Film screenign and fundraiser, featuring the 979 George Attla biopic, 'Spirit of the Wind'

Anchorage, Alaska - On Sunday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m., in recognition of November as Alaska Native/American Indian Heritage Month, the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA) and Doyon Foundation will co-present a fundraiser screening of 'Spirit of the Wind' (1979) at Anchorage's Bear Tooth TheatrePub.

Spirit of the Wind is the story of George Attla - Alaska Native dog musher. Shot on location in Fairbanks, the film follows Attla from his life as a young Athabascan trapper in rural Alaska, to a TB diagnosis that meant years in sanitoriums in Tanana and Sitka. Returning home, he faces the challenges of a fused knee and cross cultural conflict, but goes on to become a champion sprint dog musher - the "Huslia Hustler" of Alaska legend.

'Spirit of the Wind' is the winner of numerous awards including the Grand Prize at the 1979 Sundance Film Festival, and was an official Un Certain Regard selection at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was directed by Ralph Liddle, who had a new digital cinema package (DCP, the digital format that is the industry standard for distributing films in the digital projection era) engineered, last year. Liddle and John Logue, the cinematographer on the film, first saw the new DCP projected at a film festival in late 2024, and were amazed at how good it looked. Liddle says it hasn't looked better since it was first screened in 1979. The film staff at the Bear Tooth TheaterPub, who have had a chance to review the new DCP in their facility, agree that it looks and sounds great.

Tickets are on sale now, online and at the Bear Tooth TheatrePub box office. General Admission $15. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the AMIPA and the Doyon Foundation, 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. All of AMIPA's proceeds from this event will be added to an endowment fund for the program, established at the Alaska Community Foundation, through the vision and generosity of AMIPA's late board member, Lael Morgan.

Additional information is available from Kevin Tripp, AMIPA at [email protected] or 907-786-4980.