On the Ice

Denver & Nome

2012-02-15T10:15:00.003-05:00

And some more theaters...

Denver, CO
--opens March 16th at Denver Film Center/Colfax

Nome, AK
--opens March 16th at Gold Coast Cinema
(Go to see the Iditarod...and a great movie!)

FOR OUR FULL LIST OF THEATERS, PLUS LINKS TO PURCHASE TICKETS CLICK HERE

San Francisco, Scottsdale, and Albuquerque

2012-02-01T12:50:00.005-05:00

More theaters!!!

San Francisco, CA
--opens March 9th at UA Stonestown Twin 2
link to theater tickets

Scottsdale, AZ
--opens March 9th at Camelview 5
link to theater website

Albuquerque, NM
--opens March 25th at the Guild Cinema
link to theater website

I think it's still too early to buy advance tickets online for these theaters because we aren't releasing there until March, but check back later this month.

Juneau

2012-01-24T18:56:00.004-05:00

Calling all film lovers in Juneau!

We're pleased to share the good news that we'll be opening at the Gold Town Nickelodeon in Juneau next month. Here are the confirmed screenings so far:

Wednesday, February 22nd -- 5:30pm and 8pm
Thursday, February 23rd -- 5:30pm and 8pm

More dates and times to come! And as always go to our website for the most up-to-the minute info. www.ontheicethemovie.com.

Here also is the link to the Gold Town website.

More theaters!

2012-01-09T21:24:00.004-05:00

We've just announced some more theaters. If you live in any of these areas I hope you'll come and check out ON THE ICE!

In these theaters on Friday, February 17th:
Village East in New York City (new!)

Also already announced for this date:
Lincoln Center (NYC), Laemmle Music Hall (LA), Regal Tikhatnu (Anchorage) and Regal Goldstream (Fairbanks)

In these theaters on Friday, February 24th:
Portland, OR -- Regal Fox Tower
Sante Fe -- Center for Contemporary Arts
Chicago -- Siskel Center

In these theaters on Friday, March 2nd:
Seattle -- SIFF Film Center

For more information check out our website HERE.

THEATRICAL RELEASE!

2011-12-07T16:52:00.009-05:00

The day has finally come when we can share the fantastic news of the theatrical release of ON THE ICE! We are so happy and grateful to be able to announce our first 5 theaters which will be in New York, Los Angeles, Anchorage and Fairbanks. We'll be announcing more soon but for now here are the basics:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10th, 2012

NYC - Lincoln Center, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center
NYC - Village East Cinema
LA - Laemmle Music Hall Theaters
Anchorage - Regal Tikhatnu Theaters
Fairbanks - Regal Goldstream Stadium 16

Stay tuned as we announce more theaters and dates in other cities!

Also, check out our BRAND NEW WEBSITE

And our OFFICIAL TRAILER! (click full screen to see it much bigger)

imagineNATIVE

2011-11-08T00:01:00.003-05:00

Thought I'd share this picture real quick of Andrew, Qutuq and me at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto. We were the opening night screening and had the privilege to be a part of imagineNATIVE's first year at the gorgeous new TIFF Lightbox theater. We screened simultaneously in theaters one and two, which I think was somewhere around 1200 people!

Our sincere thanks to imagineNATIVE for making it possible to bring Qutuq out all the way from Nome! It was such a pleasure to be a part of everything and meet all the other amazing filmmakers and audience involved. Quyanaq!

2011-11-07T15:38:00.005-05:00

Happy Fall everyone. We've got some more festival screenings coming up so I thought I'd let you all know...

CUCALORUS Film Festival - Wilmington, North Carolina
Co-producer Kate Dean, Production Designer Chad Keith and Prop Master Jonathan Guggenheim will all be in attendance

Thursday, November 10th
City Stage Theater
1:00 PM

Sunday, November 13th
City Stage Theater
7:00 PM

MORE INFO for Cucalorus screenings

AMERICAN INDIAN Film Festival, San Francisco
Writer/Director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean and Producer Cara Marcous will be in attendance.

CLOSING NIGHT FILM!
Palace of Fine Arts
Friday, November 11th

MORE INFO for AIFF screening

VANCOUVER INDIGENOUS Media Arts Festival, Canada

Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, SFU Woodwards
Saturday, November 12th
9:15pm

MORE INFO for Vancouver screening

Upcoming screenings

2011-09-29T14:40:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to make sure that all of you who aren't a part of our Facebook group know that we have some festival screenings coming up...

Palo Alto International Film Festival
Friday, September 30th
Palo Alto Square
4:30 PM

Saturday, October 1st
Aquarius
12:00 PM

Palo Alto IFF website

Visionmaker Film Festival / NAPT (Lincoln, Nebraska)
The Ross
Friday, September 30th
9:00 PM

The Ross
Saturday, October 1st
7:00 PM

Visionmaker FF website

Woodstock wins!

2011-09-26T20:52:00.004-04:00

Andrew and I traveled to upstate New York this weekend to one of our favorite festivals, Woodstock FF. We've been once before in 2008 with our short film SIKUMI, which ended up winning Best Student Short at that time. We were in competition at Woodstock this time with ON THE ICE and were thrilled on Saturday evening when OTI was awarded Best Narrative Feature and Best Cinematography for our DP Lol Crawley. (Because Lol was not able to come to Woodstock for the festival, I accepted his Best Cinematography trophy award on his behalf)

Click HERE for the full press release online.

Although there were many more we wanted to see, we were able to see three fantastic films. The films couldn't be more different from each other, but they were all excellent. We finally got to see Josh Leonard's film THE LIE which everyone should look for in a theater near you in November. It is at once hilarious, deliciously uncomfortable and genuinely touching. We also saw Mark Simon's fascinating documentary UNRAVELED about lawyer Mark Dreier, who stole hundreds of millions of dollars from hedge funds and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2008. The third film we saw was TILT, a captivating Bulgarian indie about a group of street kids living and loving in the midst of political upheaval during the fall of Communism. See this film for its exceptional performances and editing. TILT won the editing award at Woodstock and Honorable mention for Best Narrative Feature. If you want to learn more about these films go to the Woodstock Film Festival website.

Our thanks and hugs go out to the wonderful Meira and Laurent. You run a very special festival and we were honored to be a part of it.

Officially Funded!!

2011-09-09T09:25:00.002-04:00

We are so pleased (and very relieved) to share the good news that as of last night at 9pm EDT, our Kickstarter campaign closed and was a bonafide success. Our final number was $85,690 and we couldn't be more grateful to the 840 backers who pledged for us!

Click HERE to watch some thank you videos that we posted yesterday. Cara's comes up first in Update #16; Andrew's is at the bottom of Update #15.

We can't wait to celebrate with all of you at the theaters!

Cara

Anchorage Daily News Article

2011-09-04T14:46:00.002-04:00

Inupiaq filmmaker turns to kickstarter.com to reach theaters (UPDATED)

Posted by thevillage

Contributor: Kyle Hopkins

Posted: September 1, 2011 - 3:00 pm

UDPATE: The kickstarter.com total for "On the Ice" just jumped another $10,000 in donations. That means the filmmakers are now within $30K of their goal.

Alaskan filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean and producer Cara Marcous hope to raise enough money through kickstarter.com to put their Barrow-based film, "On the Ice," in about 10 theaters around the country. (Photo by Rob Meyer courtesy United States Artists)

From Kyle Hopkins in Anchorage --

“On the Ice” is halfway to a theater near you.

Producers of the independent, Barrow-based thriller have raised $40,000 of the $80,000 they say they need to show the movie in about 10 theaters around the country.

The filmmakers started the fund-raising push earlier this summer on www.kickstarter.com, a website that asks people to pledge donations to creative projects. If a project doesn’t meet its fund-raising goal by a given deadline, no money is collected.

For "On the Ice," time is running out.

Starring Alaska Native actors, the thriller premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Awards followed at the Berlin and Seattle international film festivals. But critical acclaim doesn’t guarantee that movie distributors will gamble on putting your film in theaters, especially without a marquee star.

After Sundance, producers of “On the Ice” heard a lot of “I love your movie, but …”

“The film has done really well and gotten all these awards but none of the traditional distributors will really go for it in a big way, because we have all first-time actors,” said producer Cara Marcous.

Some distributors offered to release the movie on screens in L.A. and New York only -- a limited release. The makers of “On the Ice” were thinking bigger.

Plus, Marcous said, they wanted the theatrical release to include cities in Alaska as well as markets like Denver, Seattle and D.C.

That’s where Kickstarter.com comes in. The website, founded in 2009, allows the producers to make their fund-raising pitch directly to fans and supporters.

So far, more than 380 people have pledged more than $40,300 to help “On the Ice” reach theaters. Only a week remains, however, before the 5 p.m., Sept. 8 deadline for the filmmakers to double their money and reach their goal.

The cash would be used to create a trailer for the film, create reels of film that would be shipped to theaters and pay for a publicist, Marcous said.

Typically, distribution would cost far more, but the producers will lean on the Sundance Institute’s Artist Services program, which aids independent filmmakers in marketing and online distribution.

Written and directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, who is Inupiaq, “On the Ice” cost around $1 million to make, Marcous said. It was shot in April and May of 2010 in Barrow.

Here’s how the filmmakers describe the story:

“Early one morning, on a seal hunt with another teenager, an argument between the three boys quickly escalates into a tragic accident. Bonded by their dark secret, the two best friends are forced to create one fabrication after another in order to survive.”

See the article online HERE.

ABC Anchorage news story

2011-09-01T20:53:00.003-04:00

ABC's Anchorage affiliate KIMO did a news piece last night about our Kickstarter campaign for ON THE ICE. You can watch the LIVE interview with Andrew HERE.

Please note: For some reason they broadcast footage from our short film SIKUMI, so the footage you'll be watching while Andrew is interviewed is not from our feature ON THE ICE.

Sante Fe Reporter review

2011-08-30T00:01:00.006-04:00

Reel Indian Art

Native Cinema Showcase is a forum for underexposed talent

August 24, 2011
by Lindsay Jaeger

Conflict, death and a semimonochromatic color pallet
photo by Sebastian Mlynarski

Given the specific nature of the 11th Annual Native Cinema Showcase, which coincided with Indian Market and showed more than 40 films from Native filmmakers worldwide, I was curious about exactly who would fill the auditorium at the New Mexico History Museum. As the week progressed, it became clear: anyone and everyone. The crowds were thick with people laughing, responding, applauding and staying until the end. Still, I sensed that, if it weren’t for this individualized forum—presented by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts—many of these valuable stories would be abandoned to orbit some level of deep obscurity...

...The stunning opening night feature, On the Ice, is an eerily suspenseful, unconventional, contemporary-set noir that plays out in what feels like a strange state of limbo. In arctic Alaska, the sky is always white, mirroring the monochromatic forms of ice and snow below. A character remarks that the sun won’t set until August. When conflict flares between three teenage male friends hunting on the deserted tundra, only two survive. They rejoin their community amid questions and suspicion from all sides. In a place without darkness, there is no place to hide. A powerful ending delivers a complex coming-of-age resolution to this haunting story.

The festival’s films should no more occupy an exclusive niche market than, for example, Weimar German cinema or Italian neorealism. Unique voices, telling personal stories of specific cultures, have the transcending power to achieve universal importance. In terms the industry understands: When audiences appear, as they did this week, movies have already come to life. They deserve a platform to continue existing.

Please note: The above is an excerpt from the full article.

Click HERE for the full article online

The Sante Fe audience has some lungs

2011-08-23T14:58:00.003-04:00

Sierra Jade Sampson supports us on Kickstarter

2011-08-22T20:38:00.003-04:00

Watch more cast videos on our Kickstarter page and pledge to buy a DVD of ON THE ICE!

Indian Country article

2011-08-13T09:34:00.006-04:00

Celebrated Alaska Native Film ‘On the Ice’ Seeks National Distribution

By ICTMN Staff August 13, 2011

photo by Maura Anderson

'On the Ice' is Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's first feature film.

On the Ice, a film featuring an entirely Inuit cast, has won pretigious awards and much praise, but now the Inupiaq writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean is reaching beyond the festival-goers and film critics. He and producer Cara Marcous would like for On the Ice to be shown in theaters all over the country. “We are hoping to be in at least ten cities across the United States later this year,” says Marcous.

In pursuit of their goal, they’ve launched a Kickstarter.com page — an increasingly common approach among filmmakers. Two other Native-themed films of note, Winter in the Blood and The Thick Dark Fog, have used Kickstarter to solicit funding.

“So many great films of the past few years never made it to theaters because the industry just couldn’t find a place for them,” MacLean says.

Eric Kohn of IndieWire picked On the Ice as a “must-see” film as BAMcinemaFest; and at the Seattle International Film Festival, the International Federation of Film Critics awarded it a FIPRESCI prize “For presenting a universal, near-Biblical tragedy set in a little known culture recreated with compelling detail. A story told with outstanding naturalistic performances with a confident, compelling narrative.”

For more information, visit On the Ice’s Kickstarter page, official site ontheicethemovie.com , and facebook.com/OntheIce.

Kickstarter video

full article online

Indiewire article

2011-08-12T18:39:00.003-04:00

The Kickstarting Never Stops: Three Sundance Films Are Looking for Distribution Dough

by Bryce J. Renninger (Updated 6 hours, 37 minutes ago)

[excerpt]

Filmmaking may be democratized by more-affordable technologies, but it still costs a hell of a lot of money to get your film seen. From making prints to booking theaters to sales agents to publicists, the expenses stack up. From the 2011 crop of Sundance films, three are currently searching for funds to get their films out to a wider audience.

U.S. Dramatic Competition film “On the Ice” joins Park City at Midnight alums “Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same” and “The Oregonian” in a quest for funds from, yes, People Like You. Take a look at what they’re looking for below.

“On the Ice”

The Project: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s “On the Ice” debuted as part of the U.S. Narrative Competition and Native Showcase at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, won a Crystal Bear in the Generation 14+ youth section of the 2011 Berlinale. In “On the Ice,” set in the ice-cold reaches of Barrow, Alaska, two young Iñupiaq men, Qalli and Aivaaq, must cover up the death of a friend of theirs—a death that was partially their fault.

