day in our bay press kit

DAY IN OUR BAY Voices & Views From Bristol Bay

A project of Bristol Bay Native Corporation

Background Information Contest broadens dialogue on issues facing Bristol Bay region Resulting video showcases views, values of Bristol Bay shareholders

In late September, Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC) gave away video cameras to its shareholders as part of “Day in Our Bay,” a community video event that has given Bristol Bay residents an innovative way to share their views with the world.

The project encouraged shareholders to document their lives and feelings about their land on a single day: October 15. “We wanted to do something special for our 40th anniversary, and this project provided a unique opportunity for Alaskans who live in the Bristol Bay region to share their voices and values with the world,” said BBNC President and CEO Jason Metrokin. “We are a region that is facing the potential of monumental change, so it’s never been more important for Alaskans and people worldwide to get a better understanding of who we are.”

Professional videographers traveled to 12 Bristol Bay communities, and taught video workshops to participants prior to the October 15 event. Entries were judged on multiple levels, and looked for originality, sincerity, content and creativity. Along the way, the video mentors filmed interviews and documented the process.

The final video was crafted from more than 70 hours of footage captured by 62 shareholders and 11 video mentors from 14 different villages across the Bristol Bay region. It premiered at the Anchorage International Film Festival to a sold-out crowd on December 2, 2011. In attendance were the project’s five grand prize winners, who were flown in to attend the film’s debut screening.

The “Day in Our Bay” project was produced by BBNC, with project coordination and development support from the Bristol Creative Services division of Bristol Industries, LLC.

For more information, visit www.dayinourbay.org.

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http://dayinourbay.org/

DAY IN OUR BAY: VOICES & VIEWS from Bristol Bay


Alaska’s Bristol Bay is a place of great beauty, vibrant people and valuable resources –cultural, social and economic. Like many aboriginal groups around the world, our shareholders – Eskimo, Aleut and Athabascan –are faced with decisions that will affect their descendants for generations. In such times, the “Day in Our Bay” project has been a welcome opportunity to celebrate the Bristol Bay region, its traditions and values. The “Day in Our Bay” project was created to capture the voices of our people, and to document the long-held traditions and values of the indigenous inhabitants of Bristol Bay. With “Day in Our Bay” you will see the value of the true resources of Bristol Bay: the cultures that have thrived here for thousands of years. From traditional handicrafts to the realities of a subsistence way of life, the joys and the hardship of life here have been documented for the future, whatever it may hold.



“Day in Our Bay” Fact Sheet

“Day in Our Bay” is a collaborative digital storytelling project that showcases the results of Bristol Bay Shareholders who documented a day in their own lives. Shareholders were given a video camera to participate in a region-wide shoot on October 15, 2011. From Clarks Point, the region’s smallest community of 62, to Dillingham, a city of almost 2,500, Shareholders of all ages took part in this innovative competition.

How many participants were there?

62 BBNC shareholders took part in the “Day in Our Bay” project.

What did grand prize winners receive?

Grand prize winners received airfare and accommodations in Anchorage to attend the premier of the “Day in Our Bay” movie, Honorable Mentions received $250, and all participants received a copy of the final movie on DVD.

Where did the film premier?

“Day on Our Bay” premiered at the Anchorage International Film Festival to a sold-out crowd on December 2, 2011. Additional screening info:

Additional screenings to date include:

- Alaska Forum on the Environment 2012 - Alaska Ocean Film Festival 2012 - Skagway Arts Council 4th Annual Winter Weekend Film Festival 2012 - Festival of Native Arts Film Festival 2012 - American Documentary Film Festival 2012 - Black Hills Film Festival 2012 (May 12-15) - Indie Spirit Film Festival 2012 (April 19-22) - Santa Cruz Film Festival (May 10-19) - Awareness Festival (April 19-22) - Dreamspeakers Film Festival 2012 (June 1) - BLUE Ocean Film Festival (September 24-30) - All Roads Film Festival 2012 (September 26-30) - Port Townsend Film Festival (September 21-23) - United Nations Association Film Festival 2012 (October 18-28)



What are video mentors?

Professional videographers were sent to communities that requested them as video mentors to provide training on how to use the cameras, framing shots, using available light and sound, and general education on using film as a medium for self expression.

How many were sent to villages?

11 video mentors were hosted at 11 villages in the region, ranging from the smallest, Clarks Point, to the largest, Dillingham. Overall, footage was obtained from a total of 14 Bristol Bay communities.

How many cameras went out?

158 cameras were sent to qualified BBNC shareholders in the region.

What villages did footage come from?

