KIAC 10 short films commissioned by the Klondike Institute of art and culture on the 10th anniversary of the Dawson City International Short Film Festival.

The festival acknowledges the symbolic relationship of its health and the robustness of the regional artists it supports. 10 Yukon film artists were each given a word to start and end their film on. They were then linked in "exquisite cadaver" fashion into a single unified piece. 10NORTH.

The participating filmmakers are: Dennis Allen, Marten Berkman, Andrew Connors, Duane Gastant Aucoin, Daniel Janke, Lulu Keating, Celia McBride, Troy Suzuki, Veronica Verkley and Werner Walcher.

Produced by Dan Sokolowski with assistance from David Curtis and Evelyn Polock.

Martin Berkman Adreline Bach is a visually stunning short film that features Tim Sellars, a triathlon athlete who trains among the forests, ridges and mists of Canada's boreal mountains. A meditation on the inter-connectedness of human nature and the natural world, the film is shot against the startingly beautiful landscape of the Yukon Territory. Director Marten Berkman won the 2006 Yukon Northern Sights Film Competition, which enabled him to make this film with the National Film Board.

Various Directors It's the first Alaska Robotics collection!! This disc features fifteen short films, commentary tracks and several hidden goodies. 

Featured Shorts:
• Socks
• Town vs Valley
• Nyac
• flexBot
• Chuck Keen
• Natural Selection
• Safety Ladder
• A Reason to Get Out
• Lamprey
• Snarfl'xxing with Humons
• "Gage's Rage
• Catfish Man - Editor's Cut
• A House Fit for a King
• Shocking Monster
• The Green Room

Daniel Janke On a cold mid-winter morning in the Yukon, our hero wakes to find that he is late for his community choir's performance of Handel's Messiah. This short, physical comedy follows Brian as he tries to get to church on time. A radio phone-in show about a recent meteorite sighting provides a bizarre subtext to his quest.

Andrew Connors A miner's hat, 8mm film reels, decades old snapshots of a woman no one can identify... A man from the city awakens the ghosts of his grandfather's youth when he travels to Keno City, a mining ghost town in the Yukon mountains, on a quest for answers to his grandfather's fate.

Lulu Keating Chinese Instructions often say more about the culture than they do about the product.   The Hand-Pressing Flashlight is a practical flashlight that requires no batteries.
In Brain Clever, instructions come to life.  The film creates a land of extremes, in which Industrial Man travels from winter to meet Environment Woman in the glory of summer.  The two opposites collide in a perfect union, brought together by the innocent Hand-Pressing Flashlight.

Martin Berkman In the arctic, some adventures make the spirit dance. Marten Berkman leaves the city for an adventure down a remote arctic river, to perpetual light and the spectacle of arctic life. In the mountains and whitewater, his friend and guide Rob reflects on the meaning of the wild, while Marten ponders the price being paid for our industrialized lives. He discovers how awareness, not crisis, must define our relationship with the rest of the natural world. In the space, silence and light, the geography of the Arctic uncovers a choreography of the soul, and provides Marten with insight of an unexpected kind.

Dennis Allen To its far-flung listeners across the Mackenzie Delta, CBQM is more than a simple radio station. It's a dependable pal, a beacon in the storm of life and a resilient expression of identity and pride. Whether it's reporting wolf sightings or broadcasting bingo games, airing debates on uranium mining or dedicating a hurtin' country tune to some heart-broken local, citizen-run CBQM has been serving the Teetl'it Gwich'in community of Fort McPherson from almost three decades. Dennis Allen tips his hat to the "Moccassin Telegraph" with CBQM — celebrating the vital role of storyteling and music within his culture, while crafting a detailed and generous portrait of life in a northern town.

Clara McBride When distance brings you closer... After suffering a nervous breakdown in her adopted city of Paris, Cleo receives a visit from her sister Celine.

Dan Sokolowski A day at the Arctic Circle.

Lulu Keating
Why did you move to Dawson City Yukon, wherever the hell that is?

Length: 6:10
Copyright Red Snapper Films Limited, 2007

A film by Lulu Keating
Box 825, Dawson City Yukon
Y0B 2Y4
867-993-4467
lulu@redsnapperfilms.ca

Named one of the top 25 young independent filmmakers in North America by New York's Filmmaker Magazine (2002-03), and one of the top 10 Canadian Industry Trailblazers by The Reel World Film Festival, Deco Dawson has been achieving international acclaim for his body of short film work for a number of years.

