ALASKALAND – a film by Chinonye Chukwu. Produced by Maya Salganek with the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
AlaskaLand tells the story of Chukwuma, an Alaskan-raised Nigerian struggling to balance the expectations of his traditional Nigerian parents and the larger world around him. After a tragic car crash, Chukwuma is separated from his younger sister, Chidinma, who moves to Nigeria with their Uncle until she becomes of legal age.
Two years later the siblings reconnect to find their estrangement has created new personal and cultural frictions in ways that bring them closer to each other and their roots, as well as help them define what it means to be a Nigerian in Alaska.
Chinonyne Chukwu (director) was a former student of mine at UAF, and worked on Chronic Town in 2007. Several years later, she returned to Alaska and shot her first feature film with UAF students on her own set.
See behind the scenes with AlaskaLand and UAF Film Students on set. Dedicated to Adrina Knutson and Chris Kern.
Maya Salganek 