From mountaintops to music scenes: Community Voices captures Alaska

Student documentarians a part of the Community Voices: Global Stories class will screen their finished projects from their trip to Alaska on Dec. 8 in the Folino Theater at 7 p.m. Photo courtesy of Emilie Haskell

As a documentarian, junior broadcast journalism and documentary major Emilie Haskell knows the importance of making sure their interview subjects are as comfortable as possible. So when the central figure to their Community Voices project in Alaska said that he would be able to speak more freely in the mountains of Anchorage, the trio didn’t hesitate to secure the necessary film permits.

Luckily, the ideal location for their interview subject was only a “beginner-level” hike away. 

“His idea of a basic hike was 10 miles roundtrip, basically straight vertical,” Haskell said. "It was absolutely stunning, but we all almost passed out because we were carrying these big backpacks with all the camera equipment on our back. We finally got to this absolutely unreal outlook over this frozen lake with all this fog rolling in. It was so unlike anything I'd ever seen before in my life. Feeling like my lungs were gonna fall out was worth it.”

Despite the sore calves and aching backs, Haskell told The Panther the footage turned out beautiful. On Dec. 8, the four teams which set off to film documentary projects in Anchorage, Alaska over the summer of 2022 will screen their final projects in the Folino Theater at 7 p.m. These teams were overseen by associate professor of documentary film Sally Rubin, who has taught the travel course since 2010 and helped foster students' sense of activism. 

“As a professor, there's nothing that's more gratifying than sharing your passion with young people and seeing them engage with that passion,” Rubin said. “Being able to be out in the field with students and helping them tell really valuable, important, relevant stories… it's just very rewarding, gratifying and fun.”

The Community Voices program aims to blend the documentary craft with students’ sense of activism to create impactful, collaborative films that mirror the one-year timeline of a thesis project. The course takes place over two semesters — one semester for pre-production, one semester to edit and a summer period in between to travel and shoot footage. 

Information regarding next year’s Community Voices trip will be available in February. Photo courtesy of Sally Rubin

The course alternates every year between Community Voices: America’s Stories and Community Voices: Global Stories. This past year was supposed to be held in Scotland as a part of the Global Stories course, but after many international travel courses shutting down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the program shifted to Alaska — which was away from the mainland but not technically considered international travel. 

“There's just so many fascinating, rich, cultural, ethnic, socioeconomic class (and) racial issues (in Alaska),” Rubin said. “There are so many stories to tell, to put it simply. And you know, it's the kind of place that you couldn't throw a rock and not find a good story.” 

The four separate films revolve around the following concepts.

• The Long Shadow: an experienced hiker learns to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder through his creative process. 

• Rage City: three musicians thriving among the artistic community in Anchorage. 

• Feeding Alaska: the effects of global warming on Alaska's farming system. 

• A Piece of Myself: three Alaskan artists define the intrinsic value of their work as the tourism industry extracts and appropriates their culture. 

Haskell, who worked on “The Long Shadow,” first found out about the course when she visited Chapman in high school under the Panther for a Day program. Community Voices was the class she chose to sit in on and was so enamored that she missed part of her tour because she was committed to staying the entire duration of the class. Haskell was excited about the new challenge of navigating Alaska after taking the Community Voices: America’s Stories course last year. 

“I had the advantage of choosing to do a story for the Community Voices: (America’s Stories) class that was based out of my hometown (of Fresno, California) so I was already comfortable,” Haskell said. “Taking the (Community Voices: Global Stories) class where we would be doing all of our pre-production via Zoom and having to make contact with people who we had never met before was definitely a fun challenge because you learn a lot as you go. It was nice to go in with a blank slate.”

For senior broadcast journalism and documentary major Collin Gaja, Alaska proved to be an enticing location to navigate a topic that he’s passionate about in his group's film “Feeding Alaska.”

“Climate change was such a big thing for me growing up, learning about how much of an issue it is and how in 30 to 40 years down the line the world may not be habitable,” Gaja said. “I feel like a lot of people, at least here in the (mainland) U.S. don’t see how climate change is affecting them in their everyday lives. I thought I might take this chance to go to Alaska and see what’s been done there to combat climate change or see how they’re feeling the effects.”

Gaja’s group chose to pursue a survey-essay style documentary which focuses on multiple subjects as opposed to one. Aside from the multitude of information relating to Alaska’s farming industry, Gaja's biggest takeaway was learning to roll with the punches of documentary filmmaking — especially after losing an important SD card an hour away from Anchorage. 

“You can plan as much as you want but anything can happen during the day,” Gaja said. “Sure, you can follow a schedule but at any given moment, something could happen and the schedule doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve just got to be prepared for anything and then go with the flow and try my best whenever a situation goes south or we do a 180.”

Along with delving into students’ passion for activism, Rubin pushes her students to counteract a trend in nonfiction called extractive filmmaking where outsiders go into a country or culture and take their stories for their purposes. 

“We spent a lot of the spring studying Alaskan culture and social issues that are relevant in Alaska,” Rubin said. "We worked with expert filmmakers there on the ground, people who could really educate the students about the most pressing Alaskan issues. And then once we had done that, from that place, we developed the films… It was a challenge, prepping ourselves to be qualified to tell stories about a culture that most of us knew nothing about.”

For Haskell, joining Community Voices has defined her college experience and put two projects under her belt that she can take into the professional world.

“I don't know if I would be half the filmmaker that I am without Community Voices,” Haskell said. “Having the experience of working on something that's longer form, having a lot of time to develop your ideas and work with a bunch of people who are just as heavily motivated as you are from a bunch of different disciplines is unreal.”

Information regarding next year’s Community Voices trip will be available in February. Questions can be directed to rubin@chapman.edu via email. The trip is open to students of all majors but Rubin recommends having experience with documentary filmmaking, an interest in activism and the qualities of a team player.