AIFF 2024 - Saturday Dec 7 Schedule

There's a lot to see Saturday from 9am until 10pm.  At the Bear Tooth, the Museum, and even coffee with film makers at the Alaska Experience Theater.  

The focus has been on the two films at the Bear Tooth Saturday.  One is an Alaska focused film on fishing in Bristol Bay and the other has skiing and mountains.  Both those kinds of films do well at AIFF festivals, which, I'm sure, is why they're at the Bear Tooth.  And Champions of Golden Valley is essentially sold out already.  Unearth has some seats left in the balcony.  

But for my money, the film to see will be Porcelain War, at the Museum at 6pm.  It premiered at Sundance and has won many awards.  It's a film about Ukrainian artists fighting the war with art.  There's a trailer down below.

So basically, I'm presenting Saturday as chronologically as I can - given that there is overlap between the Bear Tooth and the Museum at 12:30pm

Things start off early at  the first of the festival's "Coffee Talk and Panels" at the Alaska Experience theater.  

"Debut Dreams: The Journey of First-Time Directors"

SATURDAY December 7th at 9:00AM

Alaska Experience Theater 

First features are filled with passion, challenges, and the thrill of discovery. This panel brings together debut directors who dared to dive into filmmaking, sharing insights into their creative processes, struggles, and triumphs. Hear how they’ve shaped their visions into powerful first features and what advice they’d give to those taking their own first steps.

And then at 10am at the museum.   

At 10 am:    Ultimate Citizens

From the film website:  

ULTIMATE CITIZENS is the story of Jamshid Khajavi, an extraordinary 65-year-old Iranian American public school counselor who uses the sport of Ultimate Frisbee to help children heal. In an America where many families are quietly, barely getting by, Mr. Jamshid coaches an underdog team of kids on their way to compete in the world’s largest youth tournament. ULTIMATE CITIZENS is a celebration of resilience and belonging, and the third independent feature documentary from award-winning filmmaker Francine Strickwerda.

It first showed in May 2023, and has been at (and won awards at) a number of festivals this year.  The AIFF/Goelevant site says it was filmed at Seattle’s Hazel Wolf K-8 school.

Then come two shorts programs.  The first conflicts with Champions of Golden Valley at the Bear Tooth.

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM: International Gems – Event Tickets

Ivania – 12:00

Complications – 14:00

K.O.- 27:00

Pioneras – 14:30

Monte Clerigo – 27:30

Meanwhile, at the Bear Tooth:

Two Documentaries,

12 Noon:  Unearth 

Picture from Rogovy Foundation 

"Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has signed on to executive produce 
“Unearth,” a new documentary that will make its world premiere at DOC NYC   on Nov. 16.

Directed, produced and shot by Hunter Nolan, “Unearth” tells the story of two sets of siblings — the Salmon sisters and the Strickland brothers — who live in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. Both sets of siblings are alarmed when they learn of and fight against advanced plans for a Pebble Mine — a massive open-pit gold and copper mine — in the vicinity of their homes. The Salmon sisters, Native Alaskans, work on the regulatory front, pushing the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to block the project, while the Strickland brothers, independent fishermen, expose the truth behind what the Pebble Mine developer is telling the public. The 93-minute doc reveals systemic failures in mining and the balance between the need for materials and their environmental costs."  (From Variety)

November 16 wasn't that long ago, so AIFF audiences will be among the first to see this Alaska based film.  You can learn more about the film at the Rogovy Foundation website. 

As of Thursday night, there are some seats left in the balcony at the Bear Tooth.

2:30 pm Champions of the Golden Valley

Picture from Champions of the Golden Valley website

This film got front page coverage in the Anchorage Daily News yesterday so I won't spent much more time on it here.  From their website: 

"In the remote mountains of Afghanistan, a newfound passion for skiing attracts young athletes from rival villages to the slopes. With minimal gear and makeshift wooden skis, the determined  coach Alishah Farhang organizes a ski race like no other that unites the community in a moment of joy and triumph, just before the country’s collapse

Champions of the Golden Valley captures the spirit of a classic underdog sports story with the heartfelt portrait of a community finding hope amid disrupted dreams. Revealing a stunning unseen side of Afghanistan, it is an uplifting exploration of what it means to be a champion – in all its forms."

As of Thursday night, the Bear Tooth map shows one seat way up in the far corner of the balcony.  

 

For those who have tickets at the Bear Tooth, Golden Valley ends at 2:30pm, and you could make it to the 3pm Alaska shorts at the Museum.  But there will be a number of film makers at the conference.  If Golden Valley has representatives coming, there will surely be some questions and answers afterward.  But if you miss the first or second short, there are more in the program.  

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM: Made in Alaska Shorts #1 – 

The Gingerbread Man – 9:03

The Glacier Pilot – 10:00

Footprints on Katmai – 21:50

The Grace – 13:00

Mending the Net – 11:36

5:30 PM – 6:00 PM: Alaska Jewish Museum Presents – Demon Box –  This film is free at the Museum, it's not clear if you have to buy tickets in advance to be sure you get in.  The IMDB page says:

"After festival rejections, a director revises his intensely personal short film about trauma, suicide, and the Holocaust, and transforms it into a painful, blunt and funny dissection of the film and his life."