Amount Project is Looking to Raise: $80,000

Distribution Plan: From Kickstarter: “Despite the success we’ve had on the festival circuit, traditional distributors are scared of a film with no famous faces, set in a community far outside the mainstream. Awards or not, they don’t want to take a chance on a small, independent film without recognizable stars to help sell it.

“It’s been great taking this film all over the world and introducing it to audiences, but we didn’t make this film just to play it in festivals. So we’re finding another way. Through Kickstarter we’re hoping to raise enough to be able to release the film in at least ten theaters across the country.

“Many great films over the past few years never made it to theaters because the industry couldn’t find a place for them, but with your help we can prove that it is possible for a film like ours to succeed - that audiences will come to a film with a fresh voice, a story full of suspense and humor, with characters and a world unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. We think ‘On the Ice’ deserves to be seen, and we hope you do too.”

Kickstarter Page

full Indiewire article online

Hi from Qutuq!

2011-08-09T21:38:00.002-04:00

Update video from our Kickstarter campaign!

2011-08-03T20:23:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share this video with you and ask you to check our Kickstarter page! Aarigaa!

Film Independent Interview

2011-08-02T21:57:00.001-04:00

Alaska, Ice and Crowd Funding: An Interview with the Filmmakers of ‘On the Ice’

Writer / Director Andrew MacLean and producer Cara Marcous

Writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean and producer Cara Marcous (2010 Fast Track) talk with Josh Welsh, Film Independent’s Director of Talent Development, about their film On the Ice. Set in the isolated, frozen town of Barrow, Alaska, On the Ice is the story of Iñupiaq teenagers Qualli and Aivaaq who have grown up like brothers in a tight-knit community defined as much by ancient traditions as by hip-hop and snowmobiles. Early one morning, on a seal hunt with their friend James, a tussle turns violent, and James is killed. Panic stricken, terrified and with no one to blame but themselves, Qallii and Aivaaq lie and declare the death a tragic accident. As Barrow roils with grief and his protective father becomes suspicious, Qalli stumbles through guilt-filled days, wrestling with his part in the death.

After premiering at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, On the Ice went on to play major national and international film festivals, winning the FIPRESCI prize at the Seattle International Film Festival. It also screened at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival as Film Independent’s Project:Involve screening. On the Ice was in Film Independent’s Fast Track program in 2009, and received a Kodak Film Stock grant from Film Independent in 2010.

On the Ice is currently raising distribution funds on Kickstarter.

Q: First off, congrats to both of you on the film and your amazing festival run. For anyone who has not seen On the Ice or is unfamiliar with it, can you tell us what it’s about and where and when you made it?

A: Thanks! On the Ice is about two teenage boys in Barrow, Alaska who get involved in a tragic killing and a cover up. We shot in the Spring of 2010 entirely on location in Barrow which is the northernmost point of the U.S., 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

Q: Since Sundance, the film has played many festivals, winning awards at Berlin and Seattle, among others. How has that experience been for you? Have you been surprised by audience reactions at any of the fests you have attended? What other fests do you have lined up?

A: It’s been pretty non-stop but in a great way. The audience response has been really positive. People are fascinated by the world of the film because for the most part they come in with little, if any, awareness of Barrow in a contemporary sense. The most surprising thing for us so far is that at every festival, no matter where we are, people make comments about it being like their hometown or their community. In some of the seemingly most opposite places, like Istanbul for example, people still see themselves or people they know in the characters.

Q: On the Ice was just announced as one of the films that will be going out as part of the new Sundance distribution initiative. Can you explain how this release will work? Where and when will you be in theaters and also launching online?

A: We are in the process of nailing down our dates, but the release will work like a fairly traditional platform release. We plan to start in three cities and then build from there. The nice thing about our relationship with Sundance, and having more control of the process, is that we can target our release really specifically to the audience we have already built in certain markets, and then use that foundation to expand further than we might have been able to otherwise.

Q: Can you talk about how you’ve used crowd-funding for On the Ice? I know you had a fundraising campaign on the USA Projects website that helped fund your trip to Sundance, and now you have a major campaign underway on Kickstarter to help with the theatrical release.

A: With our USA Projects campaign, we were able to afford to have our two lead actors in Park City with us to help promote the film and to hire an experienced PR company to take full advantage of being there with our actors. In that case the “crowd” was made up of personal contacts for the most part, in addition to the amazing USArtists community. We were also very fortunate to have the exceptional support of the Rasmuson Foundation who provided matching funds to all donations. That made a huge difference for us in terms of motivating people to check out our page.

Our Kickstarter campaign is a more ambitious venture and we’re trying to reach as many people as we can. We’re reaching out through our own grassroots network of supporters as well as through a wide variety of organizations and some media outlets. Once people find out about us, we feel like the project speaks for itself, but we are working pretty hard at getting the word out any way we can. In fact, we are very much open to suggestions, so if anyone out there has suggestions of a community or organization that might be interested in our film, we’d love the heads up!

Q: Going back to the beginning of the film, Andrew, you developed the feature out of your short film Sikumi, which played Sundance and other festivals back in 2008. Can you talk about your process there? Was it always your intention with Sikumi to turn it into a feature? Did the story evolve in ways that you didn’t original anticipate when you were doing the short?

A: I actually didn’t have a feature in mind when I made Sikumi. But it quickly became obvious that there was a larger story to tell. Sundance was the first festival that Sikumi played at, and I started writing On the Ice just after that. From the beginning I knew there were certain changes I wanted to make. I wanted to make the story more contemporary and to make the central characters younger, so I could explore they way kids in the Arctic are forging their identities from both modern and traditional cultures. I think the biggest surprise for me was how much the tone of the film changed. It’s got a completely different feel to it.

Q: Cara, could you talk a bit about how you got the film financed? From a producing perspective, I can imagine this was challenging – you had a cast of non-professional actors, a first-time feature director, and a beautifully written script that had to be shot 320 miles north of the arctic circle. How did you pull it off? Did you have one main investor, or did you pull together financing from a range of sources?

A: Winning the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance in 2008 for Sikumi helped immensely in terms of getting people to take the time to read Andrew’s script and watch the short. Andrew wrote a really strong page-turner script, which would get people excited, and then when they watched Sikumi, they knew he could actually deliver as a director.

From my side of things, I knew it was still going to be difficult to raise what we needed to make this in Alaska. It was a complicated film production-wise in an expensive place, so I spent a year and a half raising over 300k in grants and in-kind donations, all non-recoupable funds. I could then go to investors with a project that already had significant financial value, but with no impact on their potential investment in the film. Andrew’s agent Craig Kestel introduced us to Whitewater films and they ended up being our first money to sign on. Then, through the Sundance Creative Producing Initiative, I met the incredible Lynette Howell and she loved the project. She felt strongly that she could help us put together the rest of the budget and we were thrilled to have her expertise on our side. Ultimately, Lynette helped us piece together the rest of our budget with several investors and we managed to greenlight ourselves just in time to shoot the following spring.

Q: Can you both talk about casting the film? You have an amazing cast of non-professional actors for the most part. How did you find them, how did you audition them, and Andrew, once you were shooting, how did you work with them?

A: Andrew and I knew that casting was the lynchpin to the success of the film very early on. My first goal fundraising-wise was to find grant money to support our extensive casting plan all over Alaska and Canada. We ended up applying to the Princess Grace Foundation for a Special Project grant to fund our casting process and when they approved our grant, they basically allowed us to believe that we could make our film. Our casting situation was profoundly unique because there are very few experienced Inuit actors, particularly in the teenage age range of our main characters. We knew we needed time to genuinely reach out to the communities and develop word of mouth in a significant way. Because we both have a background in theater and acting, we felt confident running the casting ourselves and set up an ambitious 3-month journey to 15 communities, as well as video auditions. We met about a thousand people from all over and ended up holding an intensive three-stage call-back process to find our cast.

I think the key to the process was the amount of rehearsal time we had. I was able to work with the two lead characters for a solid month before we started filming, and we slowly added the other actors into the mix as we went. We did some basic acting exercises and a lot of improv work. My goal was for the actors to feel like they owned the parts. So by the time we got on set, with camera and crew, they felt confident about the story they were telling.

Q: Cara, can you talk a bit about your experiences as a producer dealing with festivals and the film’s theatrical release? Is there any particular advice you would have for a producer who is in production or post-production right now, and perhaps not yet thinking about festival strategy or the way the film will be released?

A: It’s a hard question to answer generally, but in terms of festivals I think it’s important to have a strategy for at least your U.S. and international premieres. Once we had screened at Sundance and then Berlin, we worked with our domestic and foreign sales teams to fully flesh out our overall festival strategy. And our strategy is still developing now as we look ahead to those markets where we think we may have the most activated audience.

In terms of releasing the film, we’re in slightly unchartered territory, so it’s early for me to share any advice. On a basic level though, everything comes down to communication. Right now I am focused on finding ways to delegate appropriately so that I will have the time I need to manage the process properly and communicate with all of our many amazing collaborators.

Q: If someone wants to see the film, or wants to help you with distribution, what can they do?

A: In the immediate future, festivals are the only way you can see the film, but we are hoping to release theatrically late this year or early next year. Once we release theatrically, On the Ice will then be available through a variety of outlets online as well. Our website has all the most current info.

The most powerful thing people can do to help with distribution is check out our Kickstarter page and forward it on to friends. Posting our link on Facebook might sound like a small thing, but thus far it’s been our most effective way of reaching a wider group of people. And if someone wants to help in a more involved way, they should email me and we can talk in more detail.

Q: I’m sure you’re extremely busy with the film’s release right now, but can you tell us anything about your next film(s) or what else you’re working on in the near future?

Andrew: I’m working on a bunch of projects. I have several script ideas that I’m outlining or starting to write. Most of them take place in warm climates. I’m also attached to a couple of projects as a director. Hopefully one of them will catch on soon.

Cara: I’m still fully entrenched in On the Ice, but I am in development on a few different films as well. We’ll see what comes together first but I can’t wait to get back on set!

Article on Film Independent website

DFW.com review

2011-07-28T17:02:00.005-04:00

At Sundance, the kids are definitely not all right

Article online

Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski. A scene from 'On the Ice.'

By Christopher Kelly

DFW.com

Posted 9:07pm on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2011

"If there’s a theme among the films at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, it seems to be the plight of the troubled teenager. On Saturday afternoon, I saw three films, all in the dramatic competition, and all of which concerned themselves with bullied, disenfranchised, wholly alienated youth. The estate of J.D. Salinger should perhaps considering suing for royalties.

What the late Salinger would have thought of these mostly earnest, overly self-serious crop of movies is another story entirely.

The best of them is On the Ice, a new twist on the old River’s Edge story, in which two teenagers accidentally kill one of their best friends and then try to bury the evidence. What makes the film striking is its setting, an Inupiaq community in northern Alaska, where the only diversions for young people seem to be sex, hip hop music and crack cocaine. First-time director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean coaxes excellent performances from Josiash Patkotak and Frank Qutuq, two young actors from Alaska; and while the movie is certainly a little rough around the edges, it at least suggests a promising young talent on the way to finding his voice..."

We're a "Must-See!" according to Eric Kohn at Indiewire!

2011-06-15T12:42:00.003-04:00

5 Must-See Films at BAMcinemaFest

by Eric Kohn

Entering its third year, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) continues its intention of bringing many of the strongest sleeper hits of the American film festival circuit to appreciative crowds in Brooklyn. The opening night selection Thursday, June 16th is an interesting example: British director Andrew Haigh’s gay romance “Weekend” came out of nowhere to become the breakout hit of South by Southwest in March, but its positioning at BAM makes it one of the stars of the show. There are also plenty of mid-size productions that developed buzz out of Sundance, such as “Terri” and “Another Earth,” both of which will hit theaters later this year. However, the festival’s real strength comes from its selection of less widely acclaimed work that has slipped through the cracks or otherwise avoided the media spotlight. Here are a few memorable discoveries in that vein.

“On the Ice”

Although it played under the radar at Sundance in January, Inuit filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s tense thriller about a couple of rebellious teens in desolate Barrow, Alaska announces a new filmmaker with a firm grasp on the genre. When a drunken night results in an accidental murder, two young men must harbor a dark secret while the authorities traverse the barren terrain in search of the missing body. The scenario isn’t exactly original, but MacLean’s script benefits from making its edgy characters into figures of sympathy: Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) dreams of attending college while his friend Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan) hopes to settle down with his girlfriend. Their dreams give the movie’s film noir ingredients a real sense of peril, the marriage of high stakes and teen angst put a Hitchcockian twist on the typical John Hughes scenario, and the icy climate introduces an existential creepiness no less unsettling than the empty vistas in John Carpenter’s “The Thing.”

Here's the link to it online.

Winner of FIPRESCI Prize for Best New American Film!

2011-06-12T20:40:00.007-04:00

June 12, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Inquiries

SIFF Publicity Department

206.624.1179

press@siff.net

37th SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL WRAPS WITH

2011 GOLDEN SPACE NEEDLE AWARDS

Jury, Audience Awards Given for Best Film, Documentary, Director, Actor and Short Film

SEATTLE – The 37th Seattle International Film Festival, the largest and most highly-attended event of its kind in the United States concluded today with the announcement of the SIFF 2011 Competition Awards and Golden Space Needle Audience Awards. The 25-day Festival, which began May 19, featured over 450 films from more than 70 countries, including 96 premieres (29 World, 42 North American, 25 U.S.) and over 600 screenings. Additionally, SIFF brought more than 300 directors, actors and industry professionals, including Tribute Honoree Ewan McGregor to Seattle, as well as hosted numerous digital Q&As via Skype with international filmmakers who were unable to attend in person.

“I'm gratified that Seattle audiences continue to embrace the Festival’s wide-ranging selection of films from around the world proving that Seattle filmgoers see more films per capita than any other city in the nation,” said SIFF Artistic Director Carl Spence. “For the second year in a row, we have surpassed one million dollars in ticket sales making this another record-setting year.”

