Alaska Ties For Third For Most Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Per Capita

I got this list in an email today:

2015 Top States – Per Capita  (# of volunteers per 100,000 residents)
#1	Vermont	8.3 vols per 100,000 residents
#2	District of Columbia	6.5
#3	Washington Montana Alaska	4.5 4.5 4.5
#6	Minnesota Maine	4.1 4.1
#8	New Hampshire Oregon	4.0 4.0
#10	Colorado	3.8

This doesn't really come as a surprise to me.  Alaska is the state that is the most like a Peace Corps assignment and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) are working throughout the state in all sort of roles.  Former Borough Mayor Jack Roderick is an RPCV, though his Peace Corps service in India happened after he was mayor.  Another RPCV from India is retired Native Law attorney David Case.  Scott Goldsmith, Professor Emeritus in Economics at ISER served in Malaysia, as did, if I recollect correctly, UAA Chemistry professor John Kennish.  Former UAA Chancellor Lee Gorsuch and his wife Ann served in Paraguay.  Retired doctor Jeffrey Lawrence and his wife Sharon served in Brazil.   Anchorage assembly member and former state legislator, Pete Petersen, served in the the Dominican Republic.  And there's a guy connected to this blog who served in Thailand.

2014 US House candidate and JAG attorney Forrest Dunbar served in Kazakhstan.  2014 Lt. Gov. candidate, petroleum engineering grad, and an Alaska teacher of the year, Bob Williams, served in Gambia.  

You can see some more Anchorage and Fairbanks RPCV's here   and Juneau RPCVs in this post.

UAA's Alumni Magazine for Septembr 2015 highlights six alumni who served in the Peace Corps:

In total, there have only been about 220,000 Peace Corps volunteers since President Kennedy started  the program in 1961.  And 4.5 residents per 100,000 in Alaska comes out to something over 300. [UPDATE:  A sharp eyed reader noticed that I added an extra zero to the number here.  I suspect I messed this up because I know there are way over 30 RPCV's living in Alaska and I think the number  may be closer to 300 than to 30.  Perhaps they are only counting the people who have joined the national RPCV group.]

In contrast, there are about 71,000 veterans in Alaska, about one out of ten, or 10,000 residents per 100,000 residents.

The US sends a lot more people out to wage war than it sends to wage peace.

But the Peace Corps got more applications in 2015 than it's gotten since 1975.

Sorry for the reposting - more Feedburner problems.

AIFF 2015: Tuesday Scheduling - It's Gayla Night - UPDATE SCHEDULE CHANGE

[UPDATE:  Short Doc Program time has been changed to 7:45, which allows people to see either Vanishing Sail or From This Day Forward before seeing the Short Docs Program.]

I realized last night that there was a scheduling problem at the festival.  Look at the grid for Tuesday night.  Am I the only one who can see this flaw?  And I admit, there was a problem Monday night too, just like this, but I didn't catch it.  And if you don't look at this view (this is the grid view, there are several other options on the SCHED page), you probably won't see it at all.

This is a screenshot the links don't work - But go here for the original

Unless you want to see the Short Docs program AND something else.

Basically, the Short Docs program overlaps all four other movies showing Tuesday night.

All they had to do was move it earlier so you could pick between the two 8pm offerings  OR move it later and you could pick between the earlier offerings.  

This is a problem for Wednesday night, Thursday night, and Friday night as well.  I've emailed the festival honchos.  I understand that making changes at this point is problematic because people have already begun to schedule.

But now that they have this fancy Scheduling technology, which even tracks who has planned to attend, they should be able to make changes and notify people.  If most people are like me, they don't know what they're going to watch until the day it happens, so they won't even notice the change.

Or, they could move Short Docs up to 6pm and play it twice.  So if people come at the previously scheduled time, and thus miss the first hour, they could just stay and see it the second time and catch what they missed.  And then people who wanted to see a different 6pm film, could also see the Short Docs.  It's win/win.  

This kind of thing drives me nuts every year, but usually it's because films I want to see are just playing at the same time.  Here,  they are unnecessarily playing at the same time.  Grrrrr!

I've already told some folks I want to be involved in scheduling next year.  Just to make sure this sort of screwup doesn't happen.  That was before I saw this!   

I know, from years to blogging about the festival, that scheduling glitches like this just aren't obvious until you're trying to see a particular film and it overlaps with another.