It also has a short trailer, that I don't see a way to embed here.  I'd note that Leslie Fried, the director of  the Jewish Museum in Anchorage has unfailingly nominated excellent films every year.  

There's still more on Saturday at the Museum

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Documentary Feature: Porcelain War  at the Museum

This is a Ukrainian movie and from what I can tell is one of the movies to see at the festival.  From the NYTimes: 

"The latest documentary dispatch from Ukraine, “Porcelain War,” brings a message of hope rooted in art. Making art does feel like an act of resistance during the Russian invasion, when Kremlin propaganda attacks the very existence of Ukrainian culture. But what’s intriguing is that the directors, Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, also celebrate Ukraine’s military defense, making for a jangly mix of idyll and warfare.

Slava, who appears in the film, is both a ceramist and a member of an Ukraine special forces unit who gives weapons training to civilians turned soldiers. His partner, Anya, paints the whimsical figurines he creates, and the irrepressible couple weather the war in bombed-out Kharkiv with their more anxious pal Andrey, a painter and cameraman."

From Deadline:

"The film has won 30 prizes around the world, including the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance. This past weekend, it earned the Grand Jury Award for Best Feature Documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival in New York, as well as the Best Documentary Editing Award. And at the Heartland International Film Festival in Indianapolis, it won the Documentary Feature Grand Prize, which comes with a $20,000 cash award."

8:00 PM – 10:00 PM: Narrative Feature: Midwinter   at the Museum

"Nadine is tired and her whole body aches with inflammation and she can sleep. Her son Goldie keeps her active beyond her energy level. Her husband Jack owns a large ad agency and has been a loving husband who has recently expanded his romantic life beyond his marriage to include co-worker Maeve...who happens to be the ex-partner of his sister-in-law Lena. Lena is a burgeoning music writer who, getting over a break-up, takes on an assignment writing about one of her favorite queer indie artists, Mia Hawthorne. Mia is out in the Berkshires, in search of inspiration, a bit frustrated with a high-class problem: the record label wants her to have a co-writer. The mundane poetry of life ensues.

Ryan Andrew Balas

Director, Writer"  (From TMBD) 

Midwinter is also streaming on Netflix and other streaming sites, so if it's been a long day already, you can watch it at home.   

My Bike Season Has Begun

This is no April Fool's post.  While the bike trails through the greenbelts still have a decent amount of snow and ice, the sidewalks/bike trails along the major roads in Anchorage are pretty much clear. 

Here I am on Providence headed toward Elmore (formerly known as Bragaw).  No snow, but lots of post-snow debris.  And riding along the streets still means watching out for cars hitting puddles and splashing anyone on the sidewalk at that point.  

Here's were the Elmore bike trail dips down to let folks use the tunnel to get over the the UAA dorms.  Still clear, but the retreating snow leaves a much narrower path.  

And here I'm up from the dip looking back at the snow my tires couldn't get a grip on.  But it was all clear except for this stretch.

I've now completed the first 5.6 km of my Anchorage summer biking expedition.  

In previous summers I've imagined routes in other places as I plied the Anchorage bike trails.  I've gone from Santiago, Chile south to  Conception; Chiangmai to Bangkok;  and from Istanbul to Cappadocia.  Last  summer I didn't pick a foreign route.  But this year I've decided I'm going from Kyiv to Mariupol.  

That's 868.9 km according to Bikemap.com.  That's not quite as far as I hope to go.  Last summer I did about 1200 kms total.  Sorry the map isn't quite clear enough to read the details, but you get the point.

I'm hoping this will give me a better sense of the geography of Ukraine.  I was thinking I could go another 300 or 400 kilometers past Mariupol.  But maybe I should start in Mariupol and after Kyiv I can head west toward Poland or south toward Moldova.  .  

Chicago Pics And A Bit On Percy Julian

 This is basically going to be photos of the last couple days in Oak Park and surroundings.  

I always thought the Continental divide was in the Rockies and up on through Canada and Alaska, but the folks in Oak Park think it's there.

I think John Dewey got it just about right.

We walked about 2.5 miles yesterday to meet J's brother and sister-in-law for lunch, so we saw a lot of things we'd have missed in a car.  Like these church doors.

A dog park in Oak Park.  Our friends ran into friends they hadn't seen in a long time and it seemed like a happy coincidence.  Numbers were exchanged.

I seem to be the only one excited about the new Halloween decoration on our friends' balcony.  

This only makes sense if you know that Frank Lloyd Wright lived in Oak Park and there are lots of his buildings (mainly houses) in town.  I think some of my Anchorage friends are trying to make this point as the Assembly is taking on redoing the zoning codes.  Right-sizing isn't necessarily NIMBY.

