S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's arts and culture show here about the new film , Dear Alaska and the latest production at the Old Globe. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. You know , what does it mean to reconnect with your ancestral homeland ? Well , a new documentary called Dear Alaska explores that experience through the lens of the indigenous indigenous Tlingit people of the Pacific Northwest in San Diego's native community. Here's a teaser from the movie.
S2: My ancestors are calling me back. So how do I respond ? Dear Alaska , I'm coming home to you. Will you accept me ? Uh.
S1: And the documentary premieres today at The Grove in Los Angeles as part of the Native Women in Film Festival. I'm joined now by the director Mariah Hays , who is based out of San Diego. Mariah , welcome to the show. Hi.
S3: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
S1: So glad to have you here. I know this is a very personal film for you.
S3: And I was learning so much about , you know , their community. And I wanted to be able to contribute something back. But I quickly kind of realized that I didn't really know much more. Aside from like , yeah , I like it , and I like salmon , but I don't know much more beyond that. And I wanted to have the kind of same depth that I feel like I was achieving , um , in that community , in my own community and kind of have like a quote unquote study abroad experience within my own culture and , and really connect deeply in the ways that I feel like I had been missing , um , growing up. Wow.
S1: Wow. So what was your relationship to Alaska , your ancestral homeland , before the film ? Yeah.
S3: Um , I mean , I , I've never actually lived there. Um , but it is homeland , and I've , I've grown up visiting because I have a lot of family there , um , you know , in Ketchikan and Juneau and Anchorage , um , kind of all throughout Alaska. And , um , you know , it's so it's always been a home to me. And I , you know , I've spent long amounts of times there and , um , have , you know , it's kind of always been I feel like the , the second place , aside from , you know , Southern California.
S1: Well , in the film , you sit down with your mom to talk about why she left Alaska.
S3: I think every time I come back to Alaska , it feels like I am able to just really felt , feel like , embraced and held by my ancestors because the land is our ancestors , right ? And so every time I I'm sitting on the land , and especially with my mom there , um , it feels it really does feel healing and empowering. And I talk about this in the documentary , but it feels like all of my insecurities of feeling like I'm not connected. It it it just goes away when I'm there. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. You also take this intergenerational approach to this story. How did you want to explore some of the big themes of the film , like colonization through that lens. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. I mean , like you said , I wanted to take an intergenerational approach. And so I , I went to my aunties and my grandma , my elders , first to make sure that. You know , I was doing it in a good way and making sure that I was upholding. Um , what's called visual sovereignty. So they have agency over their own stories. And I didn't want to take , like , an exploitative approach , but like a lot of documentaries take I wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable and. And heard and so I , I listened to them first and I really just kind of like. SAT down and had conversations about , you know , the different traumas that colonization has , uh , like imposed on us and for , for many different , um , you know , aspects. And , and it was really , really powerful. Um , you know , because a lot of the conversations that we had for the film were actually the first times that we had ever talked about anything like that. Um , and so , you know , I think just immediately having those conversations together , like with my family and with my elders in my community and then other peers in the San Diego native community to it , it was really , really , you know , heavy. But also , I think , really healing in a lot of ways because it connected us in so many different ways. And I think the first step to healing is talking about it.
S1: Yeah , indeed. Well , tell me more about some of the younger people you spoke to for this documentary. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So I met the the younger folks through the Native American Indigenous Student Alliance at UCSD. Um , and they were they were all kind of like my fellow , um , peers in that , that organization , in that club. And , um , uh , it was during like I did production during the pandemic. And so it was , um , it was actually kind of hard to figure out how we were going to be able to connect. Um , so we ended up , you know , going outside like six feet apart. And one of the interviews , I was actually my first time meeting them in person. Um , and like , uh , and it was , it was just , I think despite the isolation , it was still really powerful to be able to still be in person and like , um , have that connection. I think that we were craving so much , especially during that time. Um , and I think also like being in community with them also kind of has like this similar feeling of of belonging. Right ? Like we all have our own unique stories , um , of like , you know , loss of connection and then reconnection and , and like , our family histories , um , are so different. But then there's also this kind of unification that we have because we have a lot of similar experiences at the same time. And so I think just being able to , to feel like I can just be myself in those spaces , um , was really powerful. And that's what I tried to capture within the documentary.
S1: Well , so what are some of the the aspects of Tlingit culture that you really wanted to highlight in this film. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. Um , the I think the , the main , uh , ideology that my mom always tells me about clean culture is that we uphold balance. Um , so there are , uh , there are two different melodies , which is Eagle and Raven. Um , and my family is the eagle melody. And so I wanted to make sure that I was upholding my raven opposites. Um , and so there are two elders that are both ravens. Um , and they , like their voices are really pivotal and central to the film. Um , and I did that because I wanted to make sure I was upholding those the , the ideology of balance. Right. So , like , we can't speak without our opposite , right. So we always have to have an eagle and a raven present for everything that we do. Um , and so I really embedded that , you know , balance and ideology within the phone.