I understand overlapping at the Alaska Experience theaters because you want to stagger the audiences a bit, so everyone isn't buying a ticket at the same time.   But the overlaps also mean that one film starts before another ends and so it limits the number of films a person can see, without missing the end or the beginning of a film to catch the next one.

TONIGHT:

The Short Documentary program has two docs that are in competition.
Bihttos (Canada, 14 min.) 
Superjednostka (Poland, 20 min.)  (This will also show Thursday afternoon at 2pm at the Martini Matinee)
I've covered these and the other docs in competition here.

Technically, you could stay long enough to see these two and make a dash to the Bear Tooth to see the Gayla feature at 8pm.  But just because something is in competition, doesn't mean other films in the program aren't good or even better.  The screeners all have different tastes and frequently films that are in competition are not the ones I would have chosen.

The Gayla feature at 8pm at the Bear Tooth is The David Dance.  From the EdgeMediaNetwork

"I'll be honest. I had some misgivings when I first began watching the "The David Dance." At the start, I wasn't quite sure what to make of the film, but once I reached the end of the movie I was overwhelmed with all different kinds of emotions and plenty of tears. This is truly one of those movies that gets to the heart and soul of a person.
If you have ever felt love of any kind, this movie is for you. If you have ever met someone who was "the one," but you just didn't know it at the time, this movie is for you. If you have ever come across someone who has had a different view-other than your own -- and didn't know how to establish common ground -- "The David Dance" is the surprise of the LGBT film circuit.  .   .    ."

The Gayla documentary at 5:30pm at the Bear Tooth is From This Day Forward.  From The Star:

"As Sharon Shattuck planned her wedding two years ago, she recalled her father’s unsettling request, made when she was about 13 on the drive to school: “Whenever you get married, I hope that you’ll let me wear a dress when I walk you down the aisle.”
Now 32, Shattuck has made From This Day Forward, a personal, insightful and gently humorous documentary about love, marriage and growing up with her transgender dad, Trisha. . . "

For more details on the films playing tonight go to the SCHED.

AIFF 2015: The Newtok Film We Are All Related Here

I mentioned this film earlier today and the lawsuit between the competing leadership groups in the village of Newtok.  Well, it's pretty clear the courts have sided with the new leadership and told the old leadership to clear the offices and make the village documents available to the new leaders.

The film didn't mention the conflict.  There was a fair number of folks (I'd guess 50-60) and lots of questions at the end.  Most were about technical issues about moving a village and which agencies are involved.  One question did get filmmaker Brian McDermott  mention something about political conflict, but since he couldn't figure out who was telling the truth, he decided to leave it out.  

I caught up with McDermott in the lobby and asked him about that decision to leave it out, and after pushing him a bit, he said he had put something in about the dispute in an earlier version and it killed the film.  One of his local advisors on this told him it didn't really matter because there were 180 villages facing this same problem and it's the bigger issue that matters.  

I guess it all depends on what your intent is as a filmmaker.  To be an advocate for a cause or to be a good journalist?  And it's reasonable to take either stand.  Personally, even as an advocate, I wouldn't want to do a film (or a blog post) that left out the proverbial elephant in the room, which would let opponents pounce on that omission.  

And to his credit, McDermott listened and acknowledged my criticism as fair.  I did suggest at least a note written at the end of the film that acknowledged the dispute, the difficulty in covering it in the film, and while it might have delayed things a bit, it wasn't the key factor that was preventing Newtok and 180 other villages from being moved.

I'd not that McDermott is from Pennsylvania, connected with someone from Newtok on Facebook and came up to make the film.  One could say that was gutsy or a little naive.   Having spent  a little time in Wales, Alaska, I think that McDermott at the very least gives non-Alaska a little sense of the living conditions and of the connection of the people to their land because of their subsistence lifestyle.  It does personalize what otherwise are rather exotic places that most people in the Lower 48 can't imagine.  

And he does have some of the characters in the lawsuits up on the screen so you can see who they are.  But this is a version of what local reporters call parachute journalism - where outsiders fly in for a few days, get their stories, and leave without really knowing the history and context of where they've been or the stories they're telling.  

And if you compare it to the time Nick Brandestini spent in Barrow to get Children of the Arctic filmed right, you can see the huge difference.  But Nick has more film credits and had a much bigger budget - enough to fly the subjects of the film to Zurich and Anchorage for the showings of the film.

People have to start somewhere, but telling a village's story is also a giant responsibility.  I think his intentions were good, I don't suspect this film will do much harm, and it may even do a little good.