A feature documentary shot south to north across the latitudes of Canada.
Beginning at Pelee Island (42 degrees north) and finishing at the Arctic Circle (66 degrees north), DEGREES NORTH is a journey of discovery, space, and time.
Using light, colour and composition, DEGREES NORTH is an alchemistic blend of live action landscape photography, animation, and music.
Filmed on 10 individual trips covering over 50,000 kilometers.
Initial shoot, August 1997, Badlands, Alberta
Final shoot, December 2011, Dawson City, Yukon
Filmed entirely in 16mm

Lulu Keating (2009)  4 min
Directed with Karen Hines
A girl loves dogs. She wants to be one.
Shot on location in Dawson City and on Manitoulin Island, Canada, DOG=GOD is an experimental, musical, ecstatic ode to dogs and those who both master and worship them.
Filmed on Super-8, Dog=God began as an experiment in creative geography. Then, with the yearning melodies of acclaimed Yukon singer/songwriter Kim Beggs laced in, the haunting feeling snaked itself across five provinces and sewed the seams of this gossamer meditation.
A different take on what might constitute a girl’s best friend…

Wild Soul Creations The International award-winning film by Becky Bristow, Dog Gone Addiction, has been has been shown at film festivals across North America and Europe and has won numerous awards and accolades including Best Adventure Film, Explorers Club film festival, New York; Best Adventure Sports Film, Taos Mountain Film Festival, New Mexico; Special Jury Award, Whistler Film Festival, British Columbia.

Dog Gone Addiction follows three women, Michelle Phillips, a young Canadian mother; Agata Franczak, a 48-year-old Polish adventurer; and Kelley Griffin, an Alaskan mushing veteran, as they test their limits driving their dog teams through record cold temperatures. Amid mental exhaustion in the 1,000 mile Yukon Quest sled dog race, which runs from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory to Fairbanks Alaska, the film shows the women’s struggles to overcome -60 degree Celsius temperatures, exhaustion, sick dogs, icy mountain passes, and the remote wilderness of the Yukon and Alaska to achieve their goals of not simply finishing, but competitively racing the toughest sled dog race on earth. Included in the DVD are 55 minutes of extra features, commentary from racing legend and four-time Yukon Quest Champion Hans Gatt, and captivating footage showing all the characters which make up the Yukon Quest race.
“I have no doubt that if people want to feel the real power of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race they will be enthralled with this film.” – Aliy Zirkle, Yukon Quest

Dugout: Feature Documentary 80min


Team Members: Allan Code, Robyn Armour


19 young people, on an island cut off from the grid; must transform a huge cedar log into a graceful Tlingit sea-going dugout canoe; of an ancient design; with ancient methods: adzes, rocks and steam. In the process they will build a model community, unite the support of a larger community; and ultimately transform themselves.

DVDs for personal use may be obtained through NCES. Institutional Distribution via McNabb-Connolly; Broadcast of this full-HD feature film may be arranged through Nah Ho Productions Inc

Adam Green, Bill Kendrick An encounter with a U.F.O begins one man's journey to become accepted as Elvis Aaron Presley — the man he has become. Set in Canada's majestic Yukon Territory, we follow the King, his band The Armageddon Angels, and a rag-tag crew on a tour of some colourful Yukon communities. Along the way, Elvis tells us about his battles with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Hustler Magazine.

Heidi Slat A mother reveals the journey she has had in having a son with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. She discusses the judgement she faces from society despite the lack of knowledge there was about the effects of alcohol on the fetus at the time. Through resilience and determination, she and her son learn how to live with FASD in strength, understanding and love.

BC Film, CTV Western Development Office A joint initiative between British Columbia Film and CTV's Western Development Office, the First Shots Training Program was designed to provide opportunities to emerging writers and directors, giving them their "first shot" working on a network television prime-time series.