SIFF Managing Director Deborah Person said, “2011 has been a monumental year for SIFF, as we've expanded our year-round exhibition programming at SIFF Cinema with record attendance and introduced the work of filmmakers from around the world to more than 10,000 students. With the exciting move into our new home at the SIFF Film Center, filmgoers will experience even more of the best in cinema which will carry on for future generations.”

SIFF 2011 FIPRESCI Prize for Best New American Film

SIFF is very pleased to announce its continued partnership with FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics. FIPRESCI, in existence for more than 65 years, with members in over 60 countries, supports cinema as an art and as an outstanding and autonomous means of expression. SIFF is one of three festivals in the United States to host a FIPRESCI jury, and this year, FIPRESCI presented an award to Best New American Film selected from the New American Cinema program.

FIPRESCI Prize

On the Ice, directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “For presenting a universal, near-Biblical tragedy set in a little known culture recreated with compelling detail. A story told with outstanding naturalistic performances with a confident, compelling narrative.”

The FIPRESCI jury was comprised of members of the International Federation of Film Critics: Peter Keough, USA; Gideon Kouts, France; and Lucy Virgen, Mexico

Honorable Mention at Cine Las Americas

2011-06-11T18:40:00.002-04:00

We were so happy to be a part of a co-presentation between Cine Las Americas and the Austin Film Festival where we won an Honorable Mention for Best Film! Here's the press announcement on their webpage: http://www.cinelasamericas.org/film-festival/14/609-2011-jury-and-audience-awards

SIFF TV

2011-06-11T18:35:00.002-04:00

Here's an interview that Andrew did while in Seattle for the Seattle International Film Festival.

http://www.siff.net/sifftv/index.aspx?vid=161

Tickets on sale!!!

2011-05-27T10:42:00.005-04:00

We are participating in a variety of festivals in June and many of them having tickets on sale now. If we're coming to your area, we'd love to see you!

Seattle International Film Festival
http://www.siff.net/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=44462&FID=206

Screening dates/times:
Saturday, June 4th at 9:30pm
Sunday, June 5th at 11am
Friday, June 10th at 9pm

Berkshire International Film Festival
http://biffma.slated.com/2011/films/ontheice_biffma2011

Screening dates/times:
Friday, June 3rd at 6:45pm
Sunday, June 5th at 1:30pm

Provincetown International Film Festival
http://www.ptownfilmfest.org/films/schedule.php

Screening dates/times:
Thursday, June 16th at 2pm
Sunday June 19th at 11:30am

BAM cinemaFEST (Brooklyn Academy of Music)
http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=3258

Screening date/time: Friday, June 17th at 6:50pm

LA Film Fest (LAFF)
http://filmguide.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2011/filmguide/Title/OO

This screening is free! You just have to make sure to come early enough to get a seat.
Regal Cinemas LA Live 10
Screening date/time: Sunday, June 19th at 6:45pm

Nantucket Film Festival
http://nantucket.slated.com/2011/films/ontheice_nantucket2011

Friday, June 24th at 12:30pm
Saturday, June 25th at 5pm

Inter Press Service article

2011-05-25T03:20:00.001-04:00

AUSTRALIA
Indigenous Say It on Film
By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY, May 25, 2011 (IPS) - From the Australian bush to Alaska’s Arctic wilderness, indigenous peoples’ stories and perspectives take centre stage at the Message Sticks Film Festival, the only annual event of its kind in Australia.

Message Sticks opened at the Sydney Opera House on May 13 and tours nationally until Aug. 24, through remote Aboriginal communities in the towns of Broome, Townsville, Cairns, Alice Springs and Yirrkala, besides screening to mainstream audiences in state and territory capitals.

"The festival has grown in terms of audience and the quality of works," said Australian indigenous film and documentary director Rachel Perkins.

"The pool of indigenous filmmakers has also grown with more access to targeted programmes for skills development. This, coupled with the means of production becoming more economically viable, has meant that there is more content to draw from," Perkins, who has been the festival curator for the past 12 years, told IPS.

A decade ago it was difficult to get an audience for an indigenous film, but interest in contemporary stories on native peoples has grown substantially.

In the 1970s, there were no feature films with an indigenous Australian in a key creative role. But the first decade of the 2000s has seen native filmmakers contribute to nine features and 16 TV dramas, according to Screen Australia’s The Black List, which catalogues the work of 257 Aboriginal Australians on a total of 674 screen productions.

The Sydney Opera House started Message Sticks in 2000 to commemorate "Sorry Day", a tribute to the so-called Stolen Generations—tens of thousands of indigenous children forcibly taken from their families between 1900 and 1970 under the Government Assimilation Policies to "breed out" Aborigine blood and supposedly provide them with a better life.

Although Message Sticks began in this context, Perkins said, it is now a niche festival showing the best indigenous films from around the world.

A standout film at this year’s event has been "On the Ice" by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. It won the Crystal Bear and Best First Feature at Berlin, and demonstrates a filmmaker working at the top of his craft with an appreciation for storytelling, but strongly grounded in the indigenous and very contemporary world of filmmaking.

MacLean, who grew up in Barrow Village in Alaska’s Inuit (Eskimo) nation, said "My film is set in the aftermath of a murder and explores themes of morality. Even if one escapes, there is no real way of getting away from the crime, which ripples out into the community and impacts people on the periphery. In our village of about 4,000 people, everybody knows everyone so crime in the village, unlike in a big city, is not anonymous or impersonal."

The film is an extension of a short film MacLean, an Iñupiaq, made in 2008 called "Sikumi", which won the Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize on Short Filmmaking that year.

While technology is making it easier for indigenous films to reach out to a global audience, MacLean, who has a Masters degree from the New York University film school, said, "For small independent films with no great stars, there is no government funding and it is difficult to raise funds. It took three years from script to screen."

The festival opened in Sydney and Melbourne with Australian indigenous writer and director Beck Cole’s debut feature "Here I Am," which tells the story of a young woman’s difficult journey reconnecting with her mother and daughter after being released from prison.

Karen, the central character in the film, faces the difficult truth that shame is a powerful force, and sometimes the most important person to forgive is oneself. "It was my desire to tell a story about a family of women trying to mend itself and to give audiences an opportunity to enter a world they otherwise might not know about," Cole told IPS.

Aboriginal adults, who comprise around two percent of Australia’s total adult population, make up over 25 percent of prisoners, and Cole is hoping her film would help many of these adults forgive themselves and reconnect with family and society.

According to the 2006 census, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders comprise only 2.5 per cent or 517,000 of the country's 22 million population. They have been one of the most marginalised populations in the developed world.

But their identity is evolving, said Perkins. "In the most positive sense, it is defined by having a consciousness about the original culture of Australia and an identification and connection with that heritage, whilst also embracing the experience of living in a contemporary Australian society."

Actress, writer and director Pauline Whyman, who hosts the festival tour, told IPS, "Message Sticks films often have the effect of drawing you into the sheer diversity of the story telling and the breadth of talent the filmmakers share that brings excellence in filmmaking to the world."

In recent years, indigenous filmmakers have achieved both critical and commercial acclaim. "Filmmakers have developed their skills over time. We are seeing filmmakers graduate from short form works to narrative movies. This has meant we have a wider variety of dramatic works to choose from," Perkins told IPS. The other films that premiered at Message Sticks include Native American director Billy Luther’s "Grab," an intimate portrayal of Grab Day in the villages of the Laguna Pueblo tribe in New Mexico; Mexican director Carlos Pérez Rojas’s "And the River Flows On," about the conflict between the Mexican government and the indigenous communities threatened by the La Parota hydro-electric dam on the Papagayo River in Guerrero state; and Australian director Ivan Sen’s "Shifting Shelter 4" which follows the lives of four young Aboriginal teenagers dealing with the harsh realities of life and raising their own families.

Perkins said the government has committed to supporting indigenous cinema as a contribution to Australian culture. "The immediate challenge is that demand for quality indigenous content has increased, so we must now focus on identifying and supporting new indigenous talent to take up this opportunity," she said.

Click HERE for the article online.

Australia!

2011-05-25T01:59:00.010-04:00

We're back from down under!

Andrew and I had the great fortune to be invited to Australia for the Message Sticks Film Festival, hosted at the incredible Sydney Opera House.

We were able to send some time with many talented artists there including Rachel Perkins, Darren Dale, Jessica Beck, and Tammy Davis. All of them are pictured here, except Jess.

Andrew participated in a fantastic panel with Warwick Thorton (writer/director of the Camera d'Or winning film "Samson and Delilah"); Wesley Enoch (playwright, director, artistic director of Queensland Theater Company), Stephen Page (artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre); Hetti Perkins (curator at Art Gallery NSW) and Rachel Perkins (Festival curator of Message Sticks Film Festival).

It was the best panel I've been too in a very long time. Rachel did an excellent job of mediating, leading the discussion with humor, warmth, and candor. It was refreshing to hear such a diverse group of people frankly discuss their experiences as Aboriginal artists in Australia in 2011, as well as the complex politics that go along with it. Andrew functioned as an outside voice that offered a useful comparison from a place with a very different, but not entirely dissimilar, history. I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but I didn't want the panel to end. If they put the video of it online I'll try to post it here.

While we were in Australia, a troubled man climbed the Harbour Bridge in protest over something involving his child's custody case. He made it to the top of the bridge, unfurled a huge banner that said "kids first!" and then stopped traffic for hours and hours because the bridge security there was worried he or someone else would get hurt if cars were allowed to pass by. Anyway, I don't know all the details, but the bridge was quite the topic of conversation. Picture it with a huge ON THE ICE banner instead. Maybe I should give that guy a call.

ON THE ICE is being co-presented by the Sydney Film Festival. We were there for the Sydney Film Festival launch at the Customs House and have a nice page in their program. It is an adventurous collaboration between the two festivals; our film marks their very first co-presentation. I hope it has blazed a trail for other partnerships in the future and we're looking forward to developing it further.

Our second screening in Australia was in a suburb of Sydney called Blacktown. We had a lively Q&A with a diverse audience of people from all over the world. Afterwords we had the great pleasure to meet a wonderful group of Sudanese artists who have settled in Blacktown after being sent there as refugees. Many of them have lived there for over 10 years and told us about their theater work in the community.

Our Blacktown screening started off our national screening tour of Australia. If you live in another area of Australia and would like to see our film please click HERE for more information.

The last thing I'll mention is the moving performance we saw by Ursula Yovich. She did a cabaret night of songs and personal stories that we loved. She's exceptionally talented--quite a diva, in the best sense. She did a beautiful rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the three languages of her life, Brada, Serbian and English. You can watch a video of her doing it in Melbourne at a different event HERE.

We're back in New York for a short time and then we're off to the Seattle International Film Festival on June 1st. Andrew and I will be mentors in Native Lens' Superfly filmmaking workshop for young people. More on that later.

Cara

NEA article

2011-05-02T13:26:00.003-04:00

Answering Back

Andrew Okpeaha MacLean Captures Life on the Ice

by Paulette Beete

Director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, working on his film On the Ice. Photo courtesy of Maura Anderson

Situated amidst miles of Arctic tundra and geographically isolated even from other parts of Alaska, the town of Barrow, the northernmost point in the United States, might seem an unlikely place to launch a film career. But that's exactly where filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean -- whose first feature-length film On the Ice was recently honored at the Berlin Film Festival -- first decided to step behind the camera.

An Iñupiaq Eskimo, MacLean grew up mostly in Barrow and Fairbanks. After earning an undergraduate theater degree at the University of Washington, he decided he wanted to improve his Iñupiaq language skills and headed back to Barrow where a cousin convinced him to start a theater company. "It was a theater dedicated to performing in the Iñupiaq language. We would write plays with the help of elders who spoke the language more fluently and then we'd perform them and have to learn the lines entirely in Iñupiaq," he explained.

While MacLean enjoyed his theater work, he wanted to find a way to reach people beyond the local community. "I [wanted] to do something on a larger scale and reach a wider audience, and films seemed a way to do that. I could be making things that were centered in Barrow or that really spoke to who I was and where I was from, and be able to reach out to people that were beyond the communities where I was living." Despite having no film experience, he was accepted to New York University on a scholarship, and a filmmaker was born.

A still from Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's first feature length film, On the Ice. Photo by Sebastian Mlynarski.

All of MacLean's films to date have been set, at least in part, in Barrow and its surrounding landscape. As is true with all hard-to-reach places, the inhabitants of Alaska's North Slope remain a mystery to outsiders, and much of their characterization in popular culture is half-truth verging on caricature. MacLean's filmmaking is a reflection of his desire to let people know what being an Eskimo is really like. "We're in a kind of strange position that everybody in the world has heard of Eskimos. Most people have some kind of strange notions -- they rely on stereotypes they've heard….We're like a punch line or something. Nobody really knows us. I want to make art that is reflective of a more genuine aspect of our experience."

He added that there is an implicit political angle to his filmmaking. "In the Arctic right now, we've got this avalanche of information and narrative and stories that just piles into our lives from the dominant Western culture. Movies, television, Internet, Facebook, music…I want to start answering that back. I want to start making people listen to us for a change. I've seen a million movies about you guys, now here's a movie about us that you have to sit and watch."

A still from MacLean's short film Sikumi (2008). Photo by Cary Fukunaga

MacLean said physical environment looms large as he develops his projects, which isn't surprising given the dramatic landscapes of his childhood. "I think that environment and place have been important in everything I've done as a filmmaker. The Arctic is a unique place, and it really has this feeling of being at the end of the world. I tend to try and exploit that or to use that in the films I make."

MacLean's use of landscape to heighten emotion is especially evident in his short film Sikumi (2008), which received numerous awards at North American film festivals and is the first film shot entirely in the Iñupiaq language. In the opening scenes, the viewer is confronted with white as far as the eye can see. Sky and land are virtually the same pale, icy shade, and the hunter and his sled dogs seem impossibly small against the vast blank canvas of the hunting ground. A friend of MacLean's characterized the atmosphere as akin to that of a classic Western, and indeed, despite the film's short length, the moral battle that plays out between the two main characters has the epic scope of a John Ford vehicle.

