Filmmakers Sarah Elder and Len Kamerling produced these films jointly with village councils. Since 1974, the Alaska Native Heritage Film Project has pioneered a community-based approach to producing cultural films in which the film's subjects play a central role in determining the production's themes and direction. The goal of this approach is to produce documentary films that are closer to the perspectives and priorities of the indigenous and minority people they represent. This technique was developed to ensure authentic Alaskan native material and point of view. Each of the communities represented helped to decide the direction and content of the films.
Films in the Alaska Native Heritage Film series:
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.