Anna Hoover (Unangax̂ [Aleut])
AWARDEE: Anna Hoover
NATIVE HERITAGE: Unangax̂ (Aleut)
LOCATION: Anchorage, AK
AWARD: 2021 SHIFT – Transformative Change and Indigenous Arts
DISCIPLINE: Film/Video
WEBSITE: annahoover.net
SOCIAL MEDIA: Instagram
PARTNER ORGANIZATION:
Native Peoples Action Community Fund – BIO
ABOUT
Anna Hoover earned her master’s degrees in Native American art history and Indigenous documentary filmmaking, and her bachelor’s degrees in art history and interdisciplinary fine arts from the University of Washington. Hoover’s work has long been connected to the environment and involved in the community. Her creative vision captures the knowledge base of Indigenous people from a first-hand experience, depicted beautifully and with deep meaning. She currently resides in Alaska. A private pilot and commercial salmon fisher, Hoover lives for challenge and adventure and does not shy away from jobs that require a little elbow grease.
Hoover has received support in her career from Alaska Humanities Forum, Institute of American Indian Arts, International Sami Film Institute, Rasmuson Foundation, as well as having screened her films at imagineNATIVE, Berlinale Native, Northwest Filmmakers and Museum of Contemporary Native Art. Hoover has written four episodes for Molly of Denali, an award-winning children’s animation show that airs on PBS in the USA and Canada. One of her recent documentary films profiles Kanatak, a historical Alaskan town located on the Alaska Peninsula, with roots in the fur and oil boom eras, with the last generation of residents sharing childhood memories of growing up there.
As Native peoples, we are deeply grounded in place; when we create things from materials gathered from those places, our bonds to our homelands are renewed and strengthened.
― Anna Hoover (Unangax̂ [Aleut])
PROJECT
Hoover’s SHIFT project Voices of the Land is an Indigenous-justice documentary film grounded in place, culture, and Alaska Native lifeways. Each section of the film focuses on one Alaska Native artist from a different region of Alaska, highlighting efforts to protect sacred lands and waters, including the Yukon Flats, Kuskokwim River, Bristol Bay, Tongass National Forest, and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Each vignette will focus on one Alaska Native artist highlighting different environmental conflicts from across the state. The stories will then be screened in each artist’s community in conjunction with existing regional gatherings. The project will partner with the Native Peoples Action Community Fund to build community relationships and co-produce the film.
PARTNER ORGANIZATION
Native Peoples Action Community Fund (NPACF) was established to facilitate an Alaska Native statewide grassroots movement advancing the transition to a just society that provides for the continuation of Alaska Native ways of life, and the wellbeing of Alaska Native peoples. NPACF works to ensure Alaska Natives are heard in all levels of policy making, advocating for the wellness of its peoples and its ways of life, and by transforming social and governance systems. NPACF’s operating principles include:
- Be Well: Indigenous wellbeing founded on respect and understanding;
- Be Grounded: Indigenous education for all;
- Be Sustained: sustainable economies of place founded on respect;
- Be Seen: media and messaging by Indigenous artists;
- Be Heard: amplify Indigenous voices; and
- Be Sacred; honor and defend Indigenous spirituality.
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