"I think part of being out there in this incredibly open, desolate landscape gives the feeling that the characters could get away with anything. We created a kind of moral ambiguity….You bring your morality with you and you can't escape it even in places like that," said MacLean.

That question of morality and how a person's moral code is affected by place and by culture compelled MacLean to make On the Ice (2011), which is in many ways an amplification of Sikumi. Like Sikumi, On the Ice also starts with a murder, but then follows the characters as they return to town and wrestle with the consequences of their actions. It is important to note that On the Ice is not just a continuation of or sequel to Sikumi: the characters are teens, the action is set in the 21st century, and the characters speak mostly in English. (In Sikumi, the characters are much older, and the setting is the mid-20th century.) This was an important shift for MacLean as it allowed him to explore how the younger generations of Iñupiaq live.

"I was interested in what young people are going through up there right now and where they're drawing their identity from," he noted. "They're caught up in this maelstrom of information and story and everything just getting poured into them from outside. But at the same time, they're very conscious of where they came from and who they are as Iñupiaq. So they're really drawing their identities from two very different places: from traditions that stretch back for hundreds and thousands of years, and then also from contemporary pop culture that reinvents itself every 15 minutes. That kind of violence [in the film] happens all over the world, but I wanted to make the response to it specific. I wanted to look at how these kids would respond to it as somebody who comes from this specific community, from this specific culture."

Although most news stories refer to MacLean as a Native filmmaker, it's a title he wears lightly. "Nobody wants to be ghettoized. Nobody wants to be stuck with a label that limits your possibilities. I look at myself as a Native filmmaker because I'm Native and because I'm a filmmaker and it just makes sense. It's something that I'm proud of." He added, "I think the only potential negative is when people…attribute any sort of success to a kind of affirmative action or this sort of cultural curiosity. Fortunately, we can answer with the films that we make and with how well they actually do and the audiences that they actually reach."

MacLean cautioned, however, that though his culture permeates his work, he doesn't consider himself a cultural preservationist. "I'm too young to be a tradition bearer; that's the job of the elders. The films I make are part of the conversation, but they're not there to preserve something. That would put them in the position of being more or less museum pieces."

Instead, his goal is to use film to be honest about the community of which he's a part -- culturally, historically, and environmentally. In fact, MacLean believes that honesty is the primary job of the artist. "The responsibility of the artist is to make work that's real and that's reflective of something that's true. You have to be true to your own vision of the voice you're trying to find. I've seen with other filmmakers…especially in Native communities, that people get defensive or people get upset with artists who bring a negative aspect of the culture to light. I remember when Chris Eyre made Skins and people were giving him crap because he was doing a film that referenced alcoholism in the Native community. But to me it seems obvious that that is part of what an artist is supposed to do, to provoke those sorts of things."

Providence & Cine Las Americas

2011-04-19T18:51:00.003-04:00

Hi all,

I will be in Providence tomorrow night screening ON THE ICE at Brown University as a part of the Ivy Film Festival. The screening is at 8pm at the Salomon Center. Here's more info: http://www.ivyfilmfestival.com/

Also, we are very excited that the Austin Film Festival and Cine Las Americas are doing a co-presentation of ON THE ICE in Austin, Texas this week.

THEATER: Alamo South Lamar
DATE: Saturday, April 23rd
TIME: 9:45pm.

Visit their festival website for more information or to buy tickets.

Opening Night TONIGHT - Indie Spirit Film Festival

2011-04-14T13:23:00.003-04:00

We're very excited to be the opening night film of the Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado Springs tonight. Not sure how many of you may be located in Colorado, but spread the word to your friends and loved ones if they like movies and live nearby!

http://www.indiespiritfilmfestival.org/2011/

Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival

2011-04-08T21:59:00.004-04:00

If you're in the Minneapolis St. Paul area Andrew would love to see you at one of our screenings. Hope you can make it!

St. Anthony Main Theatre

Wednesday, April 20, 2011 - 6:45pm

Friday, April 22, 2011 - 9:15pm
Click here for tickets.

Independent Film Festival of Boston screenings

2011-04-08T13:49:00.006-04:00

If you live in the Boston area and would like to see ON THE ICE, I hope you'll come to one of our screenings at the Independent Film Festival of Boston. Tickets are now on sale and you can get a dollar off on the price if you buy them online as opposed to at the box office. Here the link to the IFF Boston website: http://iffboston.bside.com/2011/films/ontheice_iffboston2011

Screening info:
Thursday, April 28th @ 9:30pm - Somerville Theater 2
Sunday, May 1st @ 12:45pm - Somerville Theater 2

If you would like to meet Andrew MacLean (writer/director) he will be in Boston for the premiere on Thursday, April 28th.

Enjoy!

Barrow screening!

2011-04-05T16:27:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

We're so happy to finally announce our screening in Barrow! We'll be showing ON THE ICE in the Barrow High School auditorium on Wednesday, April 13th at 7pm. Come early to make sure you get a seat!

Anthem Magazine Interview

2011-03-21T22:34:00.003-04:00

Sundance Exclusive: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's "On the Ice"

Text: Jack Price

In the same tradition as last year’s Winter’s Bone, Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s riveting debut feature On the Ice take a popular genre staple—in this instance, the botched cover up of a murder—and applies it like a magnifying glass in revealing the intimacies of an oft-misunderstood culture. Filmed in the harsh tundra landscapes of Barrow, Alaska (and during an exhaustive period of continuous sunlight), MacLean’s unwavering vision shows how two lifelong friends deal with the inadvertent murder of one of their own. It’s a slow-burn experience in subzero conditions, where the binding ties of a steadfast indigenous community are as vast as the Alaskan wilderness itself.

Anthem spoke to the native Iñupiat filmmaker at Sundance, where his film was one of the most buzzed-about in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category.

I was actually at the 8:30 a.m. screening. You had a great turnout!

It was packed and everybody’s just chill in a way, you know? Everyone’s just there for the film and they’re all just sort of soaking it in. The [a.m.] screenings I’ve gone to as an audience member have always been some of my favorites.

Just to clarify, this is your third film that you’ve shown at Sundance. How has this experience measured up with the previous two?

The other two times were for short films, so there’s a huge difference in what surrounds it. You come here with a short doc and it’s like, “Hey, good job! Have fun!” And that’s all you hear. You meet a bunch of filmmakers, you have a great time, and you screen your film, but there’s nobody who’s looking to sign a short documentarian. So, there’s no real pressure or expectation. It’s just purely to show your film and have a good time. Having a short narrative is a little different in that people do look at the short filmmakers and ask, “Well, are you going to be making a feature narrative next?” or “Are you an up-and-coming filmmaker?” So, there’s a little bit more pressure there.

When you’re here with a feature, of course, it’s so much press, interviews, photo shoots, and industry screenings. It’s all the external stuff, and then the business side all of a sudden just lands on you. It’s definitely a different thing. I know that when I was here with shorts, I got to see a lot of films and I loved that. This year, I’ve seen one film on opening night and that’s it.

When you began adapting your short film “Sikumi” into a feature, what excited you the most and what did you find the most challenging in terms of expanding that narrative?

The thing that I was excited about was the context, because “Sikumi” was just about this one event that happened in an isolated area with these three people. They’re in this kind of huge blank slate, right? And there’s a presence of the community that’s implied and you kind of get that through the short—but it’s only implied. What the feature gave me a chance to do is really explore what that is; how the community would react to this kind of tragedy, how that community’s reaction would inform the characters’ journey, and how they navigate themselves through these really treacherous moral grounds that they’ve thrown themselves into. That was really interesting to me as I started to adapt it.

I also knew that I wanted to make it into a very different film; I didn’t want to make it just like a longer version of the short. So I changed a few things right off the bat. I made the characters younger, around 17 or 18 years old. I set it in modern times. With “Sikumi,” it’s hard to tell but it’s set back in the 1950s, before there were snow machines. People were still using dog teams and they were also using things like rifles and binoculars. I wanted to do a contemporary story with the feature. I wanted to explore some things that kids are going through and where they’re drawing their identity from, because they’re building their identity from traditions that have been around for thousands of years, from hunting traditions and from language and things like that. But then they’re also pulling pieces of their identity from this larger culture, which is coming up like waves. You know, every kid is on Facebook now and every kid has iTunes. Hip-hop is really huge. You have parties up there and kids in the Arctic that are putting down beats and making rhymes. It’s like they’re expressing themselves in a unique way; they’re appropriating a culture from the outside and using it to express something like that.

That’s actually a great point that I wanted to touch on. The biggest difference between the short and the feature, for me at least, came from how you infused this coexistence of old tradition with more modern trends into the narrative. The film even opens with this ceremonial dance, and in the following scene, we see the two leads beat boxing. I wondered how much of that was inspired by your own experiences growing up in Barrow.

Well, you know, I’m no longer a youth. I’m not 17 or 18. The Barrow that I grew up in is kind of different. I didn’t really grow up with so much hip-hop, or it was an earlier era of hip-hop. Frankly, we weren’t even that good at it. [Laughs] So, we weren’t out there making rhymes or making beats in the way that the kids are right now. That aspect is definitely new. And it was the kind of thing where I had cousins who were younger and cousins who were hitting that age, so I could see what their lives were like. I became interested in that before writing the feature and then when it came time to write the feature, I thought, “Yeah, this has to be in the feature somehow.” All that juxtaposition is there.

I think the film has three musical performance moments that are important. It starts with this traditional dance, and that’s our tradition; this is what we’ve been doing and this is our roots, you know? And then it’s got hip-hop. That one scene on top of the water tower and the party scene are really like the “brand new.” And then there’s also this inspiration scene, which is when they take a hymn—something that came from the outside a hundred years ago and came from Christianity—that was translated into the Iñupiaq language. So it’s these three things: the purely traditional and then these two other forms of musical expression that have either been adapted or appropriated into the culture. It was like the old, the kind of old, and the brand new.

On paper, the story’s setting seems almost stagnant. The sun never fully sets and you have this endless white landscape that stretches as far as the eye can see. Yet, scene-by-scene, I felt that you and your DP brought out so much specificity and so much diversity to the landscape. What was your approach to location scouting and scheduling?

Just in terms of scheduling alone, it was crazy. We shot a lot of the film out on the Arctic Ocean, and a lot of that was weather dependent. And for one of our locations, we were trying to get up to the edge of the ice where the open water is. It was really, really hard to get out there. Because the winds would blow the wrong direction or there would be like a whaling camp—we filmed during the whaling season—there would be a whaling camp that didn’t want to be filmed, so we couldn’t do that. It took us the entire shoot to get down to the edge of the ice. Almost every day, we would have our first schedule, which is like, “If the weather’s like this, then we’ll do this. If the weather’s like that, then we’ll do that.” Invariably, neither of those two options worked out. We would go with, like, some other cobbled together schedule. It was the hardest shoot in the world for our A.D. I have to give props to Kit [Bland] because I think he had the hardest job on set.

In terms of how we dealt with the locations and shooting, to me, it was about a dichotomy. For the part of the movie that happens out on the ice and on the ocean, you’re out there and it’s this wide-open blank landscape, which suggests infinite possibilities—it’s possible to get away with murder. It makes you think that you could do stuff like that. There’s nobody around. We’re here, we’re alone, and we can make up our own rules. In a way, it was sort of reflected in the shooting; we would actually cheat certain locations in the same location and that kind of contributed to the feeling of blankness. There are no landmarks to tie you down. And then that was contrasted with the part of the movie that takes place in town. Town is all about community; it’s about this very tight-knit group of people who are mostly related to each other. Everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everybody else’s business. Yet everybody has found a way to live together. It’s a very tight-knit, inward-looking community. And you really get into that through this tragedy that happens. You see how the community responds and you see how the lie that the kids carry back with them kind of alienates them from the community. That’s where the real tension from the characters comes from. So, that sort of dichotomy was at the heart of the film.

This must have been something of a homecoming event for you to film in Barrow and especially around people you already knew on a first-name basis. How did that impact filming?

It was both great and really stressful. It was great because I couldn’t have done it without the support that I got back there, and it was awesome to do it and to get it done. But it was hard partly because it was so personal. You’re dealing with people with whom you have a very intimate relationship and you’re asking them for favors. Also, the community doesn’t know what it takes to make a film, so there was a certain amount of education that had to happen. Sometimes, it was a messy process. You know, we would have these houses for a location, and then the day before they’re like, “Well, you know, we’re going to have like 15-20 people here for dinner, but you guys just need that back room, right? It’s just going to be you and a camera, right?” And I’m like, “Uh, no. We have a crew of about 20-30 people and we’re all going to be dropping into your house. We’re going to completely take over. We’re going to unplug everything you have and we’re going to set up lights everywhere.” So it was like a real education in that. And that was one of the real interesting aspects of filmmaking. It was rewarding in the end.

Do you have plans to publicly screen the film in Barrow?

We’re going to work that out soon. We barely finished the film in time for Sundance. Sundance was always in our plans to premiere it here. Once we’re done here, we’re going to go home. We’re going to start thinking about what we need to do with the film from here and very high up on that list is getting back to Barrow to show the community and be like, “This is what we did.”

Considering that a large portion of your cast had never acted before, how did you adjust your method for communicating direction, especially considering the extreme places some of the characters were required to go?

