Rejoice, moviegoers, for I bring you glad tidings of great joy: The ninth annual Anchorage International Film Festival kicks off Friday night. From Dec. 4 through Dec. 17, Anchorageites will have opportunities to watch 175 films from all over the world -- including films made by and about Alaskans. Notable among the entries are two films that aim to capture the spirit of Alaska Native tradition in two very different ways. One is a documentary filmed in Alaska; the other is a fantasy set in an Alaska that only exists in the mind of its teenage heroine.

"A Beautiful Journey"

Every summer, Athabascan elder Daisy Stri da zatse Demientieff makes a 750-mile journey down the Tanana and Yukon rivers to gather materials for making baskets. She's one of only three women alive who knows how to make split willow trays. In "A Beautiful Journey," documentarian Maria Williams comes along for the ride.

Williams, an associate professor of music and Native American studies at the University of New Mexico, has known Demientieff for close to 20 years. The idea to film Demientieff's annual pilgrimage came to her several years ago, when Demientieff told her how challenging the process had become since her husband passed away.

"You can only go in the month of June," Williams said Demientieff told her. "That's the only time the birch bark comes off. That's the only time the roots are good."

Pamela Thompson photo

The big First Friday event for December will be the Anchorage International Film Festival, but downtown, photographer Pamela Thompson will be unveiling "Second Glance," a solo photography show, in a reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Side Street Espresso, 412 G St. Most of the images (including "Ferns," above) are first-time digital prints shot in 2009. "Second Glance" runs through Dec. 31.

---

Armed with a small grant from UNM and a video camera, Williams undertook the long journey down the rivers with Demientieff and her son, Mike Demientieff Jr. The trip from Nenana to the Demientieff family fish camp near Tanana takes at least five days -- and that's if you're "really pushing it," Williams said. Some nights were spent in villages along the way; other nights they slept in the boat.

Williams said she wanted to show people the tremendous amount of history and tradition behind Demientieff's craft.

"I think people look at Alaska Natives and think, ‘oh, they make crafts,'" she said. "They don't see the language. They don't see the knowledge of the environment."

Gathering materials isn't easy; it involves knowing where to look for good willow roots and birch bark, and understanding how to harvest the right materials at the right time.

"It's not like you just go down to the art store," Williams said.

In one scene, Demientieff works her way along a muddy embankment, cutting willow roots from the bank as her toy poodle, wearing a tiny sweatshirt, scrabbles along behind. Later she balances precariously in the boat, harvesting roots while trying to keep the bank from crumbling as her son holds the boat steady. It's a tense scene even before you remember there's a third person sitting in the boat, trying to keep hold of a video camera.

"I got caught in the roots a couple of times," Williams said. "The water was kind of rough that day."

Demientieff has made only seven trays in her life. At one point, sitting with a tray in progress in her lap -- about the size of a small Moose's Tooth pizza -- she tells the camera she's been working on this one for about two years. It's not fast work, and by the time she finishes one she's spent so much time with it she almost doesn't want to sell it.