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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.

1 to 6 of 6 Objects
[Aleutians travel, Old Town Valdez]
[Aleutians travel, Old Town Valdez]
The original film is unlabeled. The film contains scenes of ocean waves crashing against a rocky shore in the Aleutian Islands – likely Amchitka, a large abandoned building, a man with a sign that says “Amchitka forest,” a sea otter in ocean waves, otters playing in an enclosed pool, military buildings and Quonset huts, a man fishing, grave markers, a barbed wire fence, wrecked military airplanes, a large airplane hangar, a gun turret, a Reeve Aleutian Airways DC-6 airplane landing, aerial views of clouds and a volcano, grebes in water, a man with a string of fish, John Baker with a string of fish, a road sign for New Valdez and Old Valdez, homes and buildings in Old Valdez that were abandoned following the 1964 earthquake, Pioneer Hall, the oldest building, an old cable office, Hotel Valdez, an abandoned vehicle, old oil tanks along the shoreline, the wrecked boat “Gulf King,” Valdez sheet metal works, a Gilson’s sign, a church, a boy with a bicycle, and pickup truck driving out of town.
[Fur Rendezvous, polar bear, Kotzebue, Nome, Unalakleet, kayak races]
[Fur Rendezvous, polar bear, Kotzebue, Nome, Unalakleet, kayak races]
Footage features an Alaska Native dance demonstration in front of a crowd on an Anchorage baseball field, a blanket toss, and dog mushers racing across a flat area; polar bears on ice in Northern Alaska; the Kotzebue waterfront, fish drying on racks, children, the post office, the trading post, the Wien Arctic Hotel, a whalebone, and Alaska Native women and a man with closeup views of their faces; Native dancing in Nome with King Island Chief Aulaġana (John Olarana or Olaranna) and others, a blanket toss, and fish drying on racks; the Unalakleet waterfront with kayaks and an airplane on floats, kayak races, and a demonstration of a kayak roll by a man wearing a gutskin parka. The film is made from three shorter reels of film spliced together. The original boxes are labeled as follows: 1) Fur Rendezvous – 100’ $30.00 - #60013. 2) #54 Polar Bear - $15.00. 3) #28 Kotzebue, Unalakleet, Nome, Kayak Races.
[Goodnews Bay Mining Company and Platinum area scenes 3]
[Goodnews Bay Mining Company and Platinum area scenes 3]
AAF-16392 is a super-8mm film labeled “Bird Island – Clean up at Plt Creek.” The film begins with daytime scenes of small motor boats traveling over open water. A whale surfaces a few times in front of the boats followed by scenes of a rookery. The sun sets behind a rock outcropping as birds fly by. A bulldozer moves mud and snow from a roadway or ditch. A man fishes for salmon from a motor boat, then two men show off their catch. This is followed by scenes of draglines and a large sluicebox and men working and cleaning the sluicebox with shovels.
St. Paul: Father Michael Lestenkof and Gabe Stepetin interview
St. Paul: Father Michael Lestenkof and Gabe Stepetin interview
This footage features interviews with Gabe Stepetin, resident of St. Paul Island, and Father Michael Lestenkof, a priest on St. Paul Island.
St. Paul: Ted Stevens interview
St. Paul: Ted Stevens interview
This footage features an interview with U.S. Senator Ted Stevens. Scenes also feature a painting.
[Walrus hunt, Kotzebue, Nome, Unalakleet, kayak races, wildlife]
[Walrus hunt, Kotzebue, Nome, Unalakleet, kayak races, wildlife]
This film contains footage of a waterfront in a northern Alaska coastal village, many people in a motor-powered umiak, a camp on a rocky beach, Alaska Native children playing in a tent, men throwing a rope into the water to retrieve a log, men on the edge of sea ice getting into an umiak, open water and sea ice, homes at the edge of the steep rocky island of Little Diomede, people unloading supplies from an umiak onto the shore on Little Diomede, and then some footage is repeated. The footage also features foxes playing in brush; the Kotzebue waterfront, fish drying on racks, children, the post office, the trading post, the Wien Arctic Hotel, a whalebone, and Alaska Native women and a man with closeup views of their faces; a Native dancing in Nome with King Island Chief Aulaġana (John Olarana or Olaranna) and others, a blanket toss, and fish drying on racks; the Unalakleet waterfront with kayaks and an airplane on floats, kayak races, and a demonstration of a kayak roll by a man wearing a gutskin parka; arctic ground squirrels or parka squirrels, a man feeding squirrels, a pika, a marmot, and seals on a beach and in water. Persons and locations identified in 2015 by a person who once lived in the Nome area include: Belmont Point, Snake River, Bering Sea Hotel, Sam Mogg, Charlie Dickson (?), Olaf Piscoya and persons from the Ozenna family, Big and Little Diomede Islands, and Aloysius Pikonganna. This film is made from five shorter reels of film spliced together. The original boxes and cans are labeled as follows: 1) Walrus Hunt - $131.25 [on leader = Color Reproduction Company – Hollywood, California]. 2) Walrus Hunt Reel 1 - $73.00. 3) Reel #19 Foxes – 220’ @ .29 $63.80. 4) XXVIII – 400’ – Kotzebue: tents, homes, post office, trading post, Wien Arctic Hotel, old Eskimo woman in sun on beach, older Eskimo woman and son – Nome: informal Eskimo dance with King Alarna, blanket toss – Unalakleet : 4th of July kayak races, rolling kayak over to upside down then to right side up. 5) #67 Parka Squirrels – Alaskan Parka – 100’ $30.00.