That was my biggest job as a director. I knew that going in, it would be non-actors as there were basically no trained Iñupiaq actors of that age group. I wanted people who could immediately connect with the characters and have an authenticity to them. It’s a very important part of the film. But at the same time, the roles are difficult. The roles are emotional. They require a lot of internal fluency. It was huge in casting. Just getting out there and finding the right people for it was probably the biggest part of the job. We needed people who not only understood the characters but also had a kind of availability, people who wouldn’t get in front of a camera and shut down. They needed to have that ability where they could forget the camera and just sort of open up and be there to tell the story. We saw hundreds of people all over Arctic Canada and all over Arctic Alaska. And we ended up with the cast that we have kind of by the skin of our teeth. There were not many second options for us, but we found them. And in terms of working with them, it was a matter of teaching them and also teaching ourselves. Together, we had to figure out a way of working. The producer Cara Marcous and I, we did an intensive workshop with the top contenders for the roles for about a week in Anchorage before we cast. That was our last casting process. We used that as an opportunity to start the process of working out how we were going to do this acting thing. We worked with them on some improvs and on some scripted scenes; we really put them through their paces on that. And then I had a good solid month of rehearsal with the two leads before we started filming. And again, it was a lot of working through improvs and working with a script as well. Trying to find a way for them to be able to do something that’s scripted—when I needed them to do a certain specific thing—to have it feel like they’re not just reciting lines, which can be challenging for a non-actor. It was an amazing process and I was amazed by where we got to by the end of it. And it evolved during filming as well.

Frank Irelan was particularly outstanding. He gave a very complex and natural performance.

He threw himself into it. He had probably the hardest role because of the amount of overt emotion that he needed to have. He needed to have these times where he just lost it. And that’s tough, especially for a non-actor, to be able to, on cue, just freak out and do it in an intelligent way where you’re communicating some specific complex emotional things. He found a way to do it.

Link to article on Anthem Magazine website

2011-03-03T16:07:00.004-05:00

For those of you who aren't in our On the Ice Facebook group here's a good pic from the Generations award ceremony at the Berlinale.

Also, this is completely random but Jess Bennett our key grip took this picture during production, I just saw it and it makes me laugh. We were loaned chairs and tables from another organization in Barrow. Then one day something came up where they needed the chairs and so they showed up with little warning and took them back. So from them on we had no chairs in our dining room. Glamorous filmmaking!

Best First Feature at the Berlinale

2011-02-20T17:48:00.004-05:00

Aarigaaaaa! We wanted to share the incredible and very unexpected news that we won the Best First Feature at the Berlinale last night. We competed against 33 other feature films and couldn't be more thrilled. More pictures are on the way to us, but in the meantime here is a fun one of Andrew, Qutuq and me at the press conference shortly after the ceremony. Thanks so much to everyone at the Berlinale, especially everyone from Generations!

Berlin's Crystal Bear for Generations 14plus!!!

2011-02-16T04:38:00.005-05:00

We won the Crystal Bear at the Berlinale!!!!! Such an incredible surprise! Our friend Martin took a millions pictures but we just need to get them off his camera and we'll put them up. In the meantime here are two press releases about it:

FROM THE BERLINALE WEBSITE

A number of different prizes are awarded in the sections competition programmes Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus, both to short films as well as feature films. Three juries cast their votes.

Prizes of the Generation 14plus Youth Jury

Awards 2011: On the Ice, Apflickorna, Manurewa, Get Real!

The members of the Youth Jury Generation 14plus, Faysal Asfaha, Jonathan Curio, Theresa Greiwe, Leonie Goebel-Künnecke, Roberta Huldisch, Oskar E. Levis und Tara Mauritz, give the following awards:

Crystal Bear for the Best Film

On the Ice

by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean

This film had us in its grip from the very first moment and it never let go, right up to the end. Between solitude and endless expanses, a stifling and constricting atmosphere has been created, using simple means. Our winning film took us off to a world that was totally unknown to us. A world where everything seems submerged in darkness, even though the sun never goes down.

Special Mention

Apflickorna

by Lisa Aschan

Showing your feelings makes you vulnerable. And being vulnerable makes you lose control. A game of love and power. A film that is confusing and disturbing, chilling and startling, it triggers an avalanche of thoughts and questions but also some answers.

Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film

Manurewa

by Sam Peacocke

In a very short time this film synthesises and skilfully compresses independent story lines and characters, merging them together into a single irrevocable, ever-changing moment. Our winning film is not only about perpetrators and victims, but also about human beings.

Special Mention

Get Real!

by Evert de Beijer

Aggressive, innovative and explosive. An attack on the senses. A film constantly walking the tightrope between deviance and brilliance. Hectic sequences of colour and plot and a wealth of detail. We have never seen a film like this before.

FROM SCREEN DAILY

On The Ice wins Berlin Crystal Bear for Generation 14plus

18 February, 2011 | By Wendy Mitchell

Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s thriller On The Ice has taken the Crystal Bear for best feature film in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus section.

The members of the youth jury were: Faysal Asfaha, Jonathan Curio, Leonie Goebel-Künnecke, Theresa Greiwe, Roberta Huldisch, Oskar E. Levis and Tara Mauritz.

Of On The Ice, which premiered at Sundance and is being sold internationally by Coach14, the jury said: “This film drew us in from the first minute and remained gripping right up to the very end. Here, between solitude and endless expanses, a stifling and constricting atmosphere is created using simple means. Our winning film took us off to a world that was totally unknown to us. A world where everything seems submerged in darkness, even though the sun never goes down.”

A special mention went to She Monkeys (Apflickorna) by Lisa Aschan from Sweden.

The Crystal Bear for the best short went to Same Peacocke’s Manurewa from New Zealand, with a special mention to Dutch short Get Real! by Evert de Beijer.

The awards were presented tonight at Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt, followed by a screening of On The Ice.

Coach14, Berlin

2011-02-10T12:39:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone!

We're getting ready to head to the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival) next week for our international premiere and we're thrilled to report that we'll be working with Coach14, our new foreign sales company. Andrew and I will be traveling there on Monday and if all goes well with their rush passports, Frank Qutuq Irelan and Josiah Patkotak will be joining us as well. I'm pretty sure it will be Josiah and Qutuq's first time in Europe so it should be exciting to experience it together. Stay tuned for pictures of us eating schnitzel in the snow.

Not sure how much time we'll have outside of festival stuff, but does anyone have suggestions on what we should try to see in Berlin?

Can't wait to premiere on the 15th! If you have any friends in Berlin our screenings are:

February 15th - 8pm at the HKW theaters
February 16th - 4:30pm at CinemaxX theaters
February 17th - 5:30pm at the HKW theaters

Twitch Film review

2011-02-03T22:47:00.002-05:00

Sundance 2011: ON THE ICE Review

by Ryland Aldrich, January 27, 2011 5:15 PM

One of the keys to the success of Sundance 2010's Dramatic Grand Jury winner (and Oscar nominee) Winter's Bone was its ability to tell a captivating story set in a world so rarely depicted on screen. That film brought us into the deep Ozarks to get a glimpse of a way of life familiar to few. This is exactly the case with one of this year's Grand Jury hopefuls, Andrew Okphea MacLean's crime drama, On the Ice, which trades the back woods of Missouri for the high northern Arctic of Alaska. MacLean's impressive debut feature keeps the audience fully engaged in its characters' central conflict, while simultaneously introducing us to their fascinating frozen world.

On the Ice tells the story of two best friends on the verge of adulthood: Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) and Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan). Qalli is considering leaving his small town for college while Aivaaq contemplates starting a family with his newly pregnant girlfriend. These plans get severely complicated when an early morning hunting trip with their friend James turns violent. In an attempt to save an incapacitated Aivaaq, Qalli stabs James with Aivaaq's knife, leaving James dead, but unintentionally leaving Aivaaq thinking he committed the murder. The boys cover up the crime, setting off a chain of events that engulfs the community and puts their futures and friendship in peril.

MacLean shows incredible maturity for a young writer/director. His characters are nuanced and his story very tight. The complex plot decision to leave Aivaaq in the dark about the true source of James's death is handled very well and leads to some original drama. Patkotak and Irelan turn in impressive performances for first time actors. Though actually separated by 9 years and growing up over 500 miles apart, the two play off each other with a comfort and conflict of boys who have known each other since birth.

A quick Google mapping of Barrow, Alaska, shows just how remote the film's location is. At 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle, Barrow is one of the northernmost communities in the world. There are no roads in or out of Barrow and the claustrophobia is unmistakable. This isolation plays a dual role in the film. MacLean does an excellent job of exploring how an isolated community is affected by a tragic event and how the guilt of their crime isolates the boys from their community at such an emotionally crucial time.

The real success of the film comes in the taste it gives us of what life is like for kids growing up in this environment. Hip hop music and culture plays a big role in the film. Aivaaq refers to their crew during a freestyle rap as arctic thugs. This sets up an interesting juxtaposition of urban values in a decisively rural setting. MacLean raises questions about the acceptance of violence and drug use in a small community, while avoiding any urge to hit the audience over the head with a message. This film tells a captivating story in a fascinating new setting and points to very promising things to come from MacLean.

[ Ryland Aldrich is a freelance writer and filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He blogs at enderzero.net ]

Click HERE for full review within Twitch Film site

Screen International Review

2011-02-03T01:00:00.005-05:00

On The Ice

1 February, 2011 | By David D'Arcy

Dir/scr: Andrew Okpeaha MacLean. US. 2011. 96mins

There’s more than folklore and ethnography at work in Andrew Okpeaha MacLean’s drama On The Ice about young locals who dress like rappers and race around on snowmobiles in a tiny windswept community.

On The Ice is striking in its portrait of youth in the world’s northernmost city.

On The Ice has taut suspense and a stark visual beauty, but it is likely to be viewed as a well-made novelty with a non-professional cast that won’t get exposure beyond festivals and art houses. That said, it is also an eloquent calling card for a gifted young director and cinematographer.

In On The Ice, a teenager in an arctic native community is killed and his body is submerged below the ice. When the corpse returns to the surface, so does the secret of his death.

In Barrow, 515 km north of the Arctic Circle, swaggering Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan) has dreams of being cool and important. But his girlfriend is pregnant and he has no livelihood, and he fights with rival James (John Miller) when his peers mock him.

Heading out on a seal hunt on the ice beyond their town with Qalli (Josiah Patkotak), another friend, Aivaaq fights again, and James is killed. It is an accident, but the young men hide his body beneath the ice and return to town. Eventually the corpse reappears and the truth is reconstructed.

On The Ice is striking in its portrait of youth in the world’s northernmost city, who share much with kids their age anywhere – vulnerability, vanity, and aimlessness, as drugs find their way to the remote North.

Yet the specific location of On The Ice in a vast place without vegetation means that secrets don’t stay hidden for long in a community of a few thousand that dispenses justice in its own way.

The director, who founded a theater group in remote Barrow, gets solid performances out of his mostly non-professional cast. Frank Qutuq Irelan is cocky as Aivaaq, the scrappy would-be thug who fights to protect his “street” reputation in a town without a paved road. Josiah Patkotak plays the shy Qalli, who’s haunted by his role in the death on the ice. The suspense builds deftly as a growing number of the townspeople sense that haunting.

The drama is framed by the remarkable work of cinematographer Lol Cawley (Ballast, Better Things), who shifts between the shadowy claustrophobic town and the vast radiance of the landscape beyond it. Meeting the logistical challenge of shooting in Barrow is an achievement in itself. Cawley has made this low-budget film look as grand as its surroundings.

Click HERE for full review online

San Francisco Film Society review

2011-02-02T15:04:00.002-05:00

SF360
Published January 25, 2011

Finding an Arctic Outpost in Park City via 'On the Ice'

Yesterday, my first full day on the ground in Park City, started with a whimper and ended with a bang. In the morning I passed the time by taking in back-to-back press screenings. The Music Never Stopped is a tearjerker about a chronic amnesiac who reconnects with his father by listening to Grateful Dead records with him. After that, against my better judgement, I wandered into Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil, a depraved revenge thriller touted as “one of the most graphically extreme films ever committed to film.” Ravaged and craving nuance, my relief was palpable as I took my seat at the world premiere of On the Ice. A festival insider gave me the poop that this film is an early favorite to win the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic category. Like last year’s winner Winter’s Bone, On the Ice sets its universal story within a landscape and culture that is exotic to most viewers. In the arctic outpost of Barrow, Alaska, one of the northernmost cities of the world, three teenaged Iñupiaq boys get into trouble out on the ice and only two of them return. The web of deceit they weave to cover their tracks sends shockwaves through the small town. Immensely appealing performances by the nonprofessional cast and a script that’s tight as a drum leads me to place my bet on this film to be a breakaway favorite both on the festival circuit and beyond. At the post-screening Q&A first time director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean assembled his cast and crew, most of whom had just seen the finished film for the first time. The two young leads Josiah Patkotak and Frank Qutuq Irelan grinned and clapped each others shoulders and jabbed fists. It was easy to see that the experience of making this film had bonded them for life.

—Michael Read, Publications Manager, San Francisco Film Society

http://sf360.org.mytempweb.com/Articles/News-and-Blogs/?pageid=13296

Film Threat review

2011-02-01T13:36:00.001-05:00

Year Released: 2011
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Running Time: 96 minutes
Click to Expand Credits:

Following two teens, Qalli (Patkotak) and Aivaaq (Irelan), as they respectively prepare for college and fatherhood, the film takes a suspenseful turn when a fight with a third boy leads to an accident which leads to a death. Immediately, all future plans these boys had are now in jeopardy. Things begin to crumble both around them and between them as Qalli’s father, a search and rescue officer, comes closer and closer to discovering the truth: that the boys tried to cover up their unfortunate accident and frame the young man’s death as a reckless self-imposed misfortune.

MacLean’s thriller is a straightforward genre work in the best ways possible. Following classic plot conventions, the writer/director is able to keep the tension levels high while introducing or guiding audiences into a society often glanced over in Hollywood. This isn’t The Edge. It isn’t 30 Days of Night, either. On the Ice centers itself in an Alaskan community that isn’t often represented cinematically. The story isn’t about Americans (or vampires) against a snow-covered backdrop. Rather, MacLean delivers an effective and informative tale about the people of Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost city in the United States.

There are a number of notable elements at work in the film. Both Patkotak and Irelan give tremendous performances which give some heft to an otherwise conventional script. The white-heavy cinematography surrounds the suspenseful plot in a gorgeous frame. And the editing (and of course, the writing) keep the narrative moving at a brisk enough pace where the plot points come quickly enough while still giving ample amounts of time for character development, exposition, and proper setups for subsequent plot twists. Altogether, MacLean’s first narrative feature is a successful “weknowwhodunit” with enough differences from comparable films to stay interesting and compelling.

