situations.  

The whole afternoon and evening illustrated the need to treat citizens, abused women,  and prisoners with dignity and respect to break the cycle of violence and criminality.  

There's much more to say, but this at least gives you a sense of what I got out of the festival on Sunday.  

AIFF: Great Alaskan Shorts/Amazing Narrative "Ariel: Back To Buenos Aires"

 The Alaska Shorts at noon was a great four film program.  All the films were technically well made and all told important stories.  I thought I'd given up on staying up late to post about the festival, but I feel compelled.  

All of these were worth watching and you can learn more about them all here.

 I'm going to focus on True Colors -  Film maker Brad Hillwig said he wanted to do a film about Anchorage having the most diverse schools in the country.  He focused on Bartlett High School,  its diversity, how the school works to make that diversity part of the curriculum, and highlighted two of the outstanding students - a Filipino/Pacific Islander football player and the daughter of an African, Muslim immigrant.  It was an inspiring film in lots of ways.   One of the students - Oumi - was there which was exciting too.  

There were film makers representing all the films there  

The afternoon and evening films at the Museum were also good to outstanding.   Below is Tora Johanna Turøy again, talking festival director Ida Myklebost after her film was shown at the museum.

Ariel: Back To Buenos Aires was amazing.  It was beautifully filmed - with the tango scenes and the Buenos Aires street scenes not just adding color but meaningfully adding to the story.  A few times the camera goes around and around the subjects in a way that is beautiful and heightens the emotional pitch of the scenes.  

The content is powerful!  A sister and brother in their 30s, fly to Argentina where they were born.  The older sister, on the plane, tells her brother she suspects he was adopted because she doesn't remember her mom being pregnant with him.  Anyone who know the history of Argentina will quickly figure out where this is leading.  

A powerful film, made even more powerful by the cinematography and editing so good you don't even think about it.

I'm sure this will be one of the top films at the festival and they will show the award winning films again the week after the festival.  Be sure to see it!!

Citizen Sleuth was also interesting.  A film maker making a film about a Crime podcaster.  We see a sincere podcaster digging deep into a car accident death that she suspects was murder. 

AIFF2023: Saturday Dec. 2: Lots of Shorts, Trip to Argentina

 SATURDAY - December 2, 2023  - Anchorage International Film Festival

BEAR TOOTH  - NOON

4  Shorts - Made in Alaska - view list here.

BEAR TOOTH - 3pm

Documentary Narrative:  Citizen Sleuth

SlashFilm says:

"'Citizen Sleuth' is a darkly funny, engaging, and thrilling documentary about a true crime podcast that has all the fascinating twists and turns of true crime, while flipping the script and focusing on the voice behind the podcast. The documentary chronicles not a tragic death, but the rise and fall of a podcast dedicated to it, and the complicated ways its host became trapped in her own narrative."

This is 82 minutes, so there should be plenty of time to get to the Museum for the rest of the films starting at 5pm.

ANCHORAGE MUSEUM - 5pm

7 Shorts - "Love Me" Program   See the list here.

ANCHORAGE MUSEUM - 7pm  *This program has a warning:  18 and over only.

6 Shorts - "Do We Still Need Feminism" Program  See the list here.

ANCHORAGE MUSEUM - 9pm  

Feature Narrative - Ariel Back To Buenos Aires 

From the film's website: 

"ARIEL BACK TO BUENOS AIRES follows the tumultuous siblings Davie and Diana Vega as they return to Argentina, country of their birth and learn to dance tango. They uncover secrets about their family history that call into question everything they hold to be true, but that free Davie from his existential misery. A story of how the past holds us in its embrace – only by engaging with it can we find freedom. A lacerating love letter to the city of Buenos Aires."

The website says it is also streaming on Apple TV.  It's won a number of awards at film festivals this year.  

 

AIFF (Anchorage International Film Festival) Opens Dec 1, 2023 With Wild Life - The Lance Mackey Story

The Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) begins Friday, December 1, 2023 with a documentary about four time Iditarod winner, Lance Mackey. Based on the trailer below, this doesn't seem to sugar coat his troubled life.

Wild life - The Lance Mackey story from MAVERIX on Vimeo.

The Festival runs Dec. 1 - 9 this year and you can see the program of all the coming films here.

You can see the schedule of all the films here.  Above the calendar you can get different options.  The default seems to be by week, and that only shows the first two days.  Look above for the arrow to move to week two.  

This link shows the films in alphabetical order (beginning with punctuation marks) with pictures and brief descriptions of the films.  

I'd note - as does the AIFF website - that MovieMaker magazine has listed the Anchorage International Film Festival in its list of 25 coolest festivals 2023. And no, they aren't all near the arctic.  About AIFF, they say:

“This festival gave me the chance to explore all day and watch films all night — and night starts at 3 p.m., so that is a lot of films,” says Geoff Marslett. “I promise you will come back with stories from this adventure. If you’re lucky, you may even get to play bingo with the good people who run this one.”

You’ll have lots of fun if your bingo card includes a strong list of films from all over the world, with an emphasis on independent filmmaking in Alaska. We listed Anchorage as one of our 20 Great Film Festivals for First-Time Filmmakers last year not only because of its coolness, but also because of its supportive ratio of submitted-to-accepted films, which means you have a decent chance of getting in with a strong project."

So, if you live in Anchorage or nearby, you can save the cost of airfare and a hotel and enjoy one of the coolest film festivals in the world.  

You can get passes for all the films   Individual feature length films or programs of short films are $12 each.  So if you're going to see 10 or more films, it's definitely worth it.  And even if you won't see more than six, having a pass will save you some lines and buying individual tickets and add a little contribution to the Festival.  

ALL FILMS Passes 2023
$110.00 Pass for all AIFF 2023 in-person screenings from Friday, December 1 through Saturday, December 9, including Opening Night and all other festival screenings at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub.

In the past I've posted "Questions and Answers People Should Be Asking About The Festival." Here's a link to the last one I did in 2019.  Some specific things - like venues and free events change from festival to festival.  But a lot of it might be useful for people not used to going to film festivals.  

This year's venues include The Bear Tooth, Anchorage Museum, E Street Theater, and the Awards event will be at The Nave on Spenard.  You can find all the details at the AIFF website.

I'll try to highlight some of the films that will be showing during the festival.