Anchorage International Film Festival Kicks Off Friday

Festival runs 10 days at multiple locations

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By Bill McAllister
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Story Created: Nov 28, 2012 at 5:40 PM AKDT

Story Updated: Nov 28, 2012 at 6:32 PM AKDT

ANCHORAGE - The 12th annual Anchorage International Film Festival begins its 10-day run on Friday, with screenings at the Bear Tooth, the Alaska Experience Theatre, the Anchorage Museum and the Loussac Library.

As usual, the selections come from multiple continents, from Australia to Japan to the U.K. to Canada. But a fast growing segment of the festival is the Alaska-made or -themed films.

From feature-length films to shorts, from documentaries to animation, the festival has a little bit of something for everyone, and its reputation is expanding.

"We get a lot of reference-type submissions, that filmmakers will go back home or email their friends and say, 'hey this is a great festival, submit to them,'” said festival director Teresa Scott.

More than 100 films will be screened at various venues.

There’s a documentary about dyslexia and an adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft horror story.

Programming Director Josh Lowman said, "We've got a couple of really great documentaries, including one which is probably going to be a little bit controversial, called 'Road Map to Apartheid,' which basically compares the current policies in Israel in apartheid in South Africa."

The word “international” is in the title of the festival, so of course the main draw is that films come from all around the world. But there is a specifically Alaska section known as Snowdance.

"This is the first year I can say we've been inundated with Snowdance films,” Scott said. “We’ve had so many good ones, it was hard to make a choice on which ones to include in the program."

"The more we're seeing of local filmmakers, there's just a lot higher quality of stuff," Lowman said.

One is a 10-minute noir satire by former Daily News reporter Peter Porco, directed by Jonathan Lang.
Lang said, "It's kind of a spoof of a film that was made in-house at the Daily News years ago, but the gag in the film is the paper is only four sheets of paper now instead of the bulk that it used to be."

About 12,000 people attended the festival last year, and it's now a fixture of the local arts scene.

"It’s taken a while to build, but now that it's here, people are coming," Lang said.

On Friday night, it's action.

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