Russian Alaska

A Russian Cross Over Alaska

Alaska has been a US state since 1959, yet to this day there are those in this northern realm who preserve memories of a time when it was part of the Russian Empire. Interestingly, these are people who have lived their entire lives in America and have never visited Russia. Their nationalities are diverse – Aleuts, Yupiks, Americans from the “lower 48” – yet in spirit there is something almost Russian about them.

Dmitry Trakovsky, an American filmmaker with Russian roots, decided to seek out these “remnants of a former life.” Born in Moscow, the 26-year-old documentarian now lives in California, and even he called his project something of an adventure.

“I thought, why don’t I head to the North? When it all comes down to it, I am Russian, and it is in my blood. I had this idea that I would find a local there who to this day speaks Russian.”

So Trakovsky went to Alaska, and somehow or other he found some elderly residents who, indeed, remember a few Russian words. And even sing songs. One such person was Lucille Fedosia Antowock Davis, who attended a Russian Orthodox Church and, while speaking fluently in English, recalled memories of her father, calling him “papa,” and singing songs laced with Russian words, like sobaka (dog). During the interview, the director clarified that “papa” was their tribal leader, and that his daughter was a true princess.*

In his pilot for the documentary, viewable on YouTube [bit.ly/trakovskyfilm], the director filmed the ordination of a young priest – from a local Yupik tribe – in an Orthodox church.

“It was an remarkable moment,” Trakovsky said. “There was a certain spirituality in it. I had never seen anything like it.”

This priest also asked Trakovsky to help him translate a letter that his grandfather had written in Russian.

“My relatives and I translated the letter,” Trakovsky said. “It was written in the old orthography, back in the tsarist era... It was a rare, real-life example of contact between American and Russian cultures. It was from so, so long ago, and the Cold War would not start for many years.”

Trakovsky’s pilot video offers samples of interviews and extraordinary landscapes. Equally interesting are the locals, who say things like, “The United States of America bought this land for $7.2 million and Russian shoulda never gave it up. Alaska shoulda been a country in itself. Away from Russia, away from the United States. Hey, we’re natives, Alaska natives...”

When asked whether the Alaska he saw was more Russian or American, Trakovsky replied that, “For the most part, the culture is American, especially in the cities. For example, Anchorage – that is simply America. But in the villages, the tribes have their traditions. For example, I filmed mainly in places where the Yupik live. The majority of them are Orthodox, but they speak their own language. So it would be wrong to say that they are representatives of American culture.”

Trakovsky intends to call his final documentary The Arctic Cross, and he has already raised preliminary funds for it with two Kickstarter projects. “It was unexpected to see something like this on American territory,” Trakovsky said of his trip to the North. In particular, he said he “sensed that the Orthodox residents of Alaska truly respect Russia.” Yet, at the same time, he also understood that the Orthodox believers there are rather different from those in Russia, at least insofar as in many churches they speak and hear services in their own language.

The filmmaker said he hopes that “the film will be a meditation of sorts, and not simply a documentary tale. The idea of The Arctic Cross began with an aesthetic image, of a person in boundless nature. Perhaps this is connected with the fact that I worked for such a long time on my Andrei Tarkovsky project, which I feel succeeded in showing how this man was when he was all by himself. That is how I want to show Alaska: to make a film about Russian Alaska, to tell and show the history of the people who live there.”

Trakovsky said he is certain that the Alaskans “have some kind of spiritual beginning in Russian Orthodoxy and that they live it out.” He said that, in the process of his work, he found “the most interesting thing was to come to understand how faith helps these people live, how it alters their relationship with the world, with one another, and with themselves.” Trakovsky said he expects the final film will focus mainly on the Yupik people, as they are who he spent the most time filming.

It is noteworthy that Trakovsky, while born in Moscow, has, since emigrating with his parents 20 years ago, lived in California – another bulwark of Russian America. So his comparison of these two geographic outposts – Alaska and California, both at one time centers of Russian culture in the New World – is interesting. He does not favor of his adopted state on this score.

“In California,” Trakovsky said, “Russian culture is mainly historical, personified, for example, by Fort Ross; it has a sort of museum-like feel. In Alaska, [the culture] lives to this day, people breathe it.”

Trakovsky’s 2009 debut documentary, Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky, was shown at many international film festivals, and even received special distinctions at festivals in Sao Paolo, Monaco and the US. The genesis of the film was Trakovsky’s love for the famed director’s work.

“I felt compelled to do this film,” he said, “because the world that existed around Tarkovsky when he was shooting his films is gradually disappearing. I decided to try to preserve that world.

“I would probably agree with one of the heroes of my film,” he continued, “who said that Tarkovsky is not a ‘brand’ in Russia. Yet having finished this work, I understood just how many people all over the world see Tarkovsky’s films and afterwards begin to live life differently. Tarkovsky’s work is something truly unique, something which touches many people, even in Russia.”

Surely the young documentarian, as any artist, hopes for even just a small measure of the same from his own work. RL

* Lucille Davis passed away in late September, soon after Trakovsky filmed his conversation with her.