Posted on January 26, 2011 in Reviews by Scott Knopf

Salt Lake Tribune review!

2011-01-31T20:18:00.000-05:00

Published on Jan 28, 2011 01:06AM

"On the Ice"
U.S. Dramatic competition
*** 1/2

Call it film blanc, since film noir doesn't seem an accurate description of this tense thriller set in an Alaskan town way north of the Arctic Circle. Qalli (Josiah Patkotak) and Aivaaq (Frank Qutuq Irelan) are set to go hunting with their hot-tempered -- and crack-smoking -- friend James (John Miller). Qalli finds Aivaaq and James fighting on the barren ice, gets involved in the tussle and inadvertantly stabs James dead. Then Qalli and Aivaaq try to dump James' body in the Arctic waters. The tension of writer-director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's tight script is when Qalli and Aivaaq try to maintain the lie to members of their close-knit community, especially when Qalli's dad (Teddy Kyle Smith) gets suspicious. MacLean develops strong characters and a nail-biting pace, and fills in the rich details of the Iñupiaq community.

"On the Ice" screens again at: Saturday, Jan. 29, at noon at the Yarrow Hotel Theatre, Park City.

- Sean P. Means

Lots to do before January

2010-12-01T20:58:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for all the emails and well wishes! We are so excited to share the film with you!

For those who've asked about screenings in their area, I wanted to share a quick update on where we're at with the film. Since completing photography in Barrow in May, we've been editing. And editing and editing. :) In early November we finalized the cut and now we've have begun working with our sound designer and composer (on the sound design and score.) We also have to do our color grading and sound mix which should all be completed just before Sundance in January.

Our first screening will be in Park City at the festival and then beyond that things are still up in the air. We want to screen everywhere we can and we're doing our best to make that happen. So...if you have a local theater that you think would be perfect for us, write a comment or send me an email. I'd love any recommendations if you'd like On the Ice to screen in your town or city! The best email to reach me is info@ontheicethemovie.com.

Here's a new pic of Josiah Patkotak (Qalli) and Andrew MacLean on set.

Sundance 2011!!!

2010-12-01T15:10:00.003-05:00

ON THE ICE has been selected for the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival!!! Here's a photo of cast member Josiah Patkotak who plays the character Qalli! Aarigaa!

Here's a link to the Sundance press release.

Lots and lots of production pics

2010-07-26T14:29:00.032-04:00

Hi everyone!

We're back in New York and in the thick of the editing process now, but I thought I should put up some very long overdue photos from our shoot. Making the film was incredibly challenging but we made it through and we're really excited. We had an exceptionally talented cast and crew that we couldn't be more grateful to for all their tireless hard work. So here are a few favorite pics...

This is a tired but happy photo from our day of filming with the hilarious Rosabelle Rexford who plays Aaka, Qalli's grandmother. It's Andrew, Rosabelle, Cara and Josiah Patkotak (Qalli) in the background.

Our fancy holding area outside Aaka's house. Kit Bland (AD), Jeff Nolde (1st AC) and Lol Crawley (DP) are working hard on something serious.

The amazing Kay Lee (Art Director) and her trusty prop gun.

Maura Anderson took all the following photos...

Josiah (Qalli) getting ready to do a snowmobile shot with our snomo cam.

Smiley Josiah (Qalli) and pensive Frank 'Qutuq' Irelan (Aivaaq).

Kit, Andrew, Lol...small, medium, large?

Adamina Kerr (who plays Michelle) all bundled up on an outing to see the lead.

Teddy Kyle Smith (Egasak) in between takes

Ray Kious (PA and amazing jack of all trades) and Andrew's cousin JR (ice guide).

Our camp on a sunny day on the ice.

Inside...

John Miller (James) and Frank Qutuq Irelan (Aivaaq) rehearsing for their Coca-cola commercial audition.

Dave Thorne's food made everyone happy, especially Lynette.

You could always count on Kate Dean (co-producer) to start up the dance party.

Maura Anderson (UPM) and her very nicely reflective goggles.

Jeff Nolde glamour shot

Adam Lukens (Gaffer) being thanked for rigging up the sun that day.

Jason Alegre (Loader) and his grin.

A regular day on the job for Jonathan Guggenheim (Props Master) and Chad Keith (Production Designer) digging up some permafrost to make a fake grave.

All our actors and extras getting ready to film the funeral scene. Josiah's very generous real life aaka (grandmother) Molly Pederson playing the role of the pastor on very short notice (maybe 30 minutes!).

Our talented leading family: Josiah Patkotak (Qalli), Teddy Kyle Smith (Egasak), Denae Brower (Darlene) and Tara Sweeney (Dora).

Andrew and Lol haven't quite grown into their snow bank.

Gorgeous Barrow

Thank you Maura for all the stunning photos!

In between takes

2010-04-30T17:55:00.008-04:00

I'm writing this in between takes at our main interior location. The house is Andrew's aaka's old house by the beach in Barrow and we have internet here that will allow me to finally upload some images for you all.

Funny coincidence is that the Barrow Sea Ice Webcam is mounted on a building right up the hill from the house so if you want to see what we're doing right now, just check out this link http://www.gi.alaska.edu/snowice/sea-lake-ice/barrow_webcam.html. It's a still image, not live video, but depending on when you look you might see us standing around with our equipment outside the white house with red trim.

If you see a dark line in the clouds on the horizon behind the house that is a reflection of the open lead. That dark line was a very welcome site to us when it reappeared two days ago. It doesn't seem to be too strong in the sky right now, but if it's there you'll definitely notice.

Things have been really stressful and difficult but we are getting great scenes despite the obstacles. The lead closed up just before our first day of filming and it hadn't opened again until 2 days ago. We're in the process of helping Andrew's uncle's crew cut trail again out to the new lead so we'll see what happens. We are extremely conscious of respecting what the whaling crews want so we have to wait and see if tomorrow is the right time.

I don't have time to write much more but here are a few fantastic photos from our multi-talented Production Manager Maura Anderson...

Our friend Joe Sage with another member of the amazing Barrow Dancers who dance in our big opening scene at the roller rink

Barrow Dancers taking a quick break

Our two lead actors Josiah Patkotak and Frank Qutuk Irelan practicing their dance.

Beautiful Denae Brower who is playing Darlene, the little sister of one of our lead characters. Her gorgeous parka was made by her mom Blessing Brower (who we featured in our 2005 documentary When the Season is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska)

Our writer/director Andrew Okpeaha MacLean at sunset on the day we were filming at scene at the new cemetary site.

The new cemetary site later that same evening

Filming starts tomorrow!

2010-04-08T02:07:00.005-04:00

A few minutes to write...

The wind and ice are messing with our minds tonight, the night before our first day of photography. The short version is there is a southwesterly wind in Barrow this evening which isn't a great thing. So far it seems like our lead (open water next to frozen ocean) is still open (kind of) but there is always a concern that it will close. The lead is actually covered with a thin layer of new ice right now, but the hope is that we can break through it with a boat. We were given permission by the whaling captains to film by the lead over the next few days but we are under a lot of pressure to get it done quickly so as not to negatively affect any whaling.

In order to film we need to get an aluminum boat out to our camp near the lead. The aluminum boat will be loaded onto a large wooden sled and hauled out by snowmachine tomorrow morning. However, our trail has suffered a little shifting and late today we realized it needed more work in order for us to get the boat out there safely. So about 2 hours ago, 4 amazing members of our crew joined Andrew's cousin JR back out on the trail. They have been fixing and recutting the trail, so the boat will have safe passage and we can actually make our day tomorrow.

I can't believe we are finally starting tomorrow. This has been five years in the making for us. Please send all your good thoughts our way for tomorrow to happen one way or another!

I will write more when I can, but in the meantime here are a couple pictures of the lead (2 days ago) from our Production Designer Chad Keith.

And more prep

2010-03-31T01:27:00.009-04:00

Our DP Lol Crawley took this picture of our Production Designer Chad Keith who has magical powers. (And is standing under the Northern Lights)

A siġluaq is an ice cellar people use to store frozen meat. We have a scene in the movie that involves a siġluaq so here are a couple pics of Frank (one of our lead actors), Andrew, Lol and Chad on the hunt for a good one. (Pics from Kit Bland)

From outside...

From inside...

Josiah (our other lead actor) had a birthday, the amazingly talented Chef Dave is all smiles

Prep

2010-03-26T16:31:00.007-04:00

It has been a whirlwind lately prepping the film, but I am determined to check back into the blog universe and share stories and photos of what we're doing up here. We begin filming on April 8th (!!!!!) so time is tight, but I will do my best to post when I can.

We want the blog to continue and transition into a blog about making the film so we changed the title a bit.

Anyway, to get us back on track, here are some photos from our AD Kit Bland from the past week....

ICE SCOUTING PICS

More soon!

Lead Roles Have Been Cast

2010-03-07T01:29:00.005-05:00

Some of you have been waiting for ages to know if you have been cast in On the Ice. Thank you for your patience over the past several months. We wanted to let everyone know that as of now the lead roles of Apuna, Miqu, Egasak, Michelle and Betty have been cast. However, there are several other supporting roles that we are in the process of deciding.

If you live in Barrow, there is a strong chance you are still being considered for a supporting role. We are also still considering people who live in other parts of Alaska. If you live in Canada or the continental United States and have not yet been cast, you are no longer being considered.

We enjoyed meeting all of you. We were amazed at the level of talent we encountered and we hope you will be willing to audition for a future project with us. If you are not cast in this project, there might be a role that is right for you in the next one.

Quyanaqpak!

Barrow Raffle...275!

2010-01-29T14:33:00.007-05:00

As an incentive for people to get over their nerves and try out in Barrow last month, we set up a small raffle for all that auditioned. The prize is a $50 gift certificate to NAPA in Barrow and we just finally got around to pulling the winner out of a hat, literally. We used the audition numbers of everyone who tried out in Barrow (during both audition periods) and it ended up being #275.

And the winner is....Ernest Nageak!

Congratulations Ernest! Thanks for auditioning!

Anchorage--Take two

2010-01-04T18:05:00.002-05:00

We weren't sure what kind of turnout we'd see in Anchorage the second time around here, but we had a little piece on the CBS local news at 5pm and people really showed up! We went 2 hours later than we planned and met tons of great people. Here's a link to a little blurb about it on the Channel 11 website. http://www.ktva.com/ci_14116082?source=most_viewed

Thanks to everyone who came out to audition!

Barrow

2009-12-30T18:34:00.007-05:00

We're here in Barrow again doing some more auditions during Qitik. (If you don't know what Qitik is...it's basically several days/nights of games and competitions where everyone gets together and hangs out for fun and prizes during the holidays. Some of the games are for laughs, some are very athletic and difficult like Alaska high kick, one foot high kick and two foot high kick. We don't have any video of them, but if you search any of those names on YouTube there are a bunch.)

We've had a great turnout and we're looking forward to our call-backs tonight. Then we're heading back down to Anchorage for more open-call auditions on the 2nd and 3rd at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art (4:30-8:30pm each night).

We're hoping to grab an hour or so to get out and get some more photos, but in the meantime we've taken a few here and there. This is a fairly random selection of what we've been doing the past several days...

Some impressive holiday decoration at Barrow's only Mexican restaurant Pepe's.

Kids from town who were hanging out at auditions the other night

Beautiful Iqalin on her first birthday

Looking out toward the ocean and a snow-covered van

Happy (almost) New Year!

Barrow auditions start today! Win a $50 door prize

2009-12-27T17:18:00.005-05:00

Just a quick reminder that our second round of Barrow auditions start today and we've added a little incentive...If you come and audition you will be entered in a raffle to win a $50 gift certificate to NAPA here in Barrow. So if you're feeling shy, let that be the extra encouragement you needed!

Here are Barrow audition details:

Ipalook Elementary School
Room 176
During Qitik!

Sunday, December 27th
8:30-10pm

Saturday, December 28th
4-8pm

Monday, December 29th
4-8pm

Watch SIKUMI online for free!

2009-12-16T17:31:00.006-05:00

SIKUMI is now online. It will be available for free on the YouTube Screening Room for the next 6 weeks. If you have not yet seen SIKUMI, this is your chance. If you have already seen it, we hope you will take another look and/or pass this on to friends. The more “views” the better for us!!!

(For those of you who don't know already, ON THE ICE is loosely based on this short film SIKUMI.)

Viewing the film online is easy, just be sure to click HD and full screen for the best viewing experience. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAceiILq4A

Enjoy!

Upcoming Barrow & Anchorage auditions

2009-12-08T00:59:00.007-05:00

For all those out there who still want to audition, the instructions for video auditions are up on our website. Please visit the casting page at www.ontheicethemovie.com for all the details on what to do.

Also, we are planning to hold more auditions in Barrow and Anchorage only. See below for the details we have confirmed thus far:

BARROW
Ipalook Elementary School -- Room 176
During Qitik!

Sunday, December 27th
4-8pm

Saturday, December 28th
4-8pm

Monday, December 29th
4-8pm

ANCHORAGE
International Gallery of Contemporary Art
427 D. St (by 4th Ave.)

January 2nd
4:30-8:30pm

January 3rd
4:30-8:30pm

Please spread the word to all those people who missed out the first time! We want to meet all of you!

Barrow

2009-11-30T18:56:00.013-05:00

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lapse in posts. We checked out for a few days to give ourselves the time and focus needed to chow down in full relaxation mode over the holiday.

Things in Barrow went well. It was snowy, not too cold most days, and fairly dark with lots of beautiful frost covering every angle of every surface. We have our fingers crossed that we might get some similarly cool-looking conditions during our shoot.

Couldn't get a great shot of this because the light was so even, but if you look closely you can see that people have written their names in the snow on the fence.

Here's a shot over the lagoon from the Barrow side of Barrow looking over to the Browerville side. Once it's been cold enough for long enough, you can snowmobile and walk over the lagoon, but you have to make sure it's fully frozen.

