'We Live in Alaska' historical film available on YouTube
February 16, 2016
Suzanne Bishop
(907) 474-6997
The Alaska Film Archives at Rasmuson Library recently posted “We Live in Alaska” on
the archive’s YouTube channel. The full-length silent film was made by Harmon “Bud” and Constance Helmericks sometime
around 1947.
The film chronicles the Helmericks' lives as homesteaders in the Brooks Range in northern Alaska, and their explorations of the area and of Canada. It also depicts the rapidly changing lives in Iñupiat communities before statehood and before the trans-Alaska pipeline was built.
The Helmericks used the film on national lecture tours. Constance was a prolific author, penning bestselling books such as “We Live in Alaska” and “Arctic Daughter.” Bud, who later remarried and built a home on the Colville River delta of the North Slope, was an Arctic explorer, Bush pilot and author.
The original 16mm film was preserved thanks to funding from the National Film Preservation
Foundation.
If you have historical film or video from Alaska or the Arctic, consider donating it to the Alaska Film Archives.
For more information, contact Angela Schmidt, film archivist, Alaska Film Archives, Rasmuson Library, at 907-474-5986, or ajschmidt@alaska.edu.
ON THE WEB: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyuCd5VQbxI and http://library.uaf.edu/film-archives