Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / North America / United States / Alaska / All Films

Note on Term "Eskimo":

The films in this series make use of the name "Eskimo." While once broadly applied, it is a perjorative term and considered offensive. While the inception of the word is a matter of debate, it is no longer used or applied in our film catalog. The context in which the term appears in this series is an acknowledged relic of a colonial past, presented in its original version. DER apologizes for any offense caused.

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

From the First People

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

From the First People
Buy Now: $320.00

This is a film about change and contemporary life in Shungnak, a village on the Kobuk River in northwestern Alaska, 75 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Life in this inland community is dominated by the seasons and the river.

In October, when the film begins, the Kobuk becomes filled with ice, which slowly thickens until freeze-up is complete. Traditional subsistence activities still continue: women net fish under the ice, and a man and his wife construct a cottonwood mudshark trap that is carefully placed in the river ice. The combination of old and new technology is pervasive. Some people hitch their teams of huskies to a sled, others travel by snowmobile. Old people reflect upon these changes. "In the old days," George Cleveland laughs, "you knew your good dogs would get you home. Today, if your snowmachine breaks down, you have to walk! On the other hand," he says, "most things these days are easier than in the past, when people had to be tough in order to survive. Today, you just plug in the bubbling coffee pot, pull the string for light, and turn the stove's knob when you are cold." Indeed, popcorn is cooking on the stove as children don masks for Halloween trick-or-treating.

The film reveals that life along the Kobuk River is still inextricably linked to the harsh and starkly beautiful land, where the December sun rises at 11 a.m. and sets three hours later. An old man shares his feelings about the changes he has seen: "Long ago, forest fires put themselves out. Today, even when men fight them, they burn. I think our earth is getting old, and when things get old and dry they burn. Our earth is the same way," he adds. "It's ready to burn. I think it's coming close to the time when we will have a new one."

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

Note on Term "Eskimo":

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

Full Circle

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:53:00 GMT

Full Circle
Buy Now: $295.00

In the summer of 2001, under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, a totem pole in the Peabody Museum at Harvard University was returned to its original owners' ancestors, a Tlingit community in Southeast Alaska. The journey of the pole began a hundred years ago when it was removed by the Harriman Expedition from the deserted village of Gash at Cape Fox. The totem pole makes its way from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Ketchikan, Alaska, where the Cape Fox community holds a ceremony to welcome home artifacts taken by the Expedition.

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

In Iirgu's Time

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:44:00 GMT

In Iirgu's Time
Buy Now: $295.00

Iirgu is an elder from the Siberian Yupik village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. As two grandchildren listen, Iirgu recounts events in Gambell from the time the first missionaries arrived. His story is known as an ungipamsuk or true historical narrative. With ambivalent feelings, he describes more recent changes – how whaling practices have changed, how life has become easier, but also how younger generations are losing touch with the old ways.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

Note on Term "Eskimo":

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

Joe Sun

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Joe Sun
Buy Now: $295.00

Immaluuraq ("Joe Sun" in English) grew up moving among seasonal camps in the Kobuk River region of Alaska now resides in Shungnak. In this film, he describes the life of the earlier Kobuk settlements. He talks about women being isolated from the village when they are menstruating or when they are pregnant. He also talks about the predictions of the legendary Inupiaq prophet, Maniilaq, who was his great uncle.

Maniilaq foretold of things to come that would change the world and the way people lived in it, all of which happened just the way he said it would. Immaluuraq's talk is known as uqaaqtuaq. Such talks were given by elders to young people who came seeking information and advice.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

Note on Term "Eskimo":

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

On the Spring Ice

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 13:51:00 GMT

On the Spring Ice
Buy Now: $320.00

Walrus as well as whales are hunted by the Siberian Yupik of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. As the film opens, an old man tells of the dangers of moving ice, how people used to drift on such ice and never return. A cluster of men stand on a snowy rooftop, scanning the sea ice for walrus, when one spots a skin boat in distress far out on the ice. The crew had not come home the night before, and now were drifting toward Siberia. Long ago, there was nothing that could have been done to save them. Today, the men call the Coast Guard.

The next day, preparations for another walrus hunt are made. The hunters load the boat and travel fifty miles out to sea, where they spot two walrus sunning themselves on an ice floe. "Don't move," one hunter tells the camera. The walrus are shot, admired, butchered on the ice, and loaded onto the boat. Back in the village, the meat is cut and hung to dry.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

Note on Term "Eskimo":

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

The Reindeer Thief

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 08:59:00 GMT

The Reindeer Thief
Buy Now: $275.00

Like many St. Lawrence Island legends, this story is set in Siberia where Chukchi, the Reindeer People, live.

Pelaasi, an elder from Gambell, speaks Siberian Yupik. His mythical story, about a man who goes out in search of a reindeer thief, is an ungipaghaq, a tale that has been passed down unchanged through generations and believed to be based in truth.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:

Note on Term "Eskimo":

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

Smokin' Fish

Tue, 28 Aug 2018 07:46:00 GMT

Smokin' Fish
Buy Now: $320.00

Cory Mann is a quirky Tlingit businessman hustling to make a dollar in Juneau Alaska. He gets hungry for smoked salmon, nostalgic for his childhood, and decides to spend a summer smoking fish at his family's traditional fish camp. The unusual story of his life and the untold history of his people interweave with the process of preparing traditional food as he struggles to pay his bills, keep the IRS off his back, and keep his business afloat.

By turns tragic, bizarre, or just plain ridiculous, Smokin' Fish tells the story of one man's attempts to navigate the messy zone of collision between the modern world and an ancient culture.

“A very approachable film, beautifully shot, with a knockout soundtrack.”
— Kirk Dombrowski, American Anthropologist 2013

“without pretense… thoroughly fresh, funny, wise, and sweet.”
— Alaskan Author Heather Lende

“a relevant, respectful and hip look at the continuing story of Southeast Alaska, as cultures come together, mix and create something entirely new.”
— Richard Radford, Capital City Weekly

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Special Mention, ESPIELLO Film Festival, Spain, 2014

Festival Winner, University of British Columbia Ethnographic Film Festival, Canada, 2014

Judges Best, People's Choice, Flathead Lake International Cinemafest, 2013

Best Doc, Montreal First Peoples Film Fest, 2012

Best Doc, Arizona International Film Fest, 2012

Audience Award, Cowichan International Film Fest, 2012

Visit Alaska to see additional products in this category.

Tununeremiut

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:57:00 GMT

Tununeremiut
Buy Now: $295.00

Four sequences, filmed over a two-month period, portray aspects of the lives of the people of Tununak, a village on the south-western coast of Alaska. In the first, the villagers evacuate their homes and camp on higher ground, fearing that a Nuclear test on Amchitka Island, 1000 miles away, may cause a tidal wave. In a quietly ironic scene, the villagers listen to the countdown on their radios, wondering if this modern blast will bring forth an ancient disaster.

In the second vignette, a group of men travel by snowmobile to place fish traps under the river ice. They become lost in heavy fog, blinded by the glare of the ice, and confused by the complicated turns of the rivers in a landscape where the only landmarks are short, low-lying bushes or old fish traps. In spite of the difficulty of seeing, they discuss their quandary calmly and eventually find their way.

A sudden storm from the Bering sea hits Tununak with gale force winds and heavy snow. Laundry blows wildly in the wind as people prepare for the storm.

The concluding sequence captures communal warmth as people gather in the meeting hall for traditional story-dancing. All participate: men beating drums, and singing, women dancing, adorned with beaded headbands and feathery finger masks. The dancing in Tununak still provides an important outlet for individual expression, at the same time communicating the village's unwritten history.

Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series: