A short documentary film about the community of Nikolai, Alaska that was funded in part by a 2010 Alaska Humanities Forum mini-grant won honorable mention at the 10th annual Anchorage International Film Festival.

The film, Portrait of Nikolai, documents the daily life, history and culture of Nikolai, an Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan village located in the Alaska Interior on the south fork of the Kuskokwim River, about 50 air miles east of McGrath. About 90 people live in Nikolai.

Young people in Nikolai created Portrait of Nikolai in summer of 2010 during a film workshop put on by Atheneum School and Media Action. The film includes footage of renovations at the St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, which was originally constructed in 1927, as well as artful environmental shots capturing the natural beauty of the surrounding area and interviews with Nikolai residents, including several of the youths involved in the documentary project.

A radio interview with two of the student filmmakers on the popular KSKA radio program "Hometown, Alaska" is available here.

The film was presented at the December film festival in the Snowdance category of films about Alaska and/or by Alaskans.

Its centerpiece is an interview with Nikolai elder Phillip Esai, Sr., whose charisma is equaled by his wisdom. The student filmmakers were so enamored with Esai that they, along with the Atheneum School and Media Action, put together a proposal to create a longer documentary about his life and perspectives.

Last month, that project received a $7,000 general grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum.

Student filmmaker Joricha Thomas, 19, is already plotting a third documentary. “My future for film making is growing. The experience of filming A Portrait of Nikolai has inspired me to continue to make films, and learn more about documentaries,” said Thomas.

“I would like to do a documentary about King Island, where my family originally came from. It is 40 miles west of Cape Douglas, and is south of Wales, Alaska. I'd like to interview elders who used to live there, before they pass away. I'd like to find out more about the history of the village, the traditions, the culture, the language and how life was then compared to now. I hope this is possible for me, because I think it's nice to find out where your family is originally from, and to find out the history about the place. To me, making a documentary about King Island is important because it was once a home and now is a ghost town.”

Portrait of Nikolai filmmaker Shawn Gover is pictured below.