Film Resources from Title VII's "Lunch and a Movie" Series

Title VII screened a series of outstanding films this November in celebration of Alaska Native/American Indian Heritage Month. We were pleased to welcome staff from the ASD Education Center in addition to community members. Thank you to all who supported this initiative, we appreciated your insight and contributions to our discussions! Since the series ended, we've received several inquiries about where to find the films locally. The information is posted below, along with resources that might be of interest to you if you plan on watching any of the films. If you have questions, please contact us by clicking "contact" in the navigation bar above. Remember to screen every film yourself before showing it to students.

• Reel Injun - available from the Z.J. Loussac Public Library, call number DVD 791.43 REEL-IN. To check availability, search the Library Catalog by title. 

Reel Injun takes an entertaining and insightful look at the Hollywood Indian, exploring the portrayal of North American Natives through the history of cinema. Traveling through the heartland of America, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond looks at how the myth of "the Injun" has influenced the world's understanding - and misunderstanding - of Natives.

• Nanook of the North - available from Anchorage Blockbusters in the documentary section. To check availability, search the Blockbuster website.

In this silent-film predecessor to the modern documentary, filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuit Eskimos living in the Arctic Circle.

Nanook is considered the first feature-length documentary, and was one of the first 25 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. However, it is not without its problems. For more context, take a look at William Rothman's discussion in Documentary Film Classics (available on Google Books here) and Laurel Smith's examination of the film's identities in Engaging Film: Geographies of Mobility and Cultural Identity (available here).

• Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny - available from Karen or Doreen. If you ask nicely, they may let you borrow their copy! You can also purchase a copy for yourself from the National Film Board of Canada.

Funny? What's so funny about white people, otherwise known as Qallunaat to the Inuit? Well, among other curious behaviours, Qallunaat ritualistically greet each other with inane salutations, repress natural bodily functions, complain a lot about being cold, and seem to want to dominate the world.

This docucomedy is collaboration between filmmaker Mark Sandiford and Inuit writer and satirist, Zebedee Nungak. Zebedee is CEO and head researcher of the mythical Qallunaat Studies Institute (QSI). According to Nungak, "Qallunaat ought to be the object of some kind of study by other cultures. The more I thought about the way they have studied us over the years it occured to me, why don't we study them?"

• Villagers in the City - available from UAA's Native Student Services and (hopefully) soon from Title VII! 

Four Students, One City, Many Buses, One University, and One Camera. Isaiah Woods grew up in Unalakleet, Alaska and began film making while he was still in middle school. "Villagers in the City" is an insightful and sometimes humorous look at four UAA students from Unalakleet as they transition to life at UAA and navigate in an urban environment.