Tracing Roots: From Creating a Film to Making Conversations

Tracing Roots is a short but strong documentary, it never feels forced or contrived. It flows with ease and the soundtrack is fresh—nothing tinny or canned about it. In a world where there are hundreds of thousands of documentaries, many of which are substandard and get lost in the shuffle, Tracing Roots is one that viewers will enjoy remembering, and perhaps retell more as a memory than a movie.
— Anchorage Press
 
                               Drawing by david Rubin

                               Drawing by david Rubin

 

Showing a film and letting something that has been chewed on, often in solitude, out, generates a mixed palette of fright, excitement, and affirmation. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve been on this rollercoaster, the feelings, the worries and the hopes resonate and repeat. Then there are the moments,  when for example, a moderator at a screening says he is “breatheless,” as Joe Watkins did in Vancouver after the credits and before the question and answers started. Then the hours and weeks chewing and crafting, the doubts over choices made are eased and the hope that the work, will encourage something more are kindled once again.

We’ve shown Tracing Roots at public screenings in Ketchikan and Anchorage, at a small screenings in Gustavus and Klukwan , Alaska and at a conference in Vancouver.
This weekend we show the film in Sitka at the Coliseum Theater on Saturday, November 15th at 5:45 PM, reception to follow at Old Harbor Books.
Then comes Juneau and a screening and discussion at 360 North/Alaska PBS on Monday November 17th. The discussion will be filmed and shared with viewers in state, as a companion piece to “Tracing Roots.” when we air it.

On November 23rd we travel with Tracing Roots: A Weaver’s Journey to The Burke Museum in Seattle as part of the opening weekend of an exhibit called “Here and Now: Native Artists Inspired.”

We look forward to more screenings, to editing a DVD and jumping into distribution.