Maya Salganek (she/her/they) is a filmmaker and educator living on the unceded lands of the Dena people of the lower Tanana river. Her cinematic work often features the people and stories of Alaska, which aim to decolonize the screen. Some of her work includes the PBS documentary We Breathe Again (Chamberlain; Peters, 2017), which focuses on Alaska Native healing from historical trauma and suicide, and the PBS childrens’ TV series Molly of Denali (Gilliam, 2019,2020) featuring a modern Koyukon Athabaskan girl whose adventures across Alaska educate and inform youth about informational text and traditional culture and values.
Maya is a Professor of Film and Video Arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), and Chair of the Department of Theatre and Film. In 2012 Maya founded FRAME Film Production Services at UAF, and routinely contracts with local and national clients to fulfill their film production needs. She works with diverse students on a daily basis to actuate their visions into time-based media. Her University teaching curriculum includes courses in Previsualization and Preproduction, Film Set Production, Film History, Film Theory, Cross-cultural Filmmaking, and Documentary Production through FRAME. Maya is a mother, partner, licensed yoga instructor, pilot, and gardener.
“I am dedicated to developing positive role models on film that reflect the diversity of our community. I nurture the development of visually sovereign storytellers expressing themselves within their own communities, as well as to a wider audience. We have front row seats to climate change, and the impact on communities in the Arctic. My work is grounded in the needs of our time and place. “
Maya Salganek
Alaska Filmmakers Series: Season 2; Episode 2 Features Maya Salganek.
AKF Travels to the University of Alaska Fairbanks to speak with instructor Maya Salganek. Maya has been teaching in the UAF Theater and Film Department since 2001, and helped to develop the Film degree program at the university. © 2012 Tri-Seven Pictures
| “I am the Executive Producer of Molly of Denali, the new PBS KIDS series about a young Athabascan girl’s adventures in interior Alaska and throughout the state… Our production is committed to working with Alaska Native writers, producers, filmmakers, and voice-over talent to ensure that the final product, what kids view on screen, is an accurate and positive reflection of Alaska Native culture. We are able to do so directly in part because of the UAF Performing Arts department and UAF Frame. Several of our writers, producers and filmmakers are graduates of the UAF Film & Media program, headed up by Prof. Maya Salganek. The program has provided these individuals with a solid foundation, and their contributions have made a significant and meaningful contribution to our series. In addition, the unique UAF Frame program produces some of the live action segments that are featured in each episode. These segments not only help us tell our stories, but they also give aspiring media makers critical experience and a pathway into the industry. For many, this is an opportunity that would not exist without the UAF Frame program. And for our production, we simply would not be able to achieve our vision without the help and support of the many talented graduates of the UAF Film & Media department and UAF Frame. Too often the Arts are undervalued as a nice but dispensable area of study. Molly of Denali proves that funding for the Arts leads to real jobs. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the #1 “leadership competency” of the future. Employees who thrive in tomorrow’s workplace will bring what the author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls “a spark of imagination” to whatever they do. They will be creative thinkers and problem-solvers who improve products, processes, and services, and invent new ones. To prepare tomorrow’s workers for success, we need to invest in today’s young people by valuing and supporting their creative development. I urge you to continue to support the UAF Performing Arts and Arts departments as well as the UAF Frame program, not only for the benefit of the Molly of Denali production but for the future of all Alaskans.“ |
| “Prof. Maya Salganek and her team have been major contributors to a number of research and science coordination efforts that colleagues and myself have led over the past few years. The quality and scope of her work and the ability of Prof. Salganek to quickly grasp and zero in on the key aspects of a project in terms of documentation and communication have been tremendous assets. For example, for the first textbook on field techniques employed in interdisciplinary sea-ice research, for which I served as lead editor, a large effort that involved leading researchers from four continents would not have been the success it has been without Maya Salganek’s and her students’ contributions. Her team provided video sequences of outstanding quality that have become the standard (and are still widely used) in illustrating how to apply different techniques in the field. At the same time, from this material she was able to generate a series of highly effective sequences in collaboration with UAF’s School of Education for use in the classroom. It is this combination of vision, perspective, technical know-how and ability to get things done in challenging environments that make Prof. Salganek the go-to contact for challenging projects requiring videography or video documentation components. Most recently, she demonstrated the ability to come through with compelling products by producing a five minute video that highlighted key outcomes of the international Arctic Observing Summit 2018 and was used to inform discussions at workshops and meetings at the Second Arctic Science Ministerial, held in Berlin, Germany in October 2018. Working under significant time pressure and drawing on her impressive archive of relevant footage, Maya Salganek and two members of her [FRAME] team produced a highly compelling product, that we continue to use (most recently in a session on Arctic Observing Networks at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting).” |
As a filmmaker, educator and creative producer, I have invested years as the founding director of the first B.A. in Film in Alaska developing a “workforce development training” program in the Arts, AV Technology and Communications career cluster for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Our training program in the department of Theatre and Film is the first of its kind in Alaska, and is based on developing both creative and applied skills for filmmakers, writers, designers, actors, and technicians in a way that both generates a product, as well as an experiential learning environment. We focus on telling authentic stories, generated from our expressive histories that are representative of our own unique perspective and relationship to the world. As a filmmaker, instructor, and trained anthropologist, I understand that a diverse spectrum of expression is critical towards developing an accurate reflection of our society in the media.
My own research spans working with scientific documentary, television, independent narrative film, historical documentary, and corporate/educational training materials. I have developed partnerships across the United States and the Arctic, which allows my students to reach broader audiences with their work. My focus as a film producer is to promote work that reflects people, stories, places, and unique viewpoints specific to our community. Alaskan film is infused with the voices of history and cultural knowledge, and embedded in the geographic wonder of the abundant North. Alaska Film and Performing Arts students are encouraged to make films that are self-reflective of their communities and Alaska, including the diversity of language, cultural complexities, strong traditions of Northern peoples, and the wealth of the Alaskan landscape and those that choose to live within it. Through our Alaska Film and Performing Arts program, we have developed partnerships which serve to bridge the needs of today’s students with the future of digital storytelling.
My complete Curriculum Vitae is here.
Maya Salganek 