Allan Code For 50 years, Father Jean-Marie Mouchet, a catholic priest and resistance fighter, has diverted youths in Canada's Northern communities from devestating lethargy and addiction. The rigors of his cross-country skiing program have produced Olympic champion skiers from the Vuntut Gwitchin people in Old Crow. He feels that a young persons early physical training and development is closely linked to the growth of a healthy self-image and identity. And rather than impose his religious beliefs on the people he inspires them to reconnect with the latent power of their own bodies through physical exercise and awareness of their capabiities. Having given up their nomadic way of life in a remote corner of the Yukon, and with the decline of hunting and gathering societies, Father Mouchet has offered people a tool by which to re-instate their self worth and confidence.

Santa Lucia (Running time 6:10), Spring Ahead (1:32), The Lottery Ticket (6:58), Mating Habits of the Northern Homo Sapien (8:44), Me, Music (18:30)

Elaine Alexie The Flowing Generations is the story of five First Nations youth and their experiences as they are taken back to the ancestral land of their people. On a 13-day river trip in the Peel watershed, northern Yukon, they are introduced by their elders to this far land close to their culture. These are the Tetlit Gwich'in and their neighbours, the Nacho Nyak Dun, in the land holding their cultural roots. As their modern journey uses rafts and canoes to navigate the obstacles their ancestors surmounted in moose skin boats, the youth contemplate their current society with the old. As the journey unfolds, their stuggles within a modern lifestyle point to the necessity of cultural identity... what do they find in their ancestral lands?

Films by Lulu Keating One of Canada's most prolific and dynamic filmmakers serves up a potpourri of short films made between 1980 and 2005. Her personal narratives are creative yet accessible, filled with insight and humour and employing a variety of technigues including animation, hand processing and optical printing. She is an instructor as well as a filmmaker. In an Extras section, the Director shares what she learned when making each film with comments that are informative, encouraging and inspiring.

White Hole Productions in association with Low Life Films Early one morning. Robin (Kestrel Martin) witnesses a meteorites explode in the sky above her home. After she finds a fragment and brings it to school, Robin begins to fall ill with a strange sickness that will change her life forever.

Prevention of Violence Against Women in Yukon

Cathleen Smith Here Are the News is a documentary celebrating the accomplishments of Yukon journalist Miss Edith Josie. Edith Josie is a member of the Gwich'in group of Athabaska Indians who range from Fort McPherson, NWT, Dawson City and Old Crow, Yukon, to Eagle, Alaska. Miss Josie has captured the hearts and imagination of people around the globe with her unique approach to writing. She became the correspondent for the Whitehorse Star in 1953, a job she held for almost 50 years. Here Are the News was syndicated in the Edmonton Journal, the Fairbanks News Miner, and the Indian News of Vancouver. Her work as a reporter for Old Crow brought her worldwide renown when LIFE magazine did a feature on her. Over the years she has put the small town of Old Crow on the map, by appearing numerous times on Peter Gzowski's popular CBC radio show and televison programs such as Front Page Challenge.

Daniel Janke

Daniel Janke In the village of Carcross, in the Tagish First Nation, Grandma Kay invites the local children into her kitchen and tells them the traditional tale of how Crow brought fire to people. As the story unfolds in this animated short, we also meet 12-year-old Tish, an introspective, talented girl who feels drawn to the elder’s kitchen. Here, past and present blend, myth and reality meet, and the metaphor of fire infuses all in a location that lies at the heart of this Native community’s spiritual and cultural memory.

Dennis Allen The two-part The Hunt and the Walk explores traditions reclaimed and traditions preserved in the face of increasing change, while simultaneously uncovering the filmmaker's relationship to his history. Told from the unique and sometimes innocent perspective of filmmaker Dennis Allen, each documentary provides a compelling and rare look at a northern Native culture through the eyes of one who is at once connected to it and distant from it.

Tracy Kassi and Mary Jane Moses The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation live in the northern part of the Yukon territory, around the town of Old Crow; their traditional lands extend into the extreme northwest of the NWT, and into northeast Alaska. Using camcorders and computers, they are interviewing community elders and going out on the land in an attempt to keep their cultural heritage alive. Incorporating archival footage, as well as interviews with elders and other modern footage, Imprints of our Ancestors is part of an ongoing project of the Vuntut Gwitchin to document and preserve their history.

