A film that focuses on the history of the Russian Orthodox faith in Alaska was screened in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta for the first time since it premiered two years ago. "Sacred Alaska" heavily features the Yup'ik communities of Kwethluk and Bethel.
Scenes from the Y-K Delta across its seasons dominate the second half of the film. But director Simon Scionka said it wasn’t planned to be this way.
He said the richness of the region’s history and connection to Orthodoxy impacted the trajectory of the film in an unexpected way.
“That was the surprise for us,” Scionka said. “So we knew there were seeds of that. And really, Father Michael Oleksa just said, 'Look … if you really want to get real Alaska, Orthodox Alaska, you've got to go to the Kuskokwim.' ”
Film festivals in Australia, Norway, Romania, and across the U.S. have premiered the documentary. But it wasn’t until last month that the film had its first official screening in the region it was filmed in, at Bethel’s Yupiit Picaryarait Cultural Center.
The full-length film features interviews from Russian Orthodox parishes across the state including Anchorage and Kodiak, but heavily features interviews from the Y-K Delta village of Kwethluk. It includes scenes of village life, of the annual blessing of the Kuskowkim River water through a carved cross in the ice at Theophany, and interviews of family remembering Yup’ik saint Matushka Olga.
Scionka said he — along with the film’s producer, Silas Carbo — made multiple filming trips to the region in 2021. Being of Russian Orthodox faith themselves, they partook in the community’s services and divine liturgies.
“And it really impacted Silas and I both pretty deeply,” Scionka explained. “We walked away from it, we walked away from our experiences up there with the people we encountered and became friends with.”
After two years of editing, the film was released in 2023. Scionka said the film is for anyone, but was made with the hope to expand the scope of what Orthodoxy is to members of the church elsewhere in the world.
“My initial vision was that it would be for Orthodox Christians in the lower 48, that it would kind of introduce them and expose them to this kind of lesser known world of Orthodoxy that really is a part of who we all are,” Scionka said.
He said, since the film’s release, it’s done just that. "Sacred Alaska" has premiered all over the world, first debuting at an Orthodox film festival in Australia. Scinoka remembered a screening in Romania, a historically Orthodox nation.
“It was really neat to kind of take this story to kind of, quote, unquote, the old world, old world Orthodoxy. And they just loved it,” Scionka remembered. “I mean, for them to see Orthodoxy in such a different context, kind of outside of the traditions of Eastern Europe, Russia, Romania, or Greece, and just kind of see it in the unique Alaskan context — it was quite eye opening.”
But on the Y-K Delta, the film’s debut on its own turf had a warm reception. In an event hosted by the Kuskokwim Consortium Library, Bethel’s Cultural Center turned movie theater had dozens of attendees and free popcorn to boot.
Members of Bethel's St. Sophia Russian Orthodox Church said a blessing and sang a song before they settled in to watch themselves and neighbors in the documentary.
In its international stint, "Sacred Alaska" had the ability to transport others across the world to the far corners of the Y-K Delta. But in Bethel, after the credits rolled, the patrons trickled outside into the chilly March air, into the landscape of tundra and the still-frozen Kuskokwim River — home.
"Sacred Alaska" is available to rent online at sacredalaska.vhx.tv.
