KMXT 100.1 FM Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska
Marina Cummiskey/KMXT
Kodiak will get a glimpse of different cultures this Saturday during Media Action’s film festival. The nonprofit organization, based out of Kodiak, travels internationally to put on film workshops for youth and encourages them to speak their minds through film. KMXT’s intern Marina Cummiskey has more.
During the film festival, Media Action will be showcasing the best documentaries from workshops over the past three years. The executive director and co-founder of Media Action, Marie Acemah, spoke on KMXT’s Talk of the Rock Tuesday, and explained the reason for the festival.
“The whole idea is to share the best of Media Action’s work with Kodiak. We are a nonprofit based out of Kodiak, we’ve worked in Kodiak, but we’ve also worked a lot outside of Kodiak.”
The film festival will feature work from villages in interior Alaska, Kodiak, and most recently, Uganda. The students’ films will display the culture and traditions, and even highlight the different issues in their communities.
“These films are not sort of silly home videos, that, are boring. They are the best work of our students, and they are compelling and interesting, and I promise you will be entertained and you’ll also learn something, and get the culture from the different communities that the films are from.”
Media Action’s latest series of workshops took place in Uganda, and Acemah said there were similarities between small villages there and here in Alaska.
“Really, there are some post-colonial issues in both places, where you see indigenous cultures that are really having to adapt to a lot of change, and you see linguistic changes and so a lot of the issues that come up, and a lot of the treasures that are there, are similar.”
Acemah was not the only one who recognized the connection. Workshop participants also see the ties between the villages, and find the topics similar to their own lifestyles.
“One of our members on our board is from Nikolai, and so we know her pretty well from our travels there, and whenever we’d post something from Uganda, she’d say, “Oh my gosh, it’s just like my village."
Saturday’s film festival starts at 7 p.m. in the Gerald C. Wilson Auditorium. Tickets cost $15, and youth 10 and under get in free.
