Film ReviewsLgliqtiqsiuvigruaq: Currents of TimeDec 3, 2014, Anchorage Press
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Oral histories, even when they turn to stories or myths, are based in truths about places or events. "Twenty-seven miles up the Kobuk [from Kiana] you will find Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq. That's an important place for us. Some of us are descendants of that place." says the voice of Thomas Jackson, from the Northwest Alaska village, Kiana. Jackson narrates Brice Habeger's documentary, Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq. According to Habeger the Inupiaq name sounds like marbles in your throat, "So we generally call it 'Swift Water Place'."
The documentary tells the story of the unique relationship between the archeological team led by Dr. Douglas Anderson from Brown University and the Alaska Native people who participate in the discovery of the "Big Village." Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq. As stories told, and the archeological team discovers, was an underground village where Alaska Native people lived just before contact was made with the western world. Anderson, who retired in 2014, began his studies in Northwest Arctic Alaska in 1963. He and Wanni Anderson, an anthropologist, colleague, and his wife, were able to foster a long relationship with the community. As the accounts of discoveries unfold, viewers get a sense for the place, the isolation and the deep rooted history that gives way as the great Kobuk River ebbs, flows, and changes direction-changing conditions along its banks and forcing human beings to always adapt. There are other mysteries that emerge as the site is studied, including one that is triggered when human remains are found and bureaucratic issues must be addressed.
The documentary incorporates historical footage that is incredibly compelling and beautiful. At times this footage is framed as moving tryptich images that flow in and out of the screen, as if showing the ever-present continuation of history through time. This delivery mechanism is very effective in some instances but superfluous in others. The musical score works for the most part but there is a scene or two where it seems forced into a dramatic height.
Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq makes intergenerational connections. As a poignant part of the film shows, Alaska Native culture is strong; it changes but continues. "Did they make it?" a curious boy asks Anderson. "When you go home tonight, you look in the mirror. What you see staring back at you is them," he responds. Viewers will note that Anderson's intimate knowledge of the place and clear respect and admiration for Alaska Native people is reciprocated. And that Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq is as much about being true toSwift Water Place, as it is a "Thank You" to Anderson.
Swift Water Place shows at 1 p.m. on Sat., Dec. 6 at the Loussac Library.
The documentary tells the story of the unique relationship between the archeological team led by Dr. Douglas Anderson from Brown University and the Alaska Native people who participate in the discovery of the "Big Village." Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq. As stories told, and the archeological team discovers, was an underground village where Alaska Native people lived just before contact was made with the western world. Anderson, who retired in 2014, began his studies in Northwest Arctic Alaska in 1963. He and Wanni Anderson, an anthropologist, colleague, and his wife, were able to foster a long relationship with the community. As the accounts of discoveries unfold, viewers get a sense for the place, the isolation and the deep rooted history that gives way as the great Kobuk River ebbs, flows, and changes direction-changing conditions along its banks and forcing human beings to always adapt. There are other mysteries that emerge as the site is studied, including one that is triggered when human remains are found and bureaucratic issues must be addressed.
The documentary incorporates historical footage that is incredibly compelling and beautiful. At times this footage is framed as moving tryptich images that flow in and out of the screen, as if showing the ever-present continuation of history through time. This delivery mechanism is very effective in some instances but superfluous in others. The musical score works for the most part but there is a scene or two where it seems forced into a dramatic height.
Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq makes intergenerational connections. As a poignant part of the film shows, Alaska Native culture is strong; it changes but continues. "Did they make it?" a curious boy asks Anderson. "When you go home tonight, you look in the mirror. What you see staring back at you is them," he responds. Viewers will note that Anderson's intimate knowledge of the place and clear respect and admiration for Alaska Native people is reciprocated. And that Igliqtiqsiu?vigruaq is as much about being true toSwift Water Place, as it is a "Thank You" to Anderson.
Swift Water Place shows at 1 p.m. on Sat., Dec. 6 at the Loussac Library.