Aleknagik, Chignik Lake, Clarks Point, Dillingham, Ekwok, Kanakanak, Kokhanok, Koliganek, Manakotak, Naknek, New Stuyahok and Togiak.

What villages hosted mentors?

Clarks Point, Dillingham, Aleknagik, Manakotak, Togiak, Naknek, Chignik Lake, Ekwok, New Stuyahok, Koliganek and Kokhanok.

What type of camera was given to participants?

Kodak PlaySport cameras were used for the project.

How many hours of footage were collected?

Almost 100 hours of footage were edited down to produce the final 15-minute film.

What was the length of the final film?

15 minutes 45 seconds

What are your future plans for the project and the film?

We are submitting the footage to film festivals around the country. Additionally, footage not used in the film is being reviewed to identify new opportunities to share stories and experiences from Bristol Bay.

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Bios

Grand Prize Winners

Roger Wassillie – Togiak, AK Roger Wassillie makes his living as a commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay, and also works part time as a substitute teacher in Togiak School. In his free time, he carves ivory, coaxing intricate expressions out of this beautiful and organic medium. Roger has lived in Bristol Bay his entire life. In his winning entry, Roger filmed himself while carving ivory, and captured images of his father, his village and some Native techniques for preserving Bristol Bay salmon — a time-honored method utilized by the indigenous peoples of Alaska. Peducia Andrew – Kokhanok, AK Peducia Andrew is a member of the Kokhanok Village Council, and works as a utility clerk for Kokhanok Utilities. She fishes, picks berries and works with fish as a part of her traditional subsistence lifestyle. She was born in Bristol Bay in 1953, and has lived there since. In her winning entry, Peducia follows her grandson, Alex Nielsen, as he hunts for spruce hens. Both speak about the importance of their traditional lifestyle from their standpoints of elder and youth. Alannah Hurley – Dillingham, AK Alannah Hurley is a grassroots organizer for Trout Unlimited, who was born in Dillingham and raised in Clarks Point. After leaving Alaska to attend college, she graduated from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque; she now resides in Dillingham year-round. In her winning entry, Alannah features images of children performing traditional dances, her grandmother practicing a traditional dance, and her family and friends as they speak about what is important to them. Roy Andrew – Kokhanok, AK Roy Andrew is an Environmental Coordinator for the Kokhanok Village Council. He has lived in Bristol Bay since he was born in 1964. Roy graduated from the University of Alaska in 2006 with a BA in history and a minor in anthropology, and his hobbies include carpentry, traveling, commercial/subsistence fishing, gaming and watching movies. In his winning entry, Roy shares his passion for turning scrap wood, found along the beaches of his village, into furniture and other beautiful, functional objects. Tim Wonhola Sr. – New Stuyahok, AK Tim Wonhola is a true Native artisan: he crafts ulu’s (a traditional Alaska Native knife) by hand, and builds wooden sleds out of birch, mahogany or oak. The sleds are truly built to last: they are used by dog mushers or for hauling loads across the frozen tundra during the winter months. Tim has spent his entire life in the Bristol Bay region, and is protective of its resources and the cultures of its inhabitants.



In his winning entry, Tim films himself as he speaks about the importance of voicing our concerns about the environment as well as things that might impact it. He speaks to the younger generations growing up in Bristol Bay, about how different life is for them. Crew

Executive Producer – Bristol Bay Native Corporation (BBNC)

BBNC is one of 13 Regional Corporations formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971. The corporation serves more than 9,000 Eskimo, Aleut and Athabascan shareholders who have ancestral ties to the Bristol Bay region. BBNC’s mission is “Enriching our Native way of life,” and one of its core values is to celebrate and preserve the region’s Alaska Native cultures and their link to the land.

Project Manager

“Day in Our Bay” project manager Sonya Senkowsky heads up Bristol Creative Services, a division of BBNC subsidiary Bristol Industries, LLC. A writer and editor for print and multimedia for more than 20 years, she is co-author of the books “Alaska Then and Now: Anchorage, Juneau & Fairbanks,” and “Alaska’s South Coastal Wildlife Viewing Guide,” and was a contributor to the book “Buzz Marketing for Blogs.” She earned her M.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her B.A. from La Salle University, in Philadelphia, PA, and has lived in Alaska since 1996.

Producer/Director

Mary Katzke, founder of Affinityfilms, Inc., has produced more than 30 documentaries and feature films over the course of her career. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in Radio Television and Film, as well as New York University's Graduate Tisch School of the Arts with an MFA in Writing and Directing Film and Television.

