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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 4 of 4 Objects
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 1]
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 1]
AAF-11473 consists of 3 reels of 8mm film that have been combined onto one reel. Reel 1 is labeled “March 6, 1961” and contains footage of people sunbathing (the film has a mag stripe soundtrack that was badly deteriorated, so no audio was captured during digitization). Reel 2 is labeled “Hotel Fire” and contains footage of a burning building with firefighters responding (the film is badly deteriorated). Reel 3 is labeled”Chena Ice Classic etc.” and contains detailed scenes of the construction of the Cushman Street Bridge over the Chena River in Fairbanks in 1959.
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 2]
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 2]
This film consists of 3 reels of 8mm film that have been combined onto one reel. Reel 1 is labeled “2-0084” and contains footage of a parade in front of Pinska’s in Fairbanks, the University of Alaska power plant and campus in Fairbanks, and a Wien hangar and airport tower. Reel 2 is unlabeled and contains aerial footage of Anchorage-area damage and the movement of earth following the 1964 earthquake (footage is shaky due to camera movement and deterioration of the emulsion on the film). Reel 3 is labeled “Shrine Circus” and contains footage of a circus.
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 3]
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 3]
This film consists of two reels of 8mm film that have been combined onto one reel. Reel 1 is labeled “Lavery Fire” and contains a slip of paper inside the canister labeled “Lavery fire day & night.” This reel contains scenes of the 1959 Lavery Building fire at night and daytime scenes of downtown Fairbanks near Cushman Street and Second Avenue where the building once stood. Reel 2 is labeled “Aniak & Winter Carnival Parade,” and it contains aerial views of the Alaska landscape, scenes of an unidentified parade, cars racing around a dirt track, and sled dog races.
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 7]
[Vince and Evelyn Guzzardi collection 7]
This film consists of one reel of 8mm film labeled “Winter Carnival” on the outside of the film can and “#1 Cleary Hill” on a piece of tape applied to the reel itself. This film contains footage of mining operations, sled dogs and people dog sledding, scenery in Alaska in winter at sunrise/sunset, fireworks at night; an airplane in the snow; a caribou; people gathering at an outdoor location in winter (possibly a winter carnival), a parade taking place in the, and more dog sledding.