Frozen In Time – 80′s Prom

Get out your crimper and practice your moonwalk for Frozen in Time: ’80s Prom.  Dance to ’80s hits, check out professional breakdancers and grab a drink fresh off the cocktail luge. Don’t forget to raid Value Village for rad ’80s threads: Celebrity judges will be on the prowl for a prom king and queen.  Sponsored by the Young Professionals Group, a fundraising arm of the American Cancer Society.

Anchorage Museum.  $25 general public/$15 Young Professional Members.  Call 277-8610 for tickets.

Movies for Your Mind

The Last Days of Shishmaref

Anchorage Museum Auditorium

Alaska/Netherlands 2008 documentary, In English/Inupiaq with English subtitles, 90 minutes.  MPAA RATING: Not rated.  Directed by Jan Louter.

www.shishmaref.nl/shishmaref/shishmaref_release-2.4.4/MainView.html

Review from the AFI Film Festival by Jacqueline Lyanga:
While politicians, scientists and environmentalists debate the effects of global warming, an Inupiaq Eskimo community in northwest Alaska, just under the Arctic Circle, faces the real world consequences of climate change every day. The ice beneath the small Alaskan village of Shishmaref, on the island of Sarichef, is melting. Homes are falling into the ocean. The situation is so severe that it has been predicted that the entire village will disappear within the next 10 years. How can you move an entire way of life? And should these villagers go to the edges of a city, or retain their rural ways? Filmmaker Jan Louter captures the transience of the Inupiaq’s traditional way of life in the face of the collision of climate change, satellite television and mail order shopping. The icy landscape—its water, smoke, steam and sky—is beautifully photographed, as are the village’s inhabitants. Every frame is a poignant portrait. The film doesn’t present a barrage of facts and figures to make its point, instead giving the viewer entry into the issue of climate change by way of a third eye. We feel the loss, the pain and the sadness of the families as they realize that they will never recover a way of life being swallowed by the sea.

DESIGN FOR THE NORTH: Ideas for Northern Living

Performances, outdoor demonstrations and family activities, as well as presentations, exhibits and information designed to celebrate and enhance life in the North, are part of a special FREEZE “Design for the North” event at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. Tickets are $9.95 per person and include:

• FREEZE performance by “Sivuqaq Dancers,” St. Lawrence Island Anchorage Dancers (12 p.m.)
• Observe Native artists teaching class participants make Sugpiaq/Alutiiq headdresses and Athabascan-style winter boots or rifle cases. To participate in classes, contact the Alaska Native Heritage Center for pre-registration at 330-8000.
• Performance of tribal-funk, world music by Pamyua (2 p.m.) courtesy of Calista Corporation
• 2 Tours of outdoor traditional Native housing exhibitions (11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1:30-2:30 p.m.) Self guided tours available all day
• Dogsled demonstration, slide show and photo opportunities with Iditarod dogsled musher Eric Rogers and musher Bonnie Foster (all day).
• Demonstrations and presentations by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, including information about winterizing your home and the Home Energy Rebate and Winterization Programs (3:30 p.m.)
• Exhibit by the American Institute of Architects Alaska Chapter on building in the unique Alaska condition
• Exhibit and videotaped presentations by the Alaska Center for Appropriate Technology and Bioneers in Alaska Planning Group (1:00-2:30 p.m.) of three half-hour sessions from the October Bioneers Conference, including biologist, author and co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute, Janine Benyus, on what ingenious, and often endangered, species can teach us about solving some of our most challenging environmental issues; conservationist, entrepreneur and author Paul Stamets on how fungus-based medicinal and nutritional technologies have the potential to change the world; and Canadian journalist and author Naomi Klein on her vision of how people’s movements can counter disaster capitalism.
• More alternative energy solution ideas for northern climates by the Renewable Energy Alaska Project, a coalition of urban and rural Alaska utilities, businesses, conservation groups, consumer groups and Alaska Native organizations designed to increase the production of renewable energy in Alaska.