KAKM Receives Major Rasmuson Foundation Grant

Thu, December 20, 2007
Posted in KAKM News

“For the Rights of All” Documentary tells the Extraordinary Civil Rights Story of Alaska Natives

The Rasmuson Foundation has awarded Alaska Public Telecommunications, Inc. (APTI) a $100,000 grant for the production of “For the Rights of All.”

“For the Rights of All,” a one-hour documentary by local award-winning filmmaker Jeffry Silverman of Blueberry Productions, tells the story of how Alaska Natives won equal rights for all Alaskans through non-violent social change — overcoming prejudice, disadvantage and bigotry.

“The Rasmuson Foundation has made it possible for a local Alaska filmmaker to partner with KAKM to tell an important story from Alaska’s history to a national public television audience,” said APTI President and General Manager Steve Lindbeck.

Re-enactments, new interviews and rare historic footage and photographs trace the remarkable story of Alaska’s civil rights movement over the course of the 20th Century with the climax of the 1945 passage of the Anti-Discrimination Act, a groundbreaking law that preceded statehood.

Particularly inspiring is the poise of Tlingit activist Elizabeth Peratrovich whose Alaska Senate hearing testimony, re-enacted in the program, turned the tide in favor of the Equal Rights bill. The film also features a first-ever interview with Alaska’s “Rosa Parks,” Alberta Schenck, who as a teenager in 1943 refused to move from a whites-only section of Nome movie theater.

KAKM, in partnership with Silverman, will co-present with the Native American Public Telecommunications (NAPT) the one-hour documentary to PBS upon completion of the program in 2008. The NAPT also is a major funder of the production. Other committed funders include Alaska Airlines, Alaska Humanities Forum, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

PHOTO (above): Alan Hayes and Diane Benson stand on the steps of the Alaska Legislature as they portray Roy and Elizabeth Peratrovich in re-enactment scenes in “For the Rights of All.”

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