These pictures were taken at around 2pm so the brightest part of the day had gone by. Even though the sun doesn't rise at this time of year, it does get closer to the horizon and brighten the sky to a dusky or late afternoonish kind of light.

In terms of casting we managed to meet a bunch of talented great people. Thanks to all those who came out to meet us! Here's a short video of our new friend Bucky at KBRW who helped us get the word out with flare. Thanks for all the support Bucky!

While we did meet lots of excellent people in Barrow, we didn't go away feeling we had met everyone we'd hoped to, so we're planning to try to get back up there. If things go our way we will make it back to Anchorage and Barrow for further auditions in both places in December. I will be sure to post the details of our next trip as soon as possible. We are hoping to solidify our plans very soon.

If you are someone who missed your chance to audition in Barrow or Anchorage, please check this blog and/or join our Facebook group so you don't miss your second chance! Our Facebook group is called "On the Ice" and you can get to it by clicking "Join our Facebook group" on our website: www.ontheicethemovie.com

Still on the topic of radio...for those of you not from Alaska, here's a quick clip of the birthday program that happens every day on KBRW. It's a half-hour daily show where people can call in and wish their friends and loved ones a happy birthday or anniversary. This clip happened to be on Andrew's cousin Byron's 14th anniversary with his wife Doreen!

Finally making it to Barrow was a real treat. For Andrew obviously it was coming home, but for me too after all these years visiting Barrow and making films there, I felt a sense of relief when we got off the plane. It felt like a hard-earned reward after all our weeks on the road.

As we expected this trip was on one level about finding actors, but it was also about building our community across the state and in Canada. We met incredibly supportive, positive, artistic community members in every location and we are truly grateful to everyone who helped us along the way. In Barrow specifically, we'd like to extend our special thanks to everyone at the Heritage Center (Kathy, Patuk, Kristy, Debbie); Audrey Saganna; and Principal Jeff Theilbar at the Barrow High School, for your help throughout our Barrow auditions.

That's all for now. Check back soon for more from our trip and updates about our upcoming travel to Anchorage and Barrow for our second round of auditions in each location. If you missed your first chance to audition, don't be shy! We'd love to meet you later in December!

Barrow Auditions

2009-11-17T20:41:00.007-05:00

Auditions in Barrow start Thursday the 19th and go until Sunday the 22nd! Hope to see you there!

All auditions will be held at the Heritage Center

Thursday, November 19th -- 6-9pm
Friday, November 20th -- 6-9pm
Saturday, November 21st -- 1-4pm
Sunday, November 22nd -- 1-4pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but the sooner you can come the better. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back again on Monday or Tuesday to call-back auditions. If you come Thursday or Friday, it gives us more time to get to know you!

We are hoping to meet any Iñupiaq people who would like to audition, but you must be at least 16 years of age. All roles are Iñupiaq and you must be comfortable acting in English.

We are looking for men and women of all ages! There are lots of parts small and large that we are hoping to find people for! Everyone should come even if you're only interested in a non-speaking role!

WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN MEETING YOUNG MEN AGES 17-25 and ADULT MEN 34-45! This is a very unique opportunity to experience acting and filmmaking with a Sundance award-winning director! Don't miss your chance to be a part of it!

Please note: We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you soon! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Thanks Fairbanks!

2009-11-17T03:29:00.003-05:00

What a great turn-out we had today. Thank you to the many students who braved the cold and came out to give it a shot. Thanks also to Ron Brower and everyone at the Alaska Native Language Center for helping us promote the auditions in their classrooms.

An extra special thanks to our incredibly generous and hard-working new friend Maya Salganek at UAF! Best of luck with all your great projects-- film, theatre and most of all Keet! For the record, you make very tasty salmon. Also, thank you to Cindy Schumacher and Jason Ferris at the Morris Thompson Cultural Center for your help with our downtown auditions.

More from Barrow later this week...

One more chance to audition in Fairbanks

2009-11-16T02:44:00.009-05:00

We've added another chance for everyone in Fairbanks to audition last minute. Here are the details:

Monday, November 16th
2-4:30pm
UAF Wood Center
Conference Room A

We haven't met enough of UAF's talented Inuit students! We are sure there are more people on campus interested in trying out, so don't miss your chance. We'd love to meet you! Email me if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com

Point Hope

2009-11-15T18:57:00.006-05:00

Our visit to Point Hope was excellent after a few bumps in the road. Andrew managed to get a severe case of food poisoning in Kotzebue from a Bayside chicken bacon melt the night before we were both supposed to fly to Point Hope. Sparing you the very gory details, I flew to Point Hope on my own the next morning to get things set up and Andrew holed up close to a bathroom in Kotzebue. A day too late, we found out the word around town is never order anything with bacon from Bayside. Andrew concurs.

Auditions were light the first night in Point Hope, but with the help of several kind people around town (Ramona at the high school and Art Othniel Oomittuk) we ended up meeting over 30 people all told. Although the weather wasn't the best for sight-seeing or photos, the village is very picturesque and the people couldn't have been friendlier. Thanks to everyone there for supporting us, especially Rex and Emma at the Tikigaq Corporation for letting us use their conference room.

Last Tuesday we were stuck in Point Hope because of bad weather in the Kotzebue/Nome area and we woke up the next day hoping to make it out on the morning flight. Unfortunately, the storm had gotten worse south of Point Hope where all our flights originated so everything was canceled on all the airlines. Through the grapevine we did hear about a Shell Oil charter flight from Barrow that was dropping off a bunch of people late morning. After talking with the intrepid Bessie Kowunna, we managed to arrange hitching a ride on that plane. Coincidentally, the charter was leaving Point Hope to stop in Galena and then head on to Fairbanks, which worked really well for us. Our flights from Kotzebue>Nome>Anchorage>Fairbanks had all been canceled so getting us straight to Fairbanks and avoiding the heart of the storm was ideal. Bessie seemed confident the pilot could land but the winds were pretty intense so we were doubtful. Here's a little footage of Andrew driving out to the runway following Bessie and me in the pick-up in front of him.

We're kicking ourselves now because we didn't film the impressive landing in the white-out. The pilot explained that because it was blowing snow it was fine to land, but if it had been foggy he couldn't have. The bizarre thing was that once we got a couple hundred feet up, the visibility was pretty much clear above the wind. Here's a little footage of me unloading our bags from Bessie's pick-up just after the plane landed.

It's hard to get the feel of the weather without the sound of the wind, but here's our take-off.

So we're safe and sound now in Fairbanks. Things have been slower here than we expected, but still good. We have call-backs here tomorrow and then we head up to Barrow on Tuesday. Can't wait.

Fairbanks Audition Info

2009-11-11T21:34:00.006-05:00

The Fairbanks auditions will take place this weekend. Hope to see you there!

Friday, November 13th
6-9pm
Morris Thompson Cultural Center
101 Dunkel Street
(across from the Tanana Chiefs Office Building)

Saturday, November 14th
1-4pm
UAF Fine Arts Building
Theatre Green Room

Sunday, November 15th
1-4pm
Morris Thompson Cultural Center
101 Dunkel Street
(across from the Tanana Chiefs Office Building)

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Friday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Sunday or Monday as well. If you come Friday, it gives us more time to get to know you!

If you are traveling from a distance and can't make it Friday, please make an effort to come Saturday. We plan to do our call-backs on Monday evening for Fairbanks residents. If you are called back and can stay until Monday evening that is preferable, but if that is not possible because you are from out of town, we will do our best to accommodate you. We may consider adding a call-back session on Sunday evening.

We are hoping to meet anyone ages 17 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English.

We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women who are supposed to be in their early 40s.

WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN MEETING YOUNG MEN AGES 17-25 and ADULT MEN 34-45! This is a very unique opportunity to experience acting and filmmaking with a Sundance award-winning director! Don't miss your chance to be a part of it!

Please note: We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you soon! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Anchorage canceled

2009-11-11T14:46:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately, due to bad weather in the Kotzebue area, we are unable to make it to Anchorage today in time to run auditions. Our flights have all been canceled and we are still in Point Hope.

Fingers crossed, but I think we're hitching a ride with a charter flight that is coming in shortly. We'll be flying with them straight to Fairbanks so our Fairbanks auditions should move forward as scheduled, beginning this Friday.

Our apologies to everyone who was planning to come to our additional day of auditions in Anchorage. We are going to try to get back to Anchorage at some point, but we are not sure when that might happen.

Email me if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com

Stuck in Point Hope

2009-11-10T22:43:00.003-05:00

For those planning to come to the extra day of Anchorage auditions tomorrow, November 11th...

Our flight out of Point Hope today was canceled because of the stormy weather, so we are hoping to make it to Kotzebue tomorrow morning. Then the earliest flight available from Kotz gets us into Anchorage at 4:28 so we'll come straight over to the gallery from the airport.

Sorry for any inconvenience it may cause you. We hope to be there as close to 4:30 as possible, but it may be more like 5pm.

More Anchorage auditions

2009-11-10T16:52:00.004-05:00

We've decided to squeeze in another night of open call auditions in Anchorage. We've received many emails from people who missed the initial audition period, so for all of you out there who still want to come and try out, this is your chance. Here are the details:

Wednesday, November 11th
International Gallery of Contemporary Art
427 D Street (by the corner of 4th Ave.)
5-6:30pm

All Inuit cast -- 17-70 years old
www.ontheicethemovie.com

Also, if you know other people who wanted to audition, please spread the word!

Point Hope Audition Info

2009-11-07T19:04:00.002-05:00

All Point Hope auditions will take place at the Tikigaq Corporation Offices. Here are the times:

Sunday, November 8th -- 5-7pm
Monday, November 9th -- 6-9pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Sunday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Monday as well. If you come Sunday, it gives us more time to get to know you!

We are hoping to meet anyone ages 17 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English.

We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women who are supposed to be in their early 40s.

WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN MEETING YOUNG MEN AGES 17-25 and ADULT MEN 34-45! This is a very unique opportunity to experience acting and filmmaking with a Sundance award-winning director! Don't miss your chance to be a part of it!

Please note: We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you soon! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Nome to Shishmaref to Kotzebue

2009-11-06T03:35:00.014-05:00

We left Nome last Sunday after having had a fantastic casting process there. We met a lot of very talented people. Nome showed up! Aarigaaaa Nome! Our most sincere thanks go out to everyone at the Nome Native Arts Center, especially Lisa Ellanna, Wilma Osborne and our friend Marilyn Koezuna-Irelan for all their enthusiasm and hands-on support. Your generosity and positivity are inspiring and infectious. Thank you! For those that know Marilyn here's a great picture of her and her adorable granddaughter Owaluk.

We felt lucky to get the chance to get back to Shishmaref. Andrew and I were there in the summer of 2008 researching a documentary on the environmental issues Shishmaref is facing (erosion, high water, and intense storms related to climate change). This time we got to see what Shishmaref is like in the fall with a real snap of Arctic cold (20 below before wind chill) and some snow on the ground. Chilly and beautiful.

We were able to visit with some old friends and meet a bunch of talented people from the community excited about On the Ice. Shishmaref is a small village of about 800 so we got the word out pretty quickly on the local scanner. For those who don't know, this is what it looks like:

We did the casting at the Shishmaref school and the IRA Friendship Center. Here's a pic of us in the middle of a casting session in the school's carving room.

There are no restaurants in Shishmaref so we did a fair amount of cooking in our very simple kitchen.

We stayed in a trailer with no running water, but we were able to pull together some tasty meals with the help of our friend Dennis. Dennis has a very creative flair when it comes to cooking, and one night he invented a new Eskimo classic we'd thought you'd get a kick out of. Here's a quick video of how to make "reindeer tartare." (Sorry about the weird squashed proportion, still figuring out how to use Compressor.)

Thanks to everyone at the IRA and at the Shishmaref School, in particular Fred Eningowuk and Principal Steve Sammons respectively.

We're in Kotzebue now and already feel right at home. The incredibly warm and welcoming Maija Lukin and Corina Kramer are helping us get the word out with gusto. These ladies know how to rally the troops. I'll write more soon on Kotzebue, but here's my favorite picture so far from just outside the airport.

Kotzebue Casting Details

2009-11-04T16:10:00.006-05:00

Sorry for the lapse in posts. We have been in Shishmaref with no internet access. I will post a more detailed update soon, but I wanted to get the Kotzebue casting details up here for all those in Kotzebue who are planning to come.

All Kotzebue auditions will take place at the BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB. Here are the times:

Thursday, November 5th -- 6-9pm
Friday, November 6th -- 6-9pm
Saturday, November 7th -- 1-4pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Thursday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Friday or Saturday as well. If you come Thursday, it gives us more time to get to know you!

We are hoping to meet anyone ages 17 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English.

We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women who are supposed to be in their early 40s.

WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN MEETING YOUNG MEN AGES 17-25 and ADULT MEN 34-45! This is a very unique opportunity to experience acting and filmmaking with a Sundance award-winning director! Don't miss your chance to be a part of it!

Please note: We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you soon! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Casting starts today in Nome

2009-10-29T19:12:00.005-04:00

It feels good to be back in Nome. We were here in 2005 while we were shooting Sylvester Ayek (a carver and sculptor) for the documentary When the Season is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska. We were waiting for the weather to clear for us to follow Sylvester out to King Island to film him where he grew up. The weather didn't cooperate for a while so we got to spend a solid chunk of time here in Nome with him and other friends in town. We stopped back here in summer 2008 on our way to Shishmaref and got to see a few friends, but it's nice to be here this time for more than just a layover.

Here's a picture of the sunset on our way to Milano's for some dinner last night. Andrew took it on his phone so it doesn't do it justice, but it's the view across the street from where we're staying.

We went over this afternoon and met Laureli Kinneen at the local radio station KNOM and got a chance to chat about the film and our casting process on air for a few minutes. We also got our casting flyer on Nome Announce (Nome's version of Craigslist) and the community TV channel so we're hoping the word is out. But just to make sure, the wonderful Lisa Ellanna at the Nome Native Arts Center helped us put together this easel and we stationed it at a busy corner downtown for everyone to see who drives by. Guerilla marketing!