I also think that the Anchorage International Film Festival needs to think long and hard about what Alaska movies it accepts.  Just because a film is about Alaska doesn't mean it should be in the festival.  Should this film have gotten in?  Probably.  Should it win any awards?  I think the omission of any mention of the local dispute is a big flaw.  It's such a huge factor of what's happening in the village, I just can't see how it could be ignored completely.  Especially since the title and some of the film content makes it all seem like 'we're one big happy family.'

Why I Live Here: Our Mayor Stops The Bragaw Extension

On one side, opposing the extension of the road through the university land where moose and other animals traverse, where cross country skiers ski, and nature reins, mostly, were all the surrounding community councils, the people who live near by.  Also opposed were the local Assembly members representing the area where the road would be and the state representative for that area and the state senator for that area.

On the other side, supporting the road, were the Department of Transportation, that ignored all the public comment over a several year process to continue to plan for a road.  DOWL Engineering that had the contract for the citizen participation process.  And apparently lots of builders and developers who were big supporters of former Mayor Sullivan who requested the state keep the road and got it along with a $20 million allocation into the state budget at the last minute several years ago.  Providence Hospital, the University of Alaska Anchorage, and Alaska Pacific University in meetings closed to the public gave support, though we aren't sure how strong it was and what incentives they were given.

Even though the state state budget was facing drastic cuts for school and many other essential services due to falling oil revenues, the state kept this project that was opposed overwhelmingly by people in the neighborhood.

Well, it turns out that what one mayor gives, another mayor can take away.  Still fairly new Anchorage mayor Ethan Berkowitz last week pulled the city's support of the road.  The state, saying that without the local support, would cut the project.

Along Northern Lights very near where the road would have gone

Lots of people fought long and hard to stop this unnecessary road which would have cut through what I've been calling Anchorage's Central Park.  It's a big green swath in midtown by the Universities, that is wonderful recreation site, and a natural infrastructure project that cleans the air and the water,
as well as preserving water that would otherwise end up in sewers and go out to see.  It quiets the region and provides refuse for moose and other animals and birds.  Think I exaggerate?
Read E.O. Wilson's The Future of Life.

I asked three of last April's mayoral candidates whether they would stop the road if elected.  Candidate Berkowitz gave the strongest indication that he would.

I thank him for keeping this campaign promise.  This is a big deal for the future of Alaska.

The people who want to connect every gap in every road, the people who make money from cutting trees and building things where they were and the politicians they support will be back on this sooner or later.  But for now, we're ok.  A big victory in the many battles for preventing Anchorage from looking like every other overdeveloped urban center and for preserving the reason that many of us live here.

AIFF 2015: Monday Preview - Newtok, Hong Kong

It's Monday Dec. 7.   Films in competition tonight include:

Feature:  Hong Kong murder mystery, Jasmine, (by LA filmmaker) at Bear Tooth at 8pm

Two Alaska Made films in competition at the Alaska Experience large theater:

From 7- 8 pm:  We Are All Related -  Newtok is an Alaska Native village which has to move because of flooding problems, which is, apparently, the focus of the movie. But there is a current court battle between the new village leaders and the old, who refuse to give up their offices.  A Law 360 article earlier this year said:

Leaders of an Alaskan Native tribe situated on the Bering Sea coast are asking a federal court to halt three members of the Newtok Traditional Council from misrepresenting themselves as members of the tribe's legitimate tribal governing body, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday. 

Newtok Village and the Newtok Village Council are asking the court for an injunction that would prohibit Andy T. Patrick, Joseph Tommy and Stanley Tom from telling any federal, state or private agency that they are the rightful leaders of the tribe, as well as an order for them to turn over certain financial records and other property that they have allegedly wrongfully retained. 

The Newtok Village Council claims that the three defendants, all members of the tribe's former governing body, are attempting to convince state and federal agencies that they continue to exercise leadership over tribal members and can rightfully ask for money on behalf of the tribe, despite decisions by federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs regional office, recognizing the Newtok Village Council as the official governing body.The dispute arose in 2012. Prior to that time, the governing body of the tribe was the Newtok Traditional Council. But a tribal election dispute arose later that year, out of which two groups emerged, each claiming to be the bona fide tribal governing body, according to the suit.  .   .    .

The dispute arose in 2012. Prior to that time, the governing body of the tribe was the Newtok Traditional Council. But a tribal election dispute arose later that year, out of which two groups emerged, each claiming to be the bona fide tribal governing body, according to the suit."