Built in Whitehorse in 1922. the Keno was taken out of service in 1951, when trucks began carrying ore on the newly built Whitehorse-Mayo road. She sat in the shipyards in Whitehorse until 1960, when the White Pass company donated her to the Canadian government. That year she made her final voyage to her resting place in Dawson City.
By 1960 a bridge had been built across the Yukon River at Carmacks. The Keno was too high to sail under the bridge. So the pilot house was taken off and the smoke stack was laid on the Texas deck. Even with these modifications, the Keno cleared the Carmacks bridge by just 18 inches. The Captain on that trip was Frank Blakely, a BC riverboat man, making his first trip on the Yukon River. Frank Slim was the pilot and Henry Breaden was the first mate. Terry Delaney and Ed Kerry of CBC Whitehorse were along to cover highlights of the journey.

Jessica Hall The art, philosophy, and religion of black magic practitioner James C. Kirby is explored while he creates a unique piece of jewelry using the ancient art of Lost Wax casting.

Discovery of ancient human artifacts, the oldest in Canada, links aboriginal past and present; the "Little John" site near Beaver Creek Yukon and the people of the White River First Nation.
Aboriginal past and present come together when the 10-year-old grandson of an aboriginal man named “Little John” hits 14,000-year-old paydirt. Such a thing could only happen because of a close relationship that has developed since 1992 between the aboriginal community and a devoted archaeologist-anthropologist. This relationship literally unearthed the oldest human artifact in Canadian history, and continues to bring benefits to both science and the aboriginal culture –- and to the individuals involved.
In “Little John Country” we learn about the man known as Little John, aka “White River Johnny,” his son David Johnny of the White River First Nation, David's son Eldred, who discovered the artifact, and anthropologist-archaeologist Norman Alexander Easton of Yukon College, along with other family and community members and student fieldworkers.
We are also introduced to the archaeological site given Little John's name in his honour. The site is used today just like it has been for many thousands of years as a place to fish, hunt and collect other bounty of the land. Only now there is a scientific harvest too.

Troy Suzuki Live From Moccasin Square Gardens: The Dawson City Nuggets' Hockey Adventure (Video): In 1997 an old-timer hockey team from Dawson City, Yukon traveled over 6000 km by dog sled, snow machine, boat and train to challenge the Ottawa Senators Alumni to a game of hockey in a recreation of the classic 1905 challenge. Live From Moccasin Square Gardens is not so much about hockey as it is a portrait of the boys, their town and territory and the wonderful generosity of spirit they bring to a journey of a lifetime.

Terry Woolf

Dogrib Birch Bark Canoe
28 minutes
&
Sila Alangotok:
The Weather is Changing -
Inuit Observations on Climate Change
42 minutes

Daniel Janke Fortune: n. luck, good or bad, that befalls a person or enterprise. Fortune came to Reuben that day.

Lulu Keating A documentary like no other, The Moody Brood explodes the myth of the idealized, normal family – a popular and pervasive post-WWII notion. The film examines issues universal to all families: the effects of community and religion, the influence of siblings, and the moral standards imposed by parents.

Tracy Kova;ench Naha Dehé is a Slavey word the Dene people use to describe the South Nahanni area of the Deh Cho region in Xanada's Northwest Territories. It is an all-encompassing word that can be translated as the land, the water, the animals, the people.

1988
Producer: Barb Bardie
Copyright 2007

Northern Native Broadcasting Yukon
(867) 668-6629

Max Fraser Terror in the sky wreaks havoc on the ground on 9/11 as a "hijacked" 747 is diverted to Whitehorse with armed fighter jets on its tail.

Gary Burns Gold falls from the sky in this Yukon-based comedy series... A meteorite crashes to earth near a small town in northern Canada. Brian decides to go searching for it. He gets some questionable help from Ivison and is distracted by Mona, the local wildlife officer. However, Brian's biggest challenge comes in the guise of two American visitors who are also interested in the mysterious object seen in the heavens. They have their own distractions to contend with.

Edward Westerhuis

The land that has sustained the Vuntut Gwitchin, People of the Lakes, in the Far North of Yukon Canada is undergoing rapid changes from global warming. This video takes you on a journey from nearly 20 years ago to the present with a community whose survival is at risk.