Editor

Taylor Segrest is a writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles, CA. He most recently wrote, co-produced and co-edited the award-winning film, DARWIN. Taylor is a contributing editor for Documentary magazine. As a principal of Cinelixir, he has consulted a full range of independent documentary filmmakers at every stage of the process. He has lectured at the University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Southern California, and is the digital media director of Comedy Central Stage, the development studio for Comedy Central.

Original Soundtrack

Petla Noden, whose original music and vocals provided the basis for the film’s theme, is a BBNC shareholder from Dillingham. The “Day in Our Bay” project was his first feature project. The melody was based on his Yup’ik heritage as well as his Russian Orthodox religion, which is widely practiced in the region. He is a subsistence hunter and fisherman, and was raised on a traditional diet of fish, moose and other game. Petla hopes that his contribution to the film will help raise awareness about Bristol Bay and protect it for future generations.



Composer Brian Satterwhite, of Nuance Music, graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, earning a BA in Music with dual majors in film scoring and composition. Among honors awarded was the Scholarship Award for Excellence in Music Composition and the Robert Share Award in Film Scoring which acknowledges the top film scoring student of the year. Brian has been scoring music for films for over 17 years.

Video Mentors

Eleven video mentors were flown to villages across the region to teach shareholders the basics of filmmaking for the “Day in Our Bay” project. Topics included framing shots, utilizing sound and capturing meaningful images. These mentors helped residents express their voices and views through a format that was new to some of them, and allowed BBNC to capture video that accurately represents the people of Bristol Bay.

Carl Battreall

Carl’s photography has been published in books, magazines and calendars throughout the world, and his cinematography has been used in documentaries that have been screened in North America, Europe and Australia. Carl is the winner of the 2007 Daniel Housberg Wilderness Image Award and the 2008 Rasmuson Artist Fellowship.

Nathaniel Chambers

Nathaniel has over a decade of experience, and his work has taken him from the island life of the Caribbean to guiding in North America’s remote wilderness. He is currently a freelance graphic designer, writer, photographer and videographer based out of Seward, Alaska.

Laura Ganis

Laura was a video mentor for seven high school students from across the country on PBS’s “The Ride,” in which they traveled together across the country in a motorhome. The young people, armed with video cameras, shot stories about kids their own age — from an aspiring writer on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to youth trying to escape gang life in Chicago. Working for three years on MTV’s “The Real World” and Disney Channel’s “Bug Juice,” Laura has shot in diverse locations, from Tijuana, Mexico, to a summer camp in Maine.

Brice Habeger

Brice’s films have shown at festivals throughout the Northwest. He produces and directs, and works on feature films shooting in Alaska. In 2011, he was awarded a Bronze from the Higher Education Marketing Report for work done for the University of Alaska Southeast.



Todd Hardesty

Todd has produced over two dozen documentaries about Alaska’s unique places and people, and his work has been featured on the Discovery Channel. Recent projects include filming the Yukon River Intertribal Watershed Council gathering as well as a ski-plane adventure on the glaciers of Mount McKinley. Todd’s work has won him a national Emmy award for coverage of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. In addition to his work in Alaska, he has traveled to Sudan twice to film the work of American doctors in local villages.

D.K. Johnston

D.K.’s love of film began at the age of 10, when he bought his first video camera. In high school he worked to hone his skills, and in 2004 he began producing shorts, local ads and feature length projects. D.K. obtained his undergraduate in Journalism from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), and received his MFA in Film Production from the New York Film Academy. D.K. returned to Alaska to continue his career in film and television production.

Dan Lee

A lifelong Alaskan, Dan has been using the camera since a young age. He grew up with a love for the outdoors and Alaska. After leaving high school, Dan joined the military, and was deployed to Iraq three times. Upon discharge, Dan studied Journalism at UAA and Film at Ithaca College. For the last several years, Dan has worked as a freelancer, covering feature films, commercials, the Iditarod and the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

Zak Melms

Zak first picked up a camera in elementary school. Following this passion, he went on to graduate with a degree in Film and Photography from Montana State University in Bozeman. Zak has shot documentaries and films in some of Alaska’s most remote locations. He’s hung out of airplanes at negative 50 degrees, endured all-nighters in the rain in late November, managed gear shipments to and from villages, and shot more commercials than he can count. Most recently, Zak worked on a documentary about the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, spending months getting to know the residents of villages in the area.

Chris Scarafile

Chris’s passion for film production began at age 15, when he hijacked the family camcorder to produce modern adaptations of classical literature. With a film degree from Rochester Institute of Technology, and hands-on experience with everything from feature narratives and documentaries, to aerial, underwater and time lapse photography, Chris’s work covers all aspects of cinematography.

