The Kenai Peninsula Film Group’s Winter Film Series returned this week to kick off its second season at the Soldotna Public Library.
The Winter Film Series, which debuted earlier this year in January and ran through April, is an offering of short films that organizers said at the time was intended to spark discussion about film in the local community. To that end, they said each entry would feature the work of a local filmmaker.
“I think we did a good job building the foundation last year,” film group founding member Eric Downs said on Sunday. “The best part about it is connecting community with local artists and bringing the local community — that may not have an understanding of filmmaking — and bridging the gap … it’s not all Hollywood, it starts at a grassroots level.”
Downs said they want to support filmmaking in the local community and “inspire young people” to chase their own creative ambitions.
On Sunday, even as a windstorm caused power outages on the central Kenai Peninsula, more than 40 people packed into the library’s meeting space, organizers pulling out additional chairs to meet the demand. Over around an hour and a half, 12 short films were screened, the shortest at a runtime of a minute and a half; the longest clocking in at just over 15 minutes.
The films included music videos, animation and traditional dramas. Some were funny, others were sad. An animated film about frogs celebrating together in what seemed to be a post-apocalyptic setting was followed by a documentary about foley artists, who create sound effects for movies. Laughter often rang out from the crowd, who rated each film out of five stars and munched on provided snacks.
Host Aaron Gordon said that they had sought to present “variety.” That’s why some of the films are contemporary and some are old, some are dramatic while some are funny, some are made in “the other side of the world” and others are from “our backyard.”
“You’ll see something that maybe you haven’t seen before, something you wouldn’t normally watch,” he said. “The goal is to show you what is possible with film.”
The program concluded with two short films produced by local filmmakers. The first was a comedy short by Gordon — about chaos wrought at AkCrazyCollector by the Elf on the Shelf. The second was a film by Raleigh Van Natta — “Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble.”
Downs said it’s always exciting to feature the local filmmaker during the series — to support them and to inspire others in the community.
“Being able to showcase their work is special.”
After the screening, Van Natta fielded questions from the audience about his film and its production process. He held aloft a storybook that his mother read to him as a child, Phyllis Root’s “Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble,” upon which his film was based. He described the process of reaching out to the author, and later the publisher, to obtain permission to make the film.
Van Natta wrote and directed the film, while Gordon served as director of photography. Van Natta also wrote and recorded the music. The story follows Aunt Nancy, played by Carol Ford, as she receives a visit by Old Man Trouble, played by Ian McEwen.
Van Natta called it “a sweet story about always finding the best in a bad situation.”
“Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble” was filmed in Old Town Kenai, in the cabins maintained by the Kenai Historical Society. Van Natta said the film represented a “full circle moment.” He said they filmed “across the street” from the former Kenai Performers’ space, where he had been introduced to acting, with Ford, who was his first director.
Van Natta described attending film school and realizing how fortunate the local community is to have artists, actors and “super talented people” who come together just for fun to make art — specifically the local theater community.
In California, he said, everyone is looking to get paid. That’s one of the reasons he missed “my small town.”
“It’s special that we can not worry about that,” he said. “Am I going to get famous from this short film? No … I get to show it in a library to 42 people.”
Van Natta, under his own production banner Iron Flamingo Pictures, has produced several short films and other shorts, all of which are available for free on his YouTube channel under “Raleigh Van Natta.” He teased another book adaptation, of Patricia Polacco’s “Christmas Tapestry,” which he hopes to release next December.
The Winter Film Series will continue once a month “through the winter,” Gordon said, targeting the second Saturday of each month. That would place the next session on Jan. 13, again at the Soldotna Public Library. Each session is free and open to the public. The Kenai Peninsula Film Group can be found on Facebook. The complete playlist of all 12 films shown this week is available on YouTube at “Kenai Peninsula Film Group.”
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
Carol Ford portrays Aunt Nancy in “Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble,” a short film by Raleigh Van Natta. (Photo courtesy Raleigh Van Natta)
Ian McEwen portrays Old Man Trouble in “Aunt Nancy and Old Man Trouble,” a short film by Raleigh Van Natta. (Photo courtesy Raleigh Van Natta)
