Fairbanks-based Alaska Native filmmakers from Deenaadàį’ Productions are bringing an award-winning 1993 book to the screen for the first time.
“Two Old Women” is an adaptation of Velma Wallis’ novel of the same name – and in the new film, the story is told entirely in Gwich’in. It premiered in Hawai’i last month, with homecoming showings scheduled in Alaska in December.
Wallis’s 1993 book is based on an Athabascan legend and takes place in a time before colonization. The story follows a pair of elderly women, Ch’idzigyaak and Sa’, who are left behind by their tribe, which faces starvation amid a harsh winter and shortage of food. The main characters then battle against the elements, relying on their ancestral knowledge and each other to survive in Alaska’s wilderness.
Filmmaker Princess Johnson remembers when she first read the book as a teenager, and she said adapting it for the screen is something she’s been wanting to do for more than 20 years.
“I felt that, when I initially read it, I could see it. You know? I could visualize it,” she said. “And, at that time, I was still very early in my filmmaking career and my filmmaking journey.”
In the years since then, Johnson has worked as a creative producer on the PBS Kids series “Molly of Denali” and produced six episodes of the latest season of HBO’s “True Detective.” Now, she’s added to her resume writing, directing and producing the 14-minute short for “Two Old Women,” a proof-of-concept for what she hopes to develop into a feature film.
In the screen adaptation, Ch’idzigyaak and Sa’ speak to each other in Gwich’in. In fact, the film is entirely in the Athabascan language, which is considered severely endangered.
Johnson said she got some pushback early on from production companies and others who thought the language piece would be a hard sell, but she said that part was non-negotiable.
“There’s just such a richness and a nuance. I think we would actually lose a lot if it was in English. It wouldn’t be as believable or, like, pull us into that authenticity of a pre-contact piece,” she said.
Gwich’in has about 300 speakers in Alaska, according to the Alaska Native Language Center, and 205 in Canada, per the country’s most recent census data, from 2021.
Taa’aii Peter, a producer on the project who also helped with the translation, is an advocate of Indigenous knowledges, languages and rights. He said experiencing Gwich’in on the big screen can be a source of pride, a way to uplift the language and even an educational tool.
“Art is such a powerful medium of communication. It’s inspirational, can be life changing and transformational for people,” said Peter, who also has a background in film production and previously served as the vice chancellor of rural, community and Native education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Peter said the end product is just one part of what can give art that power. Behind the end product are the people – and the process – and he said the filmmakers brought together Gwich’in speakers and culture bearers so that, together, they could figure out how to best tell “Two Old Women” in a language that carried the story for thousands of years.
He said that decision “just makes complete sense.”
“And then it’s also this form of helping to make this contribution to advancing the important focus on language and language work that’s happening within our community and within a lot of other Indigenous communities,” Peter said.
The short film was shot in three days at Borealis Basecamp, north of Fairbanks, and at Gather, which is a social space downtown. But it’s been in the making for about five years. The filmmakers say, during that time, they used the project to build community in other ways, too, like running hide-tanning workshops where people could learn traditional practices while making clothing that appears in the film.
Like Peter, Johnson said the workshops, contributions and other inputs are just as important as what winds up on the screen.
“To me, like, in its best form, filmmaking can be a form of healing. It can be a form of medicine,” she said.
The film stars Margaret Henry John and Brenda K. Newman as Sa’ and Ch'idzigyaak, with Chief Galen Gilbert of Vashraii K’oo, Alaska, appearing as Chief Dajalti’. The 14-minute short will be screened in Fairbanks as part of an event at Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center on Dec. 5, which starts at 5 p.m. It’ll also be shown at the Anchorage International Film Festival on Dec. 13 at 3 p.m.