Beth Skabar

Beth graduated from Ohio University with a BS in Visual Communications. After teaching spoken English in rural India for six months, she moved to Alaska, and has been telling stories visually since.



After working with an Alaska Native-owned news organization as a designer and photojournalist, Beth has embraced cinematography as a new way to express herself.

Tom Trainor

Tom grew up in Unalakleet, Alaska, and attended UAA and the Seattle Film Institute. During his 10 years in the film industry, he has worked out of Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City and Anchorage, and his cinematography has been featured on CNN Presents, Dateline NBC, National Geographic, nationally aired programs and several short films.

The Cordova Times | Friday, December 9, 2011 | www.thecordovatimes.comFISHERIES

Cordova Tide TablesDATE DAY TIME HEIGHT TIME HEIGHT TIME HEIGHT TIME HEIGHT 12/09/2011 Fri 12:46AM 10.8 H 06:03AM 4.4 L 12:00PM 13.7 H 06:47PM -0.6 L 12/10/2011 Sat 01:24AM 11.1 H 06:40AM 4.3 L 12:37PM 13.9 H 07:22PM -1.0 L 12/11/2011 Sun 02:01AM 11.4 H 07:17AM 4.1 L 01:13PM 14.0 H 07:57PM -1.2 L 12/12/2011 Mon 02:36AM 11.5 H 07:55AM 4.1 L 01:49PM 13.9 H 08:34PM -1.2 L 12/13/2011 Tue 03:11AM 11.6 H 08:36AM 4.0 L 02:26PM 13.6 H 09:12PM -1.0 L 12/14/2011 Wed 03:48AM 11.6 H 09:20AM 4.0 L 03:05PM 13.0 H 09:52PM -0.6 L 12/15/2011 Thu 04:27AM 11.6 H 10:09AM 3.9 L 03:49PM 12.2 H 10:34PM 0.0 L

Today’s Tide Tables is sponsored by Trident Seafoods.

Trident Seafoods: We are proud to offer you our finest seafood products, “From the Source to the Plate®.”

Trident Seafoods is a proud supporter of

The Cordova Times

Southeast Alaska would see slight increase in quota, versus 76 percent reduction over past six years.

BY MARGARET [email protected]

Final decisions won’t be forthcoming until the end of January, but with stocks continuing to decline and the size of the fish small-er, scientists with the International Pacific Halibut Commission are calling for another substantial cut in halibut harvests.

The IPHC on Dec. 1 said it is looking at a rather significant re-duction from 2011 harvest limits of 41 million pounds to 33 mil-lion pounds for 2012, with the exception of areas 2A, on the coast of Washington and Oregon, and 2C, Southeast Alaska. Areas 2A and 2C both saw some significant positive responses in indices this year, said Bruce Leaman, director of the IPHC.

Staff preliminary recommendations include:

British Columbia, Area 2B 6,633,000 pounds, down 13.3 percent Southeast Alaska, Area 2C, 2,197,000 pounds, up 12.6 percent Central Gulf of Alaska, Area 3A, 13,654,000, down 17 percent Western Gulf of Alaska, Area 3B, 6,863,000, down 32 percent Aleutians Area 4A, 1,567,000 pounds, down 35 percent Aleutians Area 4B, 2,180,000 pounds, down 14 percent Bering Sea areas 4C, D and E, 2,465,000 pounds, down 34 percent

IPHC officials said in making catch limit recommendations for 2012 that staff considered the results of the 2011 stock assessment, changes in the commercial and survey indices used to monitor stock and a harvest policy that reflects coast-wide policy goals.

The preliminary recommendations, along with public and in-dustry views on them, will be considered at the Anchorage meet-ing, which follows by a couple of weeks the January meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, also in Anchorage. The NPFMC has set aside 12 hours of its meeting to discuss halibut issues, which include a report from the IPHC and testimony and discussion on the proposed halibut catch sharing plan.

Linda Behnken, a spokesperson for the Halibut Coalition and ex-ecutive director of the Alaska Longline Fisherman’s Association at Sitka, favors adoption of the halibut catch sharing plan because it ties both the charter and commercial fleets to the same index of abun-dance. “It’s a much more equitable sharing of conservation in the good times and the bad times,” said Behnken, who has spoken out repeatedly on the need for both sectors to share in good conservation.

