Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA)

05/02/2024

05/02/2024

Join us next Monday, May 6, at 6pm, at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub & Grill, for a special screening of the classic ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939), recently restored in 4K.

ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is a story of the pilots who flew the first cargo routes through the high altitude passes of South America—a story that parallels the life of “Glacier Pilot” Bob Reeve, later of Reeve Aleutian Airways fame, who pioneered a route flying mail from Peru to Chile in 1928.

Directed by the great Howard Hawks (TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, THE BIG SLEEP, RED RIVER), who was himself an accomplished flyer--having trained pilots in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI. Hawks made use of his flying experience to produce several notable aviation features in the 1930s--culminating in the masterpiece, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, featuring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Rita Hayworth (in her breakout role).

The film was nominated for the first Academy Award for special effects--making use of a combination of technically challenging aerial sequences, and practical effects (i.e., models and miniatures). The attached photo shows Director Hawks and starring actor Cary Grant inspecting one of the models used in the production--the sort of practical effect that contemporary filmmakers like Wes Anderson (THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL, ISLE OF DOGS, ASTEROID CITY) have returned to.

Speaking of contemporary filmmakers--last December, the great German director Wim Wenders (PARIS, TEXIS, WINGS OF DESIRE, PINA) was talking to A.frame (the Academy's electronic magazine) as his new film PERFECT DAYS was being released. They asked him to name 5 films that had influenced him, and amongst the 5 was: ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, "[...] it's one of the greatest adventure stories. And so funny. I love it."

ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is an undersung beauty--don't miss the chance to see it on the big screen, in its restored glory. If you don't believe us--or Wim Wenders--maybe you'll believe Rotten Tomatoes--where it has a 100% score (!) on the Tomatometer (critics ratings), and an 82% audience rating.

This is a fundraising event--AMIPA's proceeds go to the AMIPA Endowment Fund at the Alaska Community Foundation. Tickets available at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub box office & website.:

https://beartooththeatre.filmbot.com/movies/only-angels-have-wings-1939-a-fundraiser-for-amipa/

04/30/2024

Join us next Monday, May 6, at 6pm, at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub & Grill, for a special screening of the classic ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939), recently restored in 4K.

ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is a story of the pilots who flew the first cargo routes through the high altitude passes of South America—a story that parallels the life of “Glacier Pilot” Bob Reeve, later of Reeve Aleutian Airways fame, who pioneered a route flying mail from Peru to Chile in 1928.

Directed by the great Howard Hawks (TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT, THE BIG SLEEP, RED RIVER), who was himself an accomplished flyer--having trained pilots in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during WWI. Hawks made use of his flying experience to produce several notable aviation features in the 1930s--culminating in the masterpiece, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, featuring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Rita Hayworth (in her breakout role).

The film was nominated for the first Academy Award for special effects--making use of a combination of technically challenging aerial sequences, and practical effects (i.e., models and miniatures).

Additionally, the screening will open with a short presentation of historic, Alaska aviation-themed motion picture clips from AMIPA’s collections. All of these 8mm and 16mm films have been scanned at 2K.

This is a fundraising event--AMIPA's proceeds go to the AMIPA Endowment Fund at the Alaska Community Foundation. Tickets available at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub box office & website.:

https://beartooththeatre.filmbot.com/movies/only-angels-have-wings-1939-a-fundraiser-for-amipa/

03/28/2024

"My Damascene moment came last year, after one too many times I couldn’t find films I wanted on my streaming services. I started borrowing DVDs from the public library, and buying my favorites on Blu-ray. I wondered if other people had come full circle. On a recent evening, I posted on some online forums for movie buffs, asking if anyone still bought physical media and wanted to talk.

I got 180 emails."

As more movies vanish from streaming services, cinephiles are rallying to physical media. Can they save a seemingly dying format?

03/13/2024

Alaska Public Media's Talk of Alaska today was a discussion of indigenous representation in popular media, featuring several members of the cast of HBO's True Detective: Night Country, that premiered in January.

We talk with actors from the Alaska-focused series True Detective: Night Country about indigenous representation on this Talk of Alaska.