Today, October 1, we went to Evanston - just north of Chicago - for a birthday party and walked along Lake Michigan by Northwestern University.   It was a warm day!

Downtown Chicago is in the distance.

We drove along the lake to downtown. 

Best I could do from the car.  

As we wandered on home we passed through a part of town known as Ukrainian Village.  I believe the rest of this sign said "Institute of Modern Art."

Finally, our friend took us by a large house and yard in Oak Park.  It was bought by Percy Julian.  

Julian was a chemist with degrees from Harvard, and Vienna. From Science History:

 

"A steroid chemist and an entrepreneur, Percy Julian ingeniously figured out how to synthesize important medicinal compounds from abundant plant sources, making them more affordable to mass produce.

In the 1930s chemists recognized the structural similarity of a large group of natural substances—the steroids. These include the sex hormones and the cortical hormones of the adrenal glands. The medicinal potential of these compounds was clear, but extracting sufficient quantities of them from animal tissue and fluids was prohibitively expensive. As with other scarce or difficult-to-isolate natural products, chemists were called upon to mimic nature by creating these steroids in the lab and later by modifying them to make them safer and more effective as drugs. . .

"Julian was born in Montgomery, Alabama, the son of a railway mail clerk and the grandson of enslaved people. In an era when African Americans faced prejudice in virtually all aspects of life, not least in the scientific world, he succeeded against the odds. Inadequately prepared by his high school, he was accepted at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, as a sub-freshman, meaning that he had to take high-school courses concurrently with his freshman courses.

Majoring in chemistry, he graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1920. After graduation he taught chemistry at Fisk University for two years before winning an Austin Fellowship to Harvard University, where he completed a master’s degree in organic chemistry. After Harvard he returned to teaching at West Virginia State College and Howard University.

Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the house.  But there are lots of pictures of Julian and of the house in Oak Park.  

The point of this being, that the family may lose the house because his daughter is having trouble paying the taxes.   From Chemical and Engineering News:

"The family home of Percy Lavon Julian sits on a corner lot in the Oak Park suburb of Chicago. Julian was already a renowned organic chemist when he bought the two-story stone house in 1950. His daughter, Faith Julian, remembers a time when the home was not just the center of their family life, but also a place where her father thrived as a scientist and entrepreneur until his death in 1975. Despite multiple racist attacks to push them out of the neighborhood, Percy Julian would not leave his home, she says. “My dad never wanted to move. He loved this house,” she says.

Now Faith is fighting to stay in the Oak Park home, where she still lives. Taxes, home repairs, and medical expenses have left Faith struggling to maintain ownership."

You can read more of the details at the link.

Frank Lloyd Wright is, rightfully, an icon in Oak Park, Illinois.  His house and the many buildings he designed and were built in Oak Park attract a lot of tourists.  

Like many important, but unsung Black American scientists, Julian's house and legacy are not as celebrated in Oak Park or other places  One would think that the city leaders of Oak Park could work with the Chemical community and Black organizations to work out a way to preserve the house and let his daughter live there as long as she wishes.  Certainly there are pharmaceutical corporations that have earned tens of millions of dollars if not much more, from his discoveries.  

This is precisely the sort of thing that people like Ron DeSantis are trying to make sure the students of Florida never know about. 

Here's an August 2023 Editorial at OakPark.com that offers some hope things will be positively resolved.  

Oil, Ukraine, Flopping, And A Cameo Part For Sen.Dan Sullivan

 When you get a chance, tie up one of your oil fanatic Republican family members and/or friends and make them watch this.  It covers most of the relevant issues.  Trust me.  It's worth watching.

Thanks, George.

Bainbridge Island Supports People Of Ukraine

Sunday I joined my daughter and about 100 other folks from the island in a short procession and quiet rally for the people of Ukraine.  It was organized by the Interfaith Council.  Some pictures. 

We're about to board a plane back to Anchorage.  Looking forward to a second spring, but it could be a while.  

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.

It's Hard Not To Focus On Ukraine - Two Good Videos

 We're all caught up in the real life drama of Ukraine, in a way relatively few people were during the impeachment hearings when Trump's phone call with Zelensky was discussed in detail.  When Trump held up Javelin missiles until Zelensky promised to dig up dirt on Biden's son.  

There is so much to say.  And so much has been said.  Really, Republicans, when are you going to figure out how you to quit Trump?  The man who calls Putin a genius.  That truly sums Trump up - it's all about winning or losing.  There's no morality involved.  If you can take it and get away with it, it's all good.  

This first video is a bit of very slick marketing.  But all I'm reading and seeing these last couple of days suggests it's the right message - of people fighting for the survival of their country.  Not to destroy it. This is February 2022, not January 6, 2021.                          

This second one is to give you a smile.  And let's hope that Zelensky is alive and well to show us what a good dancer he still is next month and next year.  

so apparently Zelenskyy won the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars in 2006 and the tape is even better than whatever you're imagining pic.twitter.com/L1gnKD2ISr

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) February 27, 2022