Under the current system, the commercial and charter fleets are tied to two different indices of abundance, Behnken said. “The commercial fleet goes down faster and further than the charter fleet and when stocks start to recover, the charter fleet comes up faster and further than the commercial fleet.”

The unanswered question, meanwhile, is what is causing the decline in halibut abundance. The IPHC’s strongest theory right now is to explain declining growth rates and overall numbers of halibut in terms of them being in competition with some flatfish species. “There are some flatfish species in very high abundance right now and they could be directly competing for food resources

Smaller, fewer halibut prompt

IPHC to consider lower 2012 harvest

HALIBUT QUOTA

Begich, Murkowski and Young ask NOAA for equal treatment of Alaska fisheries.

CORDOVA TIMES STAFF

Alaska’s congressional delega-tion is asking the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to give equal treatment to Alaska fisheries, in the form of funding for the restructured North Pacific groundfish observer program.

Senators Mark Begich, D-Alaska, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, with Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, sent a letter to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco on Nov. 30, say-ing they feel $3.8 million in start-up funding for the restructured North Pacific groundfish observer

program is essential to transition to an improved program.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council in October 2010 took action to expand the program to previously unobserved fleets, and provided the agency flexibility to deploy observers in a manner that satisfied standards for randomized placement, the delegation said. “The program is expected to improve baseline data to support future decision mak-ing and requirements for annual catch limits and accountability measures,” they wrote.

The direct cost of deploying fish-ery observers under the NPFMC’s groundfish observer program have been industry funded, pay as you go, they said. The restructured program also will be funded by

industry, but requires start-up funds to transition from the cur-rent program.

“Lacking federal funding in the first year, fishermen would have to pay for coverage under the existing program while being assessed a fee to support future observer coverage under the new program,” their letter said. “It would also delay implementation of the new program for at least one year and prolong expected im-provements in catch and bycatch estimates and annual catch limit management.”

The delegation noted that NOAA has made commitments to fund observers in other regions while they transition to catch share pro-grams, and they asked the same commitment for Alaska.

Alaska delegation wants funds for fish harvest observers

FISHERY OBSERVERS

BY MARGARET [email protected]

In a tradition of storytelling that has been passed down for the generations in western Alaska, Timothy T. Wonhola Sr. spoke of the water that is the sustenance of life in Bristol Bay.

“Who’s going to voice out the water,” asks Wonhola, in the film “Day In Our Bay,” composed of footage submitted from 62 Bristol Bay residents on Oct. 15.

“Water cannot speak for itself. ‘Hey, I’m being misused out here. You guys out there. You should know about me. Somebody gotta voice them out. And I guess somebody, that somebody, is the elders,”

says Wonhola.Another contributing Bristol Bay resident,

Alannah Hurley, also focused on what subsistence means to her, with her footage of youth and

elders engaged in the subsistence lifestyle of Bristol Bay.

The words and video footage of Wonhola, Hurley and the others were heartily applauded by a sell-out crowd at the Bear

Tooth Theater in Anchorage on Dec. 2, at the start of the Anchorage International Film

Festival. The 15-minute video, which captures the passion

of Bristol Bay residents for the subsistence lifestyle

Bristol Bay video is hit at premiere

FILM REVIEW

See Page 7, HALIBUT

Producer says there is enough footage for a full length documentary

See Page 8, DAY IN OUR BAY

PHOTO COURTESY ZAK MELMS / BRISTOL BAY NATIVE CORPORATION



Media Contacts

Carmell Shade

Communications Specialist, Bristol Bay Native Corporation

(907) 278-3602

[email protected]

Sonya Senkowsky

Manager, Bristol Creative Services

(907) 743-9374

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Kurtis Ishnook in Koliganek films in front of his table of tools.photo by Brice Habeger / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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In Manakotak, Arline Franklin films her sister and brother while teaching her daughter about preparing “mouse food,” which is a root that tastes like a potato. On the table is a goose thawing out for the next day’s soup.photo by Laura Ganis / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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Roy Kusegta films at a spiritual gathering and community potluck at the Manokotak school.photo by Laura Ganis / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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Julie Brandon knits at the Ekwok local post office, which serves the population of 115 villagers and is often a hub for community news.photo by Nathaniel Chambers / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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Toby, grandson of Day in Our Bay contest winner Timothy Wonhola, Sr., peers out a window in New Stuyahok.photo by Carl Battreall / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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Peter Neketa shows a mask he carved in New Stuyahok, Alaska.photo by Carl Battreall / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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Aurora George, an elder in Clarks Point, practices traditional grass basket weaving.

photo by Zak Melms / Bristol Bay Native Corporation

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day in our bay press kit

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