02/13/2024

Join the UAA College of Arts and Sciences and Alaska Native Studies in room 307 of the UAA/APU Consortium Library this coming Friday, February 16, for a panel discussion of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, director Martin Scorsese's 2023 film adaption of David Grann's 2017 book.

The panel will be from 5:30-7:00 PM, preceded by a reception from 5:00-5:30.

The event will also be available via Zoom--register using the QR code in the attached graphic.

The panel will include:

Rebekah A. HorseChief

Rebekah A. HorseChief (Osage/Pawnee) has worked in and with tribal communities for her entire career. Her background includes policy development and economic development initiatives; expertise working with tribal courts and tribal justice systems; tribal sovereignty initiatives; working with tribes and tribal organizations on highly significant tribal issues including education; tribal historic preservation, P.L. 102-477 Employment and Training Administration, and grants management. Ms. HorseChief grew up in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado. She obtained a degree in Indigenous peoples law from the University of Oklahoma, College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Mexico.

Maria Shaa Tlaa Williams

Maria Shaa Tlaa Williams (Tlingit) is the co-Chair of Alaska Native Studies. Her areas of research include Indigenous pedagogy and music and dance practices.

Ian Hartman

Ian C. Hartman is a professor and the Chair of the Dept. of History at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He researches and teaches on topics related to Alaska and the American West. He has recently partnered with the National Park Service and has also worked with the Anchorage Museum on exhibitions and continuing education courses. His latest exhibit, which opened in May and runs through the winter, explores the history of the Alaska Railroad.

Rebeca Maseda Garcia

Rebeca Maseda García is a Spanish Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She has an extensive record of publications (as well as grants, conference presentations, guest lectures, etc.) on film, media and gender, particularly on representations of violence and trauma. Among her notable works are the co-edited volumes "Gender and Violence in Spanish Culture: From Vulnerability to Accountability" (Peter Lang, 2018) and "Gender-Based Violence in Latin American and Iberian Cinemas" (Routledge, 2020). Additionally, she contributed as an associate researcher to three R+D projects on ‘The re-signification of women as victims in popular culture: implications towards representational innovation in the construction of vulnerability and resistance’, on the Mediatization of Women’s Rage, and on Women Creators in Spanish Audiovisual Media.

01/16/2024

An interesting piece we thought our friends might enjoy. Unfortunately, it's paywalled--but perhaps some of you are Globe and Mail readers.

'Perhaps director James Cameron, who recently remastered TRUE LIES and THE ABYSS for special-edition 4K discs, put it best when he said late last year that, “the streamers are denying us any access whatsoever to certain films. And I think people are responding with their natural reaction, which is, ‘I’m going to buy it, and I’m going to watch it any time I want.’ ”'

While the streaming wars seemed intent on killing physical media, Barry Hertz reports on the heartening new signs that discs will live to spin another day

12/18/2023

With the recent passing of the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Anchorage Daily News (ADN) editor, Howard Weaver, we thought we'd re-post this video of Weaver in conversation with legendary Washington Post editor (and fellow Pulitzer Prize-winner), Ben Bradlee (1921-2014). We'd originally posted this video in Feburary 2018, to mark the release of THE POST (2017), a feature film about the Post's, and Bradlee's, role in the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

This video is from an early installment of the public affairs program SOUNDINGS, produced by UAA: University of Alaska Anchorage Media Services. The conversation was taped in January 1977, when Bradlee was in Anchorage for a 2-day journalism seminar at UAA. Other participants in the seminar included E. J. Kahn (The New Yorker) and Don Oliver (NBC News). Weaver at the time was with the Alaska Advocate, a weekly statewide paper he founded with four others in October 1976, after helping the ADN win its first Pulitzer earlier that year. The Alaska Advocate folded in 1979, and Weaver returned to the ADN following its purchase by the McClatchy newspaper chain.

We'll post a link to the ADN's December 15 story on Weaver in the comments.

This early installment of the public affairs program "Soundings," produced by University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Media Services, features a 1977 conversati...