Max Fraser
PAINTING RED SQUARE
1. Painting Red Square (the documentary short) - 5:10
2. The Bit About Rick Mercer - 1:23
3. The Thing in the Middle - 0:41
4. About the Real Red Square - 1:21
5. The Muslim World, Spirituality and the Colour of Red
- 2:18
6. Labour Leaders and Yukon Premiers - 1:21
7. "It doesn't take much to paint a square" - 5:09
8. Celebration of the World Premiere at Bombay Peggy's - 2:55

Copyright 2009 Max Fraser Video Productions

Carol Geddes At the age of 16, George Johnston left the Yukon community of Teslin and trekked hundreds of miles overland to coastal Alaska in search of the history of his people. Johnston met with elders, learning as much as he could about the Tlingit religion and the songs and dances of his people. A few years later, Johnston did something else that was quite extraordinary: after ordering a camera from a mail-order catalogue, he taught himself to use it and to develop and print his own photographs.
The images he recorded—of special moments and everyday occasions—became a beacon to the young and a testament to the golden times of the Tlingit people. Johnston's photos lovingly portray a sense of history and a zest for life. His work as a photographer in the period from 1920 to 1945 has long been recognized in the Native community, predating a generation of Indian and Inuit photographers. Today, as his photographs gain international recognition, the National Film Board of Canada has released a documentary directed by Carol Geddes, a clan relative of Johnston's.
Picturing a People: George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer is a unique portrait of a man who was himself a creator of portraits and a keeper of his culture. Johnston cared deeply about the traditions of the Tlingit people, and he recorded a critical period in the history of the Tlingit nation. As Geddes says, his legacy was "to help us dream the future as much as to remember the past."

Carol Geddes George Johnston was a hunter, trapper, entrepreneur and photographer. This man, whose Tlingit name was Kaash KlaÕ, documented his family at work and play, and the Yukon community of Teslin, where he lived.
Johnston's photos lovingly portray a sense of history and a zest for life. His work as a photographer in the period from 1920-45, when few Indian people spoke English, has long been recognized in the Native community. Johnston's work predates a generation of Indian and Inuit photographers. Today Teslin has a museum in his name, the Yukon archives are custodians of his work, and his Tlingit relative, Carol Geddes, is directing a documentary film about his life and work.
Combining archival photography, dramatic reenactment and the pictorial work of Johnston himself, the film not only examines Johnston's vision but also documents life in the Yukon in the inter-warperiod. Johnston's passion for traditional Tlingit culture, his sensitivity and artistic sense of the beauty of the North are captured in the grain of each black and white photograph he took. We see him hunting, and visit his cabin darkroom while the voices of his contemporaries tell the story of this historically important Tlingit man.
Today Johnston's work is at last receiving the recognition it deserves. His photos were included in Visions (1985), a review of Indian and Inuit photography, and also as part of the De Mémoire exhibition during Montréal's Le Mois de la Photo 1991. His works are also part of the 1994 From Icebergs to Iced Tea exhibition, currently slated for installation in Ottawa.
The film PICTURING A PEOPLE : George Johnston, Tlingit Photographer is an engaging portrait of an extraordinary man and the evocative photos he took documenting a fascinating part of Canadian history.

YFS Malkom the Birder Boy, Random Acts of Silence, Lost Cabin

Moira Sauer Struggling through a long, dark Yukon winter with only her sled dogs for company, a lonely heroine, hungry for companionship, finds a unique way to fulfill her needs.

Daniel Janke The Yukon River has evolved from a point of relatively high population density in the early 1900s, when river travel was the norm and the banks were lined with countless cabins, small villages, and wood camps, to the present day when the only travelers one encounters are a few adventure seekers. The riverboats and those who once lived along the shores have long disappeared, leaving villages abandoned and land reclaimed by nature.