The Alaska Dispatch had an article yesterday saying a judge had sided with the new leadership Nov. 4 and they are asking the judge to enforce that ruling.

I'm hoping the movie might include some of the players in this struggle not only against the climate change caused flooding, but also against the human actors in the way of the move.  The trailer doesn't hint at the human dimension.

The director Brian  McDermott is scheduled to be there.

8:30- 10:30:  Degrees North - is about freeriding, best as I can tell.  The trailer doesn't show as much gliding through the sky or skiing down vertical slopes as I expected, but there's plenty of equipment with sponsor logos.  There's some "you really see the true nature of people when they're out here, exposed" and  'one minute without your gloves outside and you can't feel your fingers any more" dialogue but not too much.   You get the picture - sponsors pay crazy young men to risk their lives in Norway and Alaska mountains.  Sure to have a good audience in Anchorage.  (The second trailer shows them near Anchorage in what appears to be the year we had so little sonw.)

This is preceded by a film on the Mt. Marathon race called 3022 ft

Here's the link that will show you all of Monday.

AIFF 2015: Sunday Afternoon Report - Cricus Without Borders, When The Ocean Met The Sky

Number 1:  Circus without Borders was pretty much what was advertised.  It focused on a group in the Canadian arctic that developed some acrobatic skills in part to combat suicides in the village - and a group of acrobats in Guinea, in Africa.  The leaders of the two groups met, bonded, and brought their groups together.  The story was told directly in video by the participants themselves and there was a lot of great acrobatics as well as cross-cultural background on how the acrobatics helped support the local communities.

Yesterday's Madina's Dream got me thinking about how far documentaries have come from the days of the omniscient male narrator with the deliverer of the truth voice.   Marina's Dream had no narrator and I could have used just a little help with context.  A map would have helped.  But basically, the film's job was to get us to see the lives of people fighting for their land and lives.  It was about people and emotions, not about facts.  It was a point of view story.  We never hear from the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir who is repeatedly accused by people in the film of trying to wipeout the Nuba people.  That's probably with good reason because Wikipedia's account says al-Bashir is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for a variety of crimes including genocide and there's a Wikileaks document that says he's embezzled $9 billion.



Number 2:  When The Ocean Met The Sky

I'm trying to figure out why this one worked well for me, while Midora in Hawaii yesterday, didn't.  Marina is about two sisters who haven't seen each other for a while and now have a week together and their various problems with each other come out in the movie.  It was well done, but I got tired of their conflict after a while.   Ocean was about three brothers forced on an outdoor adventure with to get their (substantial) inheritance as stipulated in their father's will.  Their unresolved conflicts start coming out in the first scene.  Yet this film worked for me.  Why?

Part may be because  I don't understand Japanese and got the dialogue only through the subtitles.  It had sisters while Ocean had brothers.  I saw Midora after the movie on Sudan so I was already a bit down.

In any case,  I really enjoyed When The Ocean Met The Sky.  It just worked.  The tension among the brothers was real and the confrontations were realistic, as were the eventual resolutions.  And one likes to think that the father who put this condition on the will intended that they would work through their differences this way.   The three actors who played the brothers and the one who played their guide in the woods were all strong and their chemistry, even when they were fighting, was good.

In a sense this was a story that could have come out of Hollywood, but the way it was done was much more understated.  The audience here clearly enjoyed it.

I'm writing this after having seen Children of the Arctic, but I need to hold off on that and post this.  Lots of people were in line for the next film - High Treason.

AIFF 2015: Audience Likes Iranian Film The Descendants

A film festival volunteer  told us before the film, that the filmmaker really wanted to audience to send feedback.  The film is about an Iranian student who's moved to Sweden to study.  His mother gets upset because after two months they have heard nothing from their son.  Finally the dad goes to Sweden to find their son.  He discovers a world where foreign students of low means are living a different life from the one they write home about.

The volunteer herself is Iranian who went to Sweden as a student before coming to the US, so she found the film very poignant.

In response to the filmmaker's request, I offered my camera to audience members after the film and you can hear their comments below.

Thank you for sending this film to our festival!







The Descendants plays again Wednesday night, December 9 at 8 pm at the AK Exper Large theater.

AIFF 2015: Sunday Preview

There's lots of great stuff today.  The best option is to go to the scheduling website - click here - where you can see the schedule in different useful ways.  Just put your cursor over the Schedule tab for the drop down menu and experiment.






