If you are a history buff, and happen to be in Anchorage on April 30, 2019, the Alaska Aviation Film Festival may be just the thing for you.
The festival will show moving images of:
- Russ Merrill, Will Rogers, and Wiley Post in Alaska
- Documentary recovery of a PBY Catalina from the Aleutian Conflict in WWII Queen of Dago Lake
- The Forgotten Front-Veterans Remember
- Seldom seen Alaska footage from Burley Putnam and Lloyd Lounsbury taken in the 1920s to 1940s collected by Alaska aviation historian Ted Spencer.
Organizers also hope to show “another WWII film shot by the Soviets of the Lend-Lease aircraft flown through Alaska to Siberia in 1941-42. The film is all in Russian and was commissioned by Stalin, so as you might imagine it is a propaganda film in black and white. The air-to-air images are spectacular — B-25s leading P-39s and A-20s in formation across the Bering Sea in winter.” But that film has yet to be confirmed.
The event is a fundraiser for the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association and will take place at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub on April 30, 2019, from 5:30-10 p.m. A portion of the proceeds will be put towards the ongoing development of an endowment for the program at the Alaska Community Foundation. Cost is $50.