University of Alaska Museum of the North Film Collection Preservation

FAIN: PG-51971-13

University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK 99775-7500)
Leonard Kamerling (Project Director: May 2012 to December 2014)

Hiring a consultant to conduct a preservation assessment of the ethnological audiovisual collection in the university's Alaska Center for Documentary Film. This collection contains original ethnographic and oral history materials (200,000 feet of unedited film in multiple formats and 26o video cassettes) that document the history and culture of Native Alaskans from 1970 to 2010. The titles include: "Tununerimut," "Atka: An Alaskan Village," "From the First People," "In Lirgu's Time," "Joe Sun," "Heart of the Country," "The Last Kayak," and "Changa Revisited."

The Alaska Center for Documentary Film of the University of Alaska Museum of the North is seeking funding to perform a professional assessment of its film, video and audio collection. This is a specialized, ethnographic media collection that focuses on Alaska Native culture and Northern issues from 1970 to the present. The collection represents a visual and aural record of Alaska Native culture and knowledge during a period of rapid cultural transformation and social change. Use of the collection's film, video and audio materials in museum exhibitions, by humanities scholars, students, Alaska Native committees and schools, speaks to its significance to the humanities. The grant we are seeking would support an assessment by Robert Curtis-Johnson, of Summit Day Media, in Anchorage, Alaska. Mr. Curtis-Johnson is an experienced and highly regarded film preservation / media collection specialist.