S1: So like , are there any challenges of reconnecting with your ancestral homeland that people might not even think about.
S3: I mean , I think the biggest challenge is just being so far away from it. And , you know , plane tickets are so expensive. Um , to be able to , like , actually go there on a regular basis , I think is the hardest thing. Um , and then , you know , there's also , I think because of , like , the lasting colonization or lasting , like violent legacies of colonization , there's , you know , sometimes , um , just different hurt , like , you know , traumas within the community that you are not always prepared to confront. And , um , and I think that definitely sometimes , you know , prevents , uh , or like it causes barriers. But I think ultimately just actually being able to be there and be present and like on the land , I think is how I'm able to overcome all of those. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. I mean , I would imagine that , you know , making this film , um , would in some ways be healing.
S3: Uh , I think , you know , I had a , um , an event for , for the film , um , I think like a couple weeks ago , and my mom was able to be there in the Q&A.
S1: And that's our show for today. I'm your host , Jamie Kinsman. Thanks for tuning in to midday and.
S3: How much this film.
S1: Is sure.
S4: To have a great day on purpose. Everyone.
S1: Everyone.
S3: I think before the film I wasn't even as close with my family. Like on my mom's side of the family as I as I am now because of the film. And so I think , you know , this production really brought us , brought us together and like , even beyond. Right ? Like even after production , we're still , like , able to see each other more and are talking a lot more than we had before. Um , and so I think I think , yeah , the biggest healing point is , is that kind of reunification of family and community , um.
S1: You know , in the film you also explore some of your family's past traumas , like your great grandfather's , uh , incarceration during World War two. Um , and of course , that was during the period of Japanese American incarceration. How do you see your family's history reflecting the current political and social moment ? Yeah.
S3: Um , yeah. I mean , that , you know , moment for our family was was definitely kind of like the the biggest source of trauma for us. Um , and , you know , not only did my great great grandfather get interned , his kids also were taken to the boarding schools. Um , and so our family was , was split apart because of the US government. And that is exactly what is happening right now with with families being kidnapped by the government and ice and , um , you know , like that , that history is just repeating itself , which is really Disheartening and really painful to see that happening again , because it really is all the same kind of ideologies and racial scripts that is causing all this , you know , turmoil and trauma right now , today's present day.
S1: Um , there's there's also an element of advocacy to this film. You are advocating for the preservation and protection of the land. Tell me about that. Yeah.
S3: Yeah. So my family , um , we are originally from Berners Bay. Uh , it's called dark and dark. And that is where , you know , we have ancestors buried there. It's like we have village sites there. We have our sacred mountain that's there. And , um , unfortunately , the , the , the Alaska , um , state is trying to put in a ferry terminal and , you know , that would lead to like a gold mine and different other development that would utterly destroy both the environment and all the the burial sites , all of the different cultural sites that are there and , um , my , my family. And like the action is , is really advocating , um , to protect that site. Because right now it's currently inaccessible , um , by anything except for boat. And we believe that it should stay that way to. Make sure that like all of the ancestors that that live there are able to. Rest peacefully and , you know , maintain that sacred sacredness of that site because there's. There's so much , you know , right. Like the ancestors are both the plants and the animals. Um , and along with our ancestral spirits and , uh , and so it's really , really important for us to. Make sure that that that site is maintained. Um , and thankfully , we've been able to work with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council to , to really , um , fight against it. And , um , yeah , we're still , you know , you know. Actively , actively , um , making sure that we're trying to are actively trying to protect that because. It's a it's an ongoing battle. And it's been happening. Um , you know. This battle has been going on for a long time. And , you know , they keep throwing new projects at us. And yeah. Currently right now is is the the new ferry terminal , which actually wouldn't help anyone because , um , you know , the the folks in Juneau , um , you know , not just indigenous people , like everyone is saying that , like , they could just funnel that money into , you know , um , sustaining the the ferry terminals that already exist , um , as opposed to making a new one that actually wouldn't help anyone. Um , so , yeah , that's that's what we're currently fighting against. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , and today you'll be screening the film to an audience for the first time.
S3: I'm I'm so excited. And , um , I think , yeah , the biggest , biggest thing that I want people to take away is that , you know , no matter where you are and your own , you know , connection to your culture or your ancestry , um , that you are worthy and like you belong and , um , you know , you deserve to take up space in any way you want to. Uh , and , um , and , you know , like , there is a community for you.
S1: Well , before we go , also , the film is premiering in Alaska later this year.
S3: And so having the film screened in Juneau and my home homeland. Um , it means so much because , you know , that message of like , you know , we belong. We we we are like it. We are we we deserve to be on these lands. Right ? Um , and we've been taking care of these lands since time immemorial. Like all those messages I want especially to be , um , heard by my community. And so , so having it screened in Juneau , I think is , um , it'll it'll kind of continue that healing journey and it'll , you know , bring us together in ways that I I'm sure I can't even imagine. So it really , really does mean. It means so much to me.