 There are just too many interesting films for me to cover and different things will interest different people.  So you have to do it yourself.

There's a movie about Tlingit soldiers in Vietnam (Hunting In War Time), a Bangladeshi woman (Under Construction), a 90 something woman who directs her first play (Janey Makes a Play),  a horse headed for the glue factory, that's rescued and goes on to be a champion (Harry and Snowman).  Children of the Arctic follows the lives of Barrow youth.

There are a number of features - including one about three young men forced to go on an adventure together to fulfill the conditions of their father's will (When the Ocean Met The Sky.)

There's a short documentary program.

And there's an archival movie involving Alaska that was recently discovered (High Treason).

Just pick something and enjoy what an international festival like this offers us.

Below is a screenshot of the simple schedule (the links don't work here, but it's clean and fast).  Go here to see the list with descriptions.

Sunday, December 6 

 

12:00pm

Harry & Snowman Circus Without Borders 

1:00pm

Made in Alaska Shorts 

1:30pm

Janey Makes a Play 

2:00pm

Hunting in Wartime 

2:30pm

When the Ocean Met the Sky 

3:00pm

No Greater Love 

3:30pm

Stink! 

4:00pm

STORIS: The Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast 

5:00pm

Children of the Arctic 

5:30pm

Short Docs 

6:00pm

Under Construction 

7:30pm

High Treason (1929) 

8:00pm

Death on a Rock 

 

AIFF 2015: Saturday Afternoon Report

It's been a hard day.  I started out at the Bear Tooth watching The Incredible Adventure of JoJo,  which wasn't bad.  Basically, it was a Little Red Riding Hood story of two very young kids - seven and maybe 18 months - finding their way back to grandma's house after mom drives off the road and doesn't wake up.  It started off with some snarky humor for the parents, but that faded away pretty fast and I got impatient.  I wondered whether it was a movie I'd take my three year old granddaughter too, and I think not.  Probably seven year old boy is perfect. 

Then downtown to watch the best film of the day, for me, The Descendants, an Iranian film that tells the story of less affluent students studying in the west from any country.  When his son has not contacted the family back in Iran, the father travels to Sweden to find his son and discovers a number of students whose lives are much less successful than the stories they are sending home.  Scholarships  don't exist, they are working many hours to support their studies, and living precariously from day to day.  The father was a strong character as were the students he meets in Upsala.  But I think of the much richer presentation of the same basic story that are in books like The Americanah and this film is pretty superficial in comparison.  We get told that things are hard, but but didn't get much detail of why.

I do have audience reaction on video for the filmmakers who couldn't be here, but did, through an intro before the film, ask for such feedback.  Look for that later - both in English and Farsi.

The last film I saw was Madina's Dream.  This is the sort of documentary that everyone who lives comfortably in a nation that sells arms to the rest of the world should see.  It's just video of kids and their mom's in the Yiba refugee camp in South Sudan and the men fighting against the Sudan national army to keep their land in the Nuba Mountains.  I don't recall any narrative, just subtitles to translate for us.  This film didn't create a story to package this for us, like many docs do, and that was refreshing.  But it was pretty depressing.  And this sort of thing is repeated here and there all over the world.

OK, my last show is about to begin - Midori in Japan.  I hope this is a little lighter.

[Reposting for Feedburner issues.]

AIFF 2015: Saturday At The Film Festival - First Choice Between Animation and The Incredible Adventures of Jogo

Seeing all the films laid out by time and venue is easier this year with SCHED.  I won't have to do as much charting on here as I've done in the past.  Here's a screen shot for Noon (when things begin) and about 4:30pm today.

Go To the Actual Grid Here Where You Can See Details For Each Block.

I thought I would just go see the animation (AK Exp Large noon). I know nothing about them, but they are all in the same program, and I like the idea of surprise. And animation is often the most original and interesting category visually. But some folks tipped me off about The Incredible Adventure of Jojo ((and his annoying little sister Avila). (Bear Tooth Noon.)

After that, there's more hard choices.  One feature in competition - The Descendants  is an Iranian film at the AK Experience at 2pm - and one documentary in competition, and sure to be very well attended is  about romance novel authors - Between the Covers at Bear Tooth at 2:30,  plus there's a shorts program, though I'll wait until the Shorts Jury Selection Program which is Thursday.  (But as I look at it, it's playing opposite Creditors which is one I really want to see.  Lots of hard decisions.  You can't have the chocolate chip AND the mango surprise AND the mocha fudge.  You have to make choices.