Downloadable audio.

The Tidelines Journey Residency is a nomadic group residency program launched by the Island Institute in 2016. The institute’s director Peter Bradley is joined by artists Wendy Given and Jimmy Riordan.

The residents travel to a number of small communities along the Alaska Marine Highway route over the course of one month. This is a collaborative residency program designed to give the group of travelers the chance to investigate a theme of particular relevance in the Southeast Alaskan setting while also fostering dialogue and exchange within the communities that we visit.

The artists will talk and present their work on Friday, Apr. 28 from 7-9:00 p.m. at Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi Community House.

Downloadable audio.

Emmett Williams has been in the film industry for decades. His work has taken him to Africa and South America and to big cities like New York and London. Most recently, though, Sitka has been the focus of his storytelling career.

“When I came to Sitka I met Peter Bradley at the Island Institute and we became not only good friends, but we had a lot of creative ideas that were similar,” Williams explained.

One of those ideas involved students at Mt. Edgecumbe. The Island Institute, a Sitka-based nonprofit, was looking to start a storytelling program at the school. Williams, on the other hand, wanted to teach students about the more technical aspects of filmmaking.

“I was having a conversation about that with Annika Ord, the program manager of the Island Institute at the time, and we said, ‘We should do it together,’ and so Annika and I started working together and it’s been an amazing partnership.” Williams said.

That partnership resulted in a class at Mt. Edgecumbe. With a $20,000 grant from the Crossett Fund, the Island Institute paid Williams and Ord and purchased eight high-quality audio and video kits for the students to use.

Williams said, in the beginning, students learned the basics of storytelling and documentary filmmaking.

“We also said, ‘These are examples of climate change stories. These are examples of stories about culture. These are examples of stories about place.’ And then we said, ‘Forget all that, what do you care about?’”

Williams said it was important to let the students decide what each of their stories be about. Once they had the basic training, they each went home for the summer with film equipment in hand and an idea in mind.

“The five stories are based in Craig, Bethel, New Stuyahok, Klawock and Old Harbor,” Williams explained.

And their stories ended up being just as diverse as the places where they were filmed. Williams was careful not to give anything away, but what he did say how impressed he is with each of the students.

“You know when you work with teenagers or kids sometimes you think, ‘You know, whatever they come back with I’ll be happy. I’m just happy they come back with something,’ but we were literally in shock at how amazing the footage and the interviews are.”

Williams has no doubt moviegoers will be just as shock at the amazing footage as he is.

The films are being screened at Sitka’s Coliseum Theater Thursday, 6:00pm, followed by a question and answer with the student filmmakers. The event is free and open to the public.

Downloadable audio.

Downloadable audio.

Sally Helm with the Island Institute shares her own food stories, in anticipation of their new journalism project. Radio + Food is a collaboration between Sitka Story Lab and Kettleson Memorial Library and will give middle school and high school students the opportunity to interview someone about food – cooking it, hunting it, buying it, and eating it. Finished interviews will air on Raven Radio this summer.

The first class for the Radio + Food project is tomorrow (3-7-15) from 10:30am – 12:00pm at Kettleson Memorial Library. Classes will take place most Saturdays from March – May (3/7, 3/14, 3/28, 4/11, 5/2, and 5/9) from 10-11 for  middle school students and from 11-12 for high school students. For questions and to participate, contact Sally Helm (sally@iialaska.org) or Maite Lorente (maitelorente@cityofsitka.com).

Downloadable audio.

Dipika Guha, Island Institute artist-in-residence, is joined by director Peter Bradley to talk about her play, “A Brief History of America,” in response to Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States,” and thematic focus on historical events through the eyes of ordinary people.

Guha is holding an open reading of her play “A Brief History of America” this Thursday, October 16, from 6 to 8 p.m. in Yaw Chapel. Donations will be accepted. For more information, call 907-747-3794.