"Alaska Natives" Trailer | Week Two (October 17 - 23, 2022) | 2022 Vision Maker Film Festival

This week, we want to show and appreciate the lives of Alaska Natives. They manage to thrive in small communities in the far north and continue to uphold practices that have stood the test of time. However, the remote nature of living presents unique challenges.
ALEUT STORY: In the turbulence of war, in a place where survival was just short of miraculous, the Aleuts of Alaska would redefine themselves - and America. From indentured servitude and isolated internment camps, to Congress and the White House, this is the incredible story of the Aleuts’ decades-long struggle for human and civil rights.
FINDING REFUGE: An Alutiiq woman with cancer visits her ancestral homeland on Sitkalidak Island, part of the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska. She confronts the violent event over two centuries ago that began the destruction of her people and the shame that colonialism created.
WE BREATHE AGAIN: Long ago, survival was not easy for Alaska Native peoples, but they lived full lives. Today survival is easier, but many are dying young. We Breathe Again intimately explores the lives of four Alaska Natives who are determined to break free from personal histories of trauma and suicide.
SMOKIN FISH: 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 this 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 attempt to navigate the messy zone of collision between the modern world and an ancient culture.