1. Browse Repository
  2. Alaska Film Archives

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 3 of 3 Objects
[Waymon Vest collection films 1]
[Waymon Vest collection films 1]
This film was identified by the filmmaker as North Sea and Denmark, circa 1967-1969. The full 25-minute reel was made from eight smaller reels labeled by the filmmaker as follows: 1968 helicopter, North Sea, Denmark; air jump and pick up by chopper; air show, Esbjerg Denmark 1969, hovercraft glider; Denmark Germany ferry; Zapata jackup North Sea 1968; Denmark [illegible]; Denmark King’s summer house; hovercraft, Peder Iversen Denmark, Hanna and Peder. The film features scenes of an oil platform in the North Sea, people boarding a large helicopter and taking off from a platform, supply boats in rough seas, oil workers on a platform, parachutists jumping to water from an airplane and being retrieved by a helicopter (as part of a Danish military exercise, according to filmmaker), aircrafts flying in formation, a hovercraft demonstration, people shoveling snow, a ferry, aerial views of farmland and an oil platform from a helicopter, family scenes, an aerobatic airplane, a balloon, and travel and site-seeing scenes in the Denmark area.
[Waymon Vest collection films 2]
[Waymon Vest collection films 2]
This reel is made from four smaller reels labeled by the filmmaker as follows: bull riding, steer wrestling, kid bull riding, horse races, Calgary; Calgary Stampede parade; bull riding, chuck wagon race, Calgary Stampede; bronc riding, calf roping, horse races, Calgary Canada 1968. The film features footage from the Calgary Stampede rodeo, an exhibition and festival in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
[Waymon Vest collection films 4]
[Waymon Vest collection films 4]
AAF-13898 is from a film identified by the filmmaker as dog mushing in Anchorage on Cordova Street with mushers George Attla and Roland “Doc” Lombard, circa 1969-1971. The full 16-minute reel was made from five smaller reels labeled by the filmmaker as follows: no label; "dog races Lombard and Attla;" "porky camp robber;" "dog races;" and "fur [illegible]." The films contain scenes of crowds watching sled dog races in downtown Anchorage, a cat train, aerial mountain views, a porcupine, a man hiking with a large pack, men at a cabin feeding a Gray Jay or “camp robber,” sled dog teams in Anchorage navigating a corner, and mushers and sled dog teams at the start line.