Alaska town hasn’t seen the sun in 67 days, ripe opportunity to recruit new fans

[CatManTrue]

Can we send @Alaskawildkat to Utquigvik to wear purple, take pictures, and recruit 5,000 more fans to our base during the next 2+ month polar night? This seems like a potent recruiting ground for NU:

Coming together as a community when darkness descends and making it through polar night feels like a metaphor for life, she continued with a smile.

"You know, we all go through the dark times. If you look for the light, it's going to be there," she said.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/trav...as-northernmost-town-utquigvik-alaska/1128335

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Definitely a possibility. Although Barrow High School (located in renamed from Barrow to Utquigvik city) has a student body hardly more than 200, it fields varsity football, basketball, ice hockey, soccer, and wrestling teams. As the beneficiary of vast oil wealth that has been consequent from being in The North Slope Borough the funds to support community activities, sports and otherwise, have been no deterrent.

Perhaps some will recall the 2015 NFL Network's TV show which over multiple episodes chronicled all aspects of the football team. It was titled, "Football Town: Barrow, Alaska." (Although that year's team did make the playoffs with a 5-3 record, they did not make it to compete for the State Championship.)

Anyone interested in an armchair visit to the city can watch the made in Alaska Hollwood film, "Big Miracle." While there are positioning shots filmed by the second crew, the action and close ups were recreated on an open air movie set built just below my office in Anchorage. When The Rant Board was still alive I had chronicled the movie's production through photos I took from my office balcony and in my residential neighborhood where the Arctic ocean was replicated on a lake at the end of my street.

Here are a few of the scenes from the filming of the Drew Barrymore/John Krasinski/Ted Danson/Krisin Bell "Big Miracle" movie that I photographed and included in a picture book. If you look closely you can see several of them pictured. (The book also includes my photos of scenes from a subsequent made in Alaska Movie,"The Frozen Ground" that featured Nicolas Cage and John Cusack.)

 

[Alaskawildkat]

Filming of the opening scene in "Big Miracle" featuring a whale hunt. The setting is the lake at the end of my street which thanks to fog generating equipment was transformed into an Arctic ocean.

Drew Barrymore is seen (center, with white parka, and wearing an orange life vest) overlooking the whaling crew. Although not in the scene itself, she had voluntarily come out to meet and build up rapport with the featured Alaska Native child actor (Ahmaogak Sweeney as Nathan) - impliedly motivated by her own experience as a child actor.

Construction of the Ice Field and Barrow street sets.

Finishing touches are made to the Ice Field set along with a view looking back at the stepped balconies on my office building as referenced above

Filming underway as pictured below. Drew Barrymore (wearing blue parka) and John Krasinski 3rd and 4th from the right.

The pile of ice blocks in the center was used for a closing scene in the movie where the lead Alaska Native actor (John Pingayak as Malik) stands on top of them peering out to see the Soviet Icebreaker coming to save the day.