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Alaska Film Archives

About the Collection

Over the past half century, the University of Alaska Fairbanks has built the largest collection of archival films in and about Alaska. The collection combines hundreds of donations of film and videos to UAF by individuals, organizations and institutions. Materials range from professional productions to amateur home-movies, made in and about Alaska from the earliest days of filmmaking through today. Since 1993 these materials have been held by the Alaska Film Archives, a unit of Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives in the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library. Films and videos selected for this portal project are a sampling of the thousands available for checkout on DVD through the Rasmuson Library. Unless otherwise noted, items are presented here in their entirety, unedited and uncut. Short, popular clips from the collection can be viewed on our YouTube channel. Read more about the Alaska Film Archives.

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[1974 Festival of Native Arts, Tanacross and Northway dancers, storyteller Poldine Carlo]
[1974 Festival of Native Arts, Tanacross and Northway dancers, storyteller Poldine Carlo]
A group of dancers from Northway and Tanacross demonstrates various Alaska Native dances onstage at the Festival of Native Arts. A man introduces two dancers, Bessie Barnabas and Eva Moffitt of the Salcha people, who are also dancing with the group. The other dancers are introduced (names are difficult to hear), and dancing continues. A man from Nenana introduces Poldine Carlo, who welcomes everyone to Fairbanks and then tells an Athabascan story once told to her by Jennie Huntington of Koyukuk. A woman is interviewed about her techniques for making birch bark baskets. A man is interviewed about his relief wood carvings. Jim Johnson of Tanana is interviewed about a miniature fishwheel and about his hand-built snowshoes and sleds. A man invites the audience to join dancers onstage, and many people dance. The audio on the original videotape cuts out briefly in a couple sections at the end.