Shishmaref

From producer Julian Saporiti (aka Smithsonian Folkways artist No-No Boy):
“My short film Shishmaref takes an on-the-ground look at a community in northern Alaska. It was produced in collaboration with the Bering Strait School District, Shishmaref School, and local community members. The village of Shishmaref, also known as Kigiqtaq, is situated on a tiny barrier island on the Chukchi Sea, only a hundred miles east of Russia. This quarter-mile-wide strip of land is home to about 600 Inupiaq Eskimo folks and a handful of mostly white teachers. To be clear, this film in no way speaks for the people of Shishmaref. They have their own artists and storytellers. These are just a few slices of life, some field notes meant to give the viewer a window into a place that means a lot to me and which might not exist by the mid-century.”
Producers: Dennis Davis, Suzzuk Huntington, Bering Strait School District, Shishmaref School, George Guyver, Shaun Milligan, Emilia Halvorsen, and Julian Saporiti