"Drums of Winter" named to National Film Registry

Submitted by Kerynn Fisher
Phone: (907) 474-6941
01/12/07

FAIRBANKS, AK - "The Drums of Winter," a feature-length documentary on Yup’ik Eskimo music and dance, recently joined the ranks of American film classics including "Gone with the Wind," "The Wizard of Oz" and "Casablanca" when it was named to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress in late December.

Directed by University of Alaska Museum of the North film curator Leonard Kamerling and SUNY Buffalo Professor Sarah Elder, the film presents the spiritual world of Yup’ik dance, music and reciprocal gift giving. It documents how a community’s history, social values and spiritual relationships are woven around traditional songs and dances that have been handed down from generation to generation. The film was produced collaboratively with the Lower Yukon community of Emmonak.

"The Drums of Winter" is only the second Alaska-produced film selected for the registry. "The Chechahcos," a 1924 silent film produced by Austin "Cap" Lathrop, was selected in 2002. In addition, only a handful of documentary films have been chosen for the registry. Nearly 1,000 films were nominated in 2006. Of those, only 25 were selected.

"The annual selection of films to the National Film Registry involves far more than the simple naming of cherished and important films to a prestigious list... Rather it is an invaluable means to advance public awareness of the richness, creativity and variety of American film heritage," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington in a news release issued by the Library of Congress. "The selection of a film recognizes its importance to American movie and cultural history, and to history in general."

"This is an extraordinary honor for the film," said Kamerling. "It ensures that ’Drums of Winter’ will be around and will be seen a hundred years from now. I can’t think of greater satisfaction for a filmmaker."

As a result of the selection, the museum’s Alaska Center for Documentary Film will work in partnership with the Library of Congress on a preservation strategy for the film. This could include producing new printing negatives and digital master. Multiple copies will be stored at both the Library of Congress and the UA Museum of the North.

Since its release in 1988, "The Drums of Winter" has received numerous national and international honors, including Best Documentary, Best Documentary Director and Best Cinematography at the 1998 Festival of the Native Americas in Santa Fe, NM. "The Drums of Winter" was also the museum’s last production shot on film; more recent productions have been produced using video and digital media. Museum visitors can see excerpts from "Drums of Winter" on the video display in the Western Arctic Coast section of the museum’s Gallery of Alaska.

The museum’s film collection contains more than 400 hours of irreplaceable visual and audio material documenting the changing cultures and issues of northern people since the early 1970s. Last year, with the completion of a film storage vault at UAF’s Rasmuson Library, Kamerling moved the body of the museum’s most vulnerable film materials to Fairbanks from an archival facility in New York City.

CONTACT: Kerynn Fisher, communications coordinator, University of Alaska Museum of the North, at (907) 474-6941 or k.fisher@uaf.edu. Leonard Kamerling, film curator, University of Alaska Museum of the North, at (907) 474-7437 or l.kamerling@uaf.edu.

Note to editors: Film clips and still images are available on request.

Read the Library of Congress’ news release at http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2006/06-234.html or visit the National Film Registry at http://www.loc.gov/film/filmnfr.html.