Attla dir. by Catharine Axley (review)

the 2019 documentary attla (sixty minutes), directed by Catharine Axley, about family relationships, is intended for audiences interested in sports biography and Alaska Native traditions. The film presents a Koyukon Athabascan elder named George Attla transferring his knowledge about mushing—driving a pack of sled dogs—to a younger generation. After his own retirement from the sport, he prepares his grandnephew Joe Bifelt, a university student, for an impending series of races. For five decades George was an international contender who prevailed as an eight-time winner of the Open North American race in Fairbanks and ten-time winner of the Fur Rendezvous world championship in Anchorage. His stature as a respected player in sprint competitions of one hundred miles or less drives his desire to forge Joe as a potential player to keep the sport in the familial line. In turn, Joe sees mushing as a cultural tradition, like speaking his Indigenous language, that he wants to help continue in the villages of northern Alaska.

While conversations about competitive mushing drive many of the scenes, Attla imparts lessons other than the ins and outs of the cold weather sport. The film explores human character. In segments where the two discuss technical aspects of the sport, the details are second to watching the compelling interactions between George and Joe. For example, in kindhearted scenes the elder instructs Joe how to improve his performance by reviewing training footage with scientific precision. The director infuses the narrative with discussions about George's past racing triumphs and the ensuing consequences his dedication to winning held for his personal relationships. Interviews with family members and friends, many speaking from the intimate setting of their homes, reveal the possible cost of George's commitment to excellence in an arduous high-profile profession. Others detail their unwavering admiration of his moxie.

The film takes many unexpected turns. One such disclosure is that George incurred tuberculosis as a child, which changed the course of his life. The bacterial disease required him to leave his family in the village to reside in a sanitarium for nine years. After returning home at the age of seventeen with a fused kneecap he found the emergent sport of mushing an exciting career endeavor. When he worked as a racer he was able to ground himself in northern Alaska while he secured a level of recognition within the international industry of professional sports outside the village. The public, near and abroad, admired his drive to win and the accomplishments such motivations engendered.

Much of the documentary is set around the Husila village in the northern interior of Alaska. The locational footage Axley shoots allows viewers who might lack familiarity with Alaska to view a meaningful snapshot of village life. George chops firewood. Joe tends the dogs. People load and unload planes as a normal part of their daily routines. Scenes of the two men as passengers in small planes flying across the roadless tundra are juxtaposed with footage of the younger man on the back of a sled mushing dogs through the snowy trails on the ground. Axley also draws from archival film where a younger George appears in more populated areas dressed in his racing gear, for example, after one of his victories at the Fur Rondy in downtown Anchorage.

The viewer learns that George lost a son named Frank to an asthma attack as he was helping the young man prepare to be a musher. George's persistent drive to impart a competitive character to Joe, something he was unable to complete with his son, holds a deeper meaning for the filmmaker than the sport at hand. The viewer comes away understanding what George means when he tells Joe how important it is for someone to finish strong. Sports metaphors aside, the film Attla shows the distances one must cross to be a contender.

The director and producers handle the drawbacks of making a film about Alaska Native sled dog racers for a broad audience with success. The back-stories here—about dog mushing, culture, and family—are...