The Abundant North: Alaska Native Films of Influence

The IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA) is please to collaborate with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) in the presentation of films that reflect both home-grown cinematic influences in Alaskan film and works generated by UAF students and alumni. This series was curated by Maya Salganek, Associate Professor, Film and Performing Arts, Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

UAF hosts the first film production degree program in Alaska with an emphasis on creative, narrative, and documentary production. Projects co-produced at UAF have been screened at Sundance Film Festival, ImagiNative Film and Media Festival, and broadcast nationally on PBS. The program aims to promote work that reflects people, stories, places, and unique viewpoints specific to our community. Alaskan film is infused with the voices of history and cultural knowledge, and embedded in the geographic wonder of the abundant North. Alaska Film and Performing Arts students are encouraged to make films that are self-reflective of their communities and Alaska, including the diversity of language, cultural complexities, strong traditions of Northern peoples, and the wealth of the Alaskan landscape and those that choose to live within it. The UAF Film and Performing Arts program has continued to develop partnerships which serve to bridge the needs of today’s Alaskan Native students and those studying in Alaska with the future of digital storytelling. These films help to define the Alaskan cinematic language.