Auditions start tonight at 6pm at the Nome Native Arts Center which is inside the King Island Tribal Offices at 706 East 4th Street.

Casting details for Nome

2009-10-27T16:42:00.006-04:00

Here's a cool picture from Nome in 2005 when we were making our documentary When the Season is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska.

Our Nome auditions begin this Thursday at the Nome Native Arts Center in the King Island Tribal Offices.

For anyone interested in coming by, here are the details:

Nome Native Arts Center in the King Island Tribal Offices
706 East 4th Street

Thursday, October 29th -- 6-10pm
Friday, October 30th -- 6-10pm
Saturday, October 31st -- 1-4pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Thursday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Friday or Saturday as well. If you come Thursday, it gives us more time to get to know you!

We are hoping to meet anyone ages 17 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English.

We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women who are supposed to be in their early 40s. We are also casting one Aaka (grandmother) who speaks some Iñupiaq.

WE ARE ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN MEETING YOUNG MEN AGES 17-25 and ADULT MEN 34-45! This is a very unique opportunity to experience acting and filmmaking with a Sundance award-winning director! Don't miss your chance to be a part of it!

Please note: We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you soon! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Andrew on CBS Channel 11 Anchorage

2009-10-25T18:18:00.008-04:00

KTVA CBS Channel 11 in Anchorage stopped by our auditions today to interview Andrew about the film. Tune in if you live in Alaska!

Two slightly different versions of the story will run on the 5pm and 10pm news. The 10pm story is a bit expanded, focusing more on our project and the new tax incentive program in Alaska.

For those of you outside of Alaska, the 10pm broadcast will be online by around 10:30pm on the KTVA website: http://www.ktva.com/ci_13644802

Also, here's a link to the text of the 10pm story: http://www.ktva.com/ci_13639433

Calling all young Inuit men!

2009-10-23T21:53:00.005-04:00

Hello everyone,

We started our Anchorage auditions today and had a wonderful turn-out of talented women of all ages. BUT....the two lead roles in On the Ice are young Inuit men and so we want to get the word out to any young Inuit men ages 17-25.

If you are a young Inuit man, we'd love to meet you! Check our website for the audition times in your area: www.ontheicethemovie.com

If you know young Inuit men who might like to try out, please tell them about our film and encourage them to come meet us.

If you know of organizations, schools or individuals who know or work with young Inuit men, please forward our website and blog info to them and encourage them to spread the word.

Men are artists too! This is a fantastic opportunity for young men to experience acting and filmmaking while telling a powerful story about the lives of young people in Alaska today. Take a chance and come meet us.

SIDE NOTE....We are of course still very interested in meeting Inuit men and women of all ages. Our main roles for the film are in these groups:

Young men & women 17-25
Men & women 34-45
Women 58-75

However, if you are not in these age ranges we still want to meet you! We plan to make many films in Alaska and would like to meet any Inuit people who are interested in acting and filmmaking. Also, you may be one age but look another, so come meet us no matter what your age.

Thanks for reading. Email me if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com

Help us in Anchorage!

2009-10-20T01:01:00.004-04:00

If you live in the Anchorage area we need your help. We want to get the word out to everyone humanly possible and it takes some leg work and some energetic word-of-mouth. If you'd like to help us you could:

Print out some On the Ice audition flyers and put them up anywhere you think might help. (email me at casting@ontheicethemovie.com if you're willing to do this and I will email you the flyer)

Forward our blog and website addresses to everyone you know and encourage friends to do the same.

Invite friends to join our Facebook group. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=159178456281#/group.php?gid=159178456281&v=info

Invite friends to come audition with you in Anchorage OCTOBER 23rd -26th!!

Contact me directly with suggestions of any newspapers, radio stations, colleges, high schools, or community organizations I should contact in the Anchorage area and I will happily take it from there.

Thanks so much in advance for your support!

Casting details for Anchorage

2009-10-20T00:38:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone in Anchorage and everyone planning to be in Anchorage for AFN!!!

Our Anchorage auditions begin on Friday at the Cyrano Theater downtown close to the Alaska Federation of Natives convention.

For anyone interested in coming by, here are the details:

At the Cyrano Theater (413 D Street, by 4th ave.)
Friday, October 23rd -- 12-4pm
Saturday, October 24th -- 12-4pm
Sunday, October 25th -- 10-12:30pm

At the International Gallery (427 D Street, by 4th ave.)
Monday, October 26th -- 12-3pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Friday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Saturday, Sunday or Monday as well. If you come Friday, it gives us more time to get to know you!

We are hoping to meet anyone age 16 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English.

We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women who are supposed to be in their early 40s. We are also casting one Aaka (grandmother) who speaks some Iñupiaq.

Please note: We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you soon! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Kuujjuaq, Montreal, on to Alaska!

2009-10-19T23:56:00.007-04:00

So our casting in Kuujjuaq is all wrapped up. Thanks to all those who came out to audition, to the wonderful Sylvia Cloutier for all her help (and delicious cooking!), and to the town of Kuujjuaq for access to the impressive Kattitavik Theatre...

And a very special thanks to First Air for helping us make our trip to Nunavik and Nunavut possible.

We're in Montreal now. We managed to squeeze in a few auditions here over the past couple hours, but for all those in Montreal and Ottawa, we are hoping to come back to meet more people. If you are from any area in Canada that we were not able to visit (including Montreal and Ottawa) and you'd like to audition, DEFINITELY CONTACT US! We want this casting process to be open to everyone who is interested and even if we can't meet you in person quite yet, we're hoping you can at least do a video audition. Send us an email at casting@ontheicethemovie.com and we can explain more about how to do it. So far we've gotten emails from people in Pond Inlet, Montreal, Rankin Inlet, Kuujjuaraapik, Clyde River and Ottawa, and we're hoping people from all over will be able to videotape auditions.

Also, for those who've been reading since the beginning I wasn't able to get photos of the gorgeous bright yellow-orange Kuujjuaq trees because they had already lost their leaves by the time we got back there. I am however able to tell you what they are. From a very reliable source I have been told that they are a deciduous conifer called American larch, aka tamarach or Larix larcina. Here's a picture I didn't take of them. (Sadly it doesn't come close to how impressively vibrant they were in Kuujjuaq. They seemed plugged in!)

Next stop...Anchorage, Alaska!

Casting details for Kuujjuaq

2009-10-16T13:29:00.003-04:00

We're heading to Kuujjuaq today, had a very productive three days here in Iqaluit, met lots of talented people. Here are the Kuujjuaq details for our casting this weekend there...

Our Kuujjuaq auditions begin on Saturday at the Kattitavik Theatre. For anyone interested in coming by, here are the details:

Saturday, October 17th -- 1-4pm
Sunday, October 18th -- 1-4pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Saturday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to stay past 4pm on Saturday or come back Sunday as well. If you come Saturday, it gives us more time to get to know you. However, if you can only come Sunday, try your best to come close to 1pm.

We are willing to meet anyone 16 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English. We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women. We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you this week! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

CBC radio broadcast

2009-10-13T15:06:00.006-04:00

We just did an interview with CBC Radio here in Iqaluit. They are going to broadcast it tomorrow (Wednesday) on the morning show. If you aren't in Canada and want to listen, you can listen live on the internet at http://www.cbc.ca/radio/

Casting details for Iqaluit

2009-10-13T10:25:00.005-04:00

Our Iqaluit auditions begin tonight at the Iqaluit High School Library. For anyone interested in coming by, here are the details:

Tuesday, October 13th -- 6-9pm
Wednesday, October 14th -- 6-9pm
Thursday, October 15th -- 6-9pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Tuesday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Wednesday and/or Thursday as well. If you come Tuesday evening, it gives us more time to get to know you. However, if you can't come Tuesday, any time you can make it is fine.

We are willing to meet anyone 16 to 70. All roles are Inuit and you must be comfortable acting in English. We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women. We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you this week! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Andrew & Cara

Igloolik & language

2009-10-12T22:50:00.002-04:00

One of the most impressive things about Igloolik is how strong the language is. Everyone there speaks fluent Inuktitut, elders, adults, and youth. Having watched our own Iñupiaq language in Barrow grow weaker over the years, as so many indigenous languages are all over the world, it’s inspiring to see a community that has been able to fight against this trend.

Iglooligmiut deservedly take a lot of pride in this. Almost every teenager we auditioned proudly told us that their first language is Inuktitut. And it wasn’t just empty boasting. When they spoke amongst themselves it was always in their native language. One 17 year-old boy told us that he almost lost his language while living for several years in Iqaluit, but was able to regain it when he moved back, though it took him a year and a half.

But the coolest thing to see was all the young mothers speaking to their children and infants in the language. This is how a language survives, not just because of dictionaries, language classes or even bilingual education, though all those things are important, but from parent to child, in the pedestrian discourse of their everyday lives.

I have to think that the strength of the language has a carry-over effect on other aspects of the community. Maybe it’s one reason why they have been able to achieve so much artistically. Amazing films like Atanarjuat, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Before Tomorrow, docs like Exile, the Nunavut series, and performance groups like ArtCirq don’t spring just from individuals like Zach Kunuk, Natar Ungalaaq, Pakak Innukshuk, Paul Angilirq, Madeline Ivalu or Guillaume Saladin. They come from a community that has never lost its voice.

Igloolik

2009-10-12T15:19:00.019-04:00

Our visit to Igloolik went really well. We met about 30 people over the course of our 3 days of auditions and had a lot of fun. We weren't able to explore too far out of town, but we did manage to go on some walks around the vicinity and up on some nearby hills to get a better view of the whole area. Here's a few photos...

The hamlet of Igloolik from a hill on the edge of town

Center of town in Igloolik during the school day

This is an inukshuk on the hillside. An inukshuk is a Inuktitut cairn made out of stones, some look like people, some are more like sculpture. In this case it helps people see from a distance where the town is, but they can be used to mark all kinds of things--safe passage, a camp, food storage, a grave, etc,

Here's a bigger clearer photo of what they look like

If you look real close you can see the moon in the belly of the inukshuk above. Here's another photo of the half moon coming up at sunset that night.

We were lucky to get to spend a little time with Zacharias Kunuk. He is a filmmaker and community leader in Igloolik who runs a fantastic company called Isuma Productions, along with several other Igloolik artists and filmmakers.

Our special thanks go out to Carol Kunuk who helped us put together our casting sessions, and to both Carol and Zacharias for spreading the word about our film throughout the community.

For those of you who aren't aware of Isuma's films, I highly recommend you check them out. In particular I would recommend, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, and Before Tomorrow.

Isuma Productions' building

Andrew during auditions

The view from Isuma looking out to the water, some kids playing out

We stayed at our new friend Guillaume Saladin's house. He runs an organization called Artcirq. It's the one and only Inuit circus group. Here's their website: http://www.artcirq.org/

Here I am all packed up and getting ready to head to the airport this morning.

We're in Iqaluit now, preparing for our auditions Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening this week. More from Iqaluit soon.

Casting details for Igloolik

2009-10-09T10:31:00.002-04:00

Our Igloolik auditions begin tonight at Isuma Productions. For anyone interested in coming by, here are the details:

Friday, October 9th -- 6-9pm
Saturday, October 10th -- 1-4pm
Sunday, October 11th -- 1-4pm

You are welcome to come any time within that time, but it's better to come Friday if you can. If we are considering you for a role we might ask you to come back on Saturday and/or Sunday as well. If you come Friday, it gives us more time to get to know you. However, if you can't come Friday, don't worry. Any time you can make it is fine.

We are willing to meet anyone 16 and older. We are casting a bunch of teenage roles, as well as a few adult men and women. We want to meet anyone interested in acting and filmmaking because we hope to make many films in and about the Arctic. If you aren't right for any parts in On the Ice, it's still worth coming because you might be right for a different film we want to make in the future.

Hope to see you this weekend! Feel free to email us any time if you have any questions at casting@ontheicethemovie.com.

Cara & Andrew

Iqaluit then Igloolik

2009-10-08T16:43:00.008-04:00

Photos from our walk through Iqaluit yesterday...

An Iqaluit stop sign with Inuktitut and English.

Out towards the ocean.

Iqaluit High School

We flew into Igloolik this morning after a brief stop in Hall Beach. Feels good to finally be up here. Really friendly people, beautiful ocean, lots of ice. We went over and met a bunch of kids at the high school this afternoon, seems like we should have a good turn out this weekend.

A night in Iqaluit

2009-10-07T15:43:00.004-04:00

We made it to Iqaluit, so far so good. Our plane stopped off in Kuujjuaq for a bit to drop some people off so we got a quick glimpse of the town from a distance. It's gorgeous up here. Does anyone know the name of the orange-yellow trees all over around Kuujjuaq? They look like evergreens, but they're very obviously turning orange with the change of the season. Now would be a great time for a photo but we didn't grab that one yet. Anyway, the trees are really stunning. I'll try to remember to get a picture when we're back there. A short flight later we're here in Iqaluit. There was no snow in Kuujjuaq, but Iqaluit has a bit. We haven't explored much yet, but thought you'd enjoy a glimpse of their impressive submarine-like airport, which is kind of the same shade as the Kuujjuaq trees.

On our way

2009-10-06T22:36:00.004-04:00

We flew out from Laguardia this evening, head to Iqaluit for an overnight tomorrow, then finally to Igloolik on Thursday. We are spending tonight in the very special Holiday Inn at the Montreal Airport. This picture says it all.

Hello everyone...

2009-10-01T23:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our On the Ice blog!

We are days away from heading out on our big casting trip and we're hoping we'll have the energy to share some stories and photos along the way. We leave New York Tuesday night and make it to Igloolik in Nunavut, northern Canada by Thursday morning. Neither of us have ever been to Igloolik, but we are really looking forward to it. Igloolik is the home of Isuma Productions, the company responsible for the stunning Inuktitut film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner). Zacharias Kunuk, Norm Cohn, and Carol Kunuk, all from Isuma, have been helping us set up our auditions and so we're anxious to get up there and meet the many artists of Igloolik.

Here's a photo of Igloolik that we didn't take:

Stay tuned...Andrew & Cara