Werner Walcher It's nearly midnight on the Yukon River. The night echoes with the sound of eight paddles, pulling through the water in unison. It's been a long day, and the paddlers are sore, tired, and drenched from storms. Still, they push on.
This is the Yukon River Quest, the world's longest annual canoe and kayak race. From around the world, athletes come to test their endurance, racing day and night along 740 kilometres of rugged river shoreline.
River of Life chronicles the experiences of one group of racers, the determined women who make up the 2006 Paddlers Abreast team. Candid and revealing, this beautifully-realized documentary follows the women from the moment they climb into their boat in Whitehorse to the cheers that greet them in Dawson City. Set against the stunning backdrop of Canada's north, this film combines lively footage of the race with touching and humorous interviews with the women, their families, and other paddlers.
Some members of Paddlers Abreast have been in remission for years, one was diagnosed as recently as the year before. Their diverse stories unfold in intimate conversation as they reveal their indomitable will to live and the reasons for pushing themselves to new limits by paddling competitively.
Stroke by stroke, they forge on; everyone moving fluidly, part of the river and its surroundings. As the documentary follows the arduous physical and emotional journey of the team made up of breast cancer survivors in its struggle towards the finish, what emerges most clearly is the incredible strength and spirit resonating from the boat. River of Life is an exhilarating story of a group of women who have faced death and understand how precious life is. By taking on the Yukon River Quest, they illustrate what it means to be fully alive.

Andy Crowther Join Yukoner Robert Bellon as he builds and sails a historic log raft down the Teslin andn Yukon Rivers. A crew of 10 people from around the world assist Robert in his dream to make it all the way to Dawson City, land of the Klondike Gold Rush. With only paddles and pushpoles with which to steer the raft, the crew encounters many obstacles and natural wonders in the Yukon wilderness.

Andrew Connors These are the neighbourhoods where thosands of people once lived in Whitehorse waterfront. the Shipyards is the last of the riverside 'squatter' communities and it symbolizes the way of the 'Old Yukon." A crossroads for the First Nations people dividing the seasons between life in town and life on the land, the new-comers who also contributed significantly to the development of the Yukon. Trappers, nurses, miners, civil servants, home0makers, ship-crewman, railway workers and highway contsruction workers lived in these makeshift commumnities for much of the 20th century. It's a place where people could be themselves, where their dwellings suited their simple needs, and where people looked out for each other. Shipyards Lament documents the forced eviction of the residents of this frontier community. Living history that was bulldozed in the late 1990's to make way for urban visions. The film centres on photographer, John Hatch and his struggle to re-locate from the cabin and neighbourhood he called home for 30 years. Through John, this documentary takes us into the homes and the hearts of a vanishing community.

Andy Crowther

Richard Lawrence Life, love madness, death. Nothing is black and white... Tormented by a recurring nightmare, Otto turns to home movies as a form of therapy. Ada, his wheelchair-bound wife, inspires and disturbs his reminiscences as he wrestles with his infirm equipment. When image, dream and reality merge, Otto and Ada confront the pivotal point in their lives.

Dan Sokolowski 17 short films by Dan Sokolowski. Sok Cinema has been producing a blend of animation, experimental and documentary films since 1983.

Allan Code This documentary looks at the nature of trauma, disability and competition. The film focuses on Michael, an amputee, orthopedic surgeon and solo kayaker from the UK, as he competes in the world’s longest paddle race: The Yukon River Quest. The paddlers race a mighty river that is mostly wilderness: 740 km from Whitehorse to Dawson City. As Michael reveals his story, and the front-running canoe teams from Northern Saskatchewan (Team Dene) and Texas duel in a competition of cultures and wills, we’re drawn into the personal challenge solo paddlers create for themselves. These people are not racing other people, they’re in a conflict with themselves.

Arlin McFarlane Set in the Yukon, CArlinanada, Tending Toward Slience weaves a story of three different moments: time in the hospital, a summer spent collecting rocks, and another reality both mysterious and sustaining. The film bridges the world between life and death and suggests that our last journey has possibilities that we may not have considered.

Marten Berkman How does one celebrate and protect an immense area of mountain rivers and boreal wilderness that is unknown to most Canadians? That was the challenge taken on by the ambitious Three Rivers Journey project in the summer of 2003. Organized by the Yukon Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), the project invited eleven nationally prominent artists, writers, journalists and photographers to join 26 people from the Yukon and the Northwest Territories in three separate, simultaneous journeys along the Snake, the Wind, and the Bonnet Plume Rivers. These rivers all flow through the Peel River basin in the stunning Selwyn Mountains along the Yukon's eastern border. Artists spent 18 days paddling down the three rivers to explore the power of this pristine landscape and its cultural significance.

Doug Cote

Fresh From the Yukon

Marten Berkman