Money pours in for documentary

Rasmuson, other Alaska sources helping filmmakers depict Colony era on film

January 1, 200 6

JOEL DAVIDSON\Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - A feature-length documentary on the Matanuska Colony Project is scheduled to premiere in the Valley 71 years after the original colonists rumbled down the train tracks into Palmer.

Major funding from the Rasmuson Foundation arrived last month to complete the film, &#8220Alaska Far Away,” which is nearly 12 years in the making.

Brainchild of two California business partners, Joan Juster and Paul Hill, the film aims to capture the stories of how 203 families arrived from Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin to carve a life out of near-total wilderness. Their journey north was part of a New Deal project to assist poor families decimated by the Great Depression. &#8220The plan is to broadcast this film nationally and PBS is an obvious choice,” Juster said Friday.

Editors now will cut more than 70 hours of footage into a two-hour movie. &#8220Finishing a film is more complicated than one might think,” Juster said. &#8220The editing is huge in making it come out like it is supposed to.”

The right to use archival footage also needs to be secured, along with recording an original musical score.

Juster said she hopes the subject matter carries international appeal.

The movie's world premiere, however, is scheduled to occur at its source, during the 2006 Colony Reunion in Palmer. &#8220We couldn't possibly premiere this anywhere else but Palmer,” Juster said.

Most of the funding to complete the film came from Alaska sources. The Rasmuson Foundation gave a $95,000 grant. The USDA Rural Development Alaska Office chipped in roughly $50,000 and the Mat-Su Borough contributed $20,000 to go with $48,000 raised by the Palmer Historical Society from dozens of local contributors.

Wayne Bouwens, vice president of the Palmer Historical Society and an original Colony kid, said he hopes the film inspires a sense of pride in Valley residents for their local history. The historical society was instrumental in pushing the film project forward. For years the nonprofit group helped secure funding and grants for the film.

&#8220This is a history of part of the Great Depression,” Bouwens said. &#8220I think it will open the eyes of a lot of people in this area. We are also hoping the school board approves this to use as part of the school curriculum.”

Juster and Hill first heard of the Matanuska Colony in 1994, after visiting a friend in Palmer and hearing Colony-era tales from original colonist Irene Benson. Benson's stories of adventure and survival mesmerized the Californians and inspired the idea for a film.

Juster and Hill scrambled to interview original colonists before they died. The memories of most of them, interviewed over the past 12 years, are preserved.

Once the project is complete, roughly 120 hours of interviews from Colony families, historians and others will go to the Palmer Historical Society. Bouwens said he hopes future generations use the interviews for historical research.

Juster said she feels a great responsibility toward those who helped make the film possible.

&#8220The historical research was so much fun. Talking to the colonists fed my soul,” she said. &#8220We started out just making a film and we ended up helping this community preserve its history. We want to give this our absolute best.”