S1: Oh , that is great. I've been speaking with Mariah Hayes , director of Dear Alaska. Dear Alaska will be premiering at the Native Women in Film Festival in LA later today. Mariah , thank you so much for joining us and thank you for your time.
S3: Thank you so much.
S1: Coming up on KPBS Midday Edition , discover how Herman Melville's 19th century character of Bartleby would be right at home in the sitcom The Office. We'll speak with Fiasco Theater about turning the classic short story into a world premiere play for the globe. KPBS Midday Edition is back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman in Bartleby. A mild mannered office employee turns down simple tasks with one phrase I'd prefer not to. The Old Globe commissioned Fiasco Theatre to create a new play based on Herman Melville's 1853 short story , and the result , a workplace comedy that proves some things never change. KPBS Arts reporter Beth Accomando speaks with the playwrights about adapting Melville and the story behind their theater company.
S5: I'm delighted to welcome two members of Fiasco Theatre , Noah Brody and Paul Coffey , the playwrights of Bartleby. And I'd like to compliment you on the name of your company , Fiasco Theatre. That's a fabulous title.
S6: I guess I could define it in two ways. One is like what the word means to us , and maybe the other way is how we like to work. You know , we chose the name fiasco in addition to being a fun word. One of its etymologies is that it comes from the commedia dell'arte troupes , and that a fiasco in Italian is a bottle of wine. And so the legend has it that if you know , in the community of troops , when they're there trying out a new lot. So , you know , it's like improvisational comedic form and you try something out and if it works great , and if it didn't work out , if it flopped in front of the audience , they'd say , what a fiasco you're making the bottle. In other words , you're buying at the bar tonight. So it has this theatrical kind of background , and we thought , it's great. You have to be willing to risk making a fiasco for the hope of making something great.
S7: Noah. Well done. And I would just add two. Especially those in the early days. You know , in this first couple of shows , fiasco seemed very appropriate. You know , because it was just a bunch of us out of school trying to make shows in an empty room with a table and a few chairs. We kind of try to keep ourselves honest in that way , to be taking on big projects and challenging projects and things that could be a big mess and hopefully continue to do that and have fun doing it.
S5: Now , you were commissioned by the globe to tackle Herman Melville's short story Bartleby. Yeah , I find it interesting. This is playing at the same time as Hedda , which is another commissioned project by the globe. What is it about kind of revisiting these classics from hundreds of years ago that is interesting or is necessary or important ? Yeah.
S7: I mean , as far as our show goes , I think we were just interested in this idea that a character in mid-19th century is going through some of the things that we are going through today , and people have been going through for quite some time , whether that's office life and the frustrations that come along with it , or a room full of people who are used to working in a certain way and adhering to the status quo. And then one day someone says.
S8: I would prefer not to. You would prefer not to.
S7: We did consider updating it , but we were really interested in setting it in its original time period , because I think that's what speaks to me , is that it's sort of a twas ever thus ness of some of these things that we're addressing.
S6: Great pieces of art like Shakespeare and like Melville have universal themes , ideas , human problems and concerns. And I guess that don't require updating. But what they do possess often for us that attracts us is like a richness , a punchy ness , a muscularity of language great , like broad , broad dynamics of experience in a way that excites us and kind of is thrilling to try to ride the wave of as actors and as adaptors.
S5: Well , I guess one reason why I'm asking This is I had an incident with a colleague who said , oh , you don't have to know about the Marx Brothers. There are over 100 years old. Oh , wow. And I feel like if you don't revisit some of these older work Shakespeare , Melville , the Marx Brothers , like you don't feel this context of where we are and like where things have come from and how some things don't change.
S6: Like , yeah , you're right. There's like a , there's a deep , like rich vein of material wisdom , humour , farce , politics , you know , tragedy that , that we rob ourselves of if we think we only can look to the now or look to the future.
S7: And just the pure artistry of , of some of these folks too. If you want to say , oh , because it's old , it's not relevant or their talent isn't , they're not as talented. It's not as much of a spectacle is is disturbing. It's a disturbing idea. You know , if you think about it because , you know , I think if you took Harpo Marx and put him in any room right now , today , people would be amazed at the things he's doing , right. So to just say , well , that was a long time ago , that doesn't. It's not relevant , is it ? Hurts. It hurts deep. It hurts deep. Exactly.
S5: Exactly. Another thing is , right now , we are at a moment in time where resistance is very much on people's minds and thinking about how do you resist talk about Bartleby and this notion of resistance. I mean , on a certain level , it's passivity. It's not doing something.
S6: They are. They're my personal sort of. Read on , Bartleby. Is that the thing he's not doing is Actively resisting against a system in the way that you're describing , although I think that's valid , but rather he is choosing a path of sort of self-reliance , but almost sort of ad reductio ad absurdum , like how far can I be self-reliant ? What can I shed myself of the need of that form of passive resistance ? Turns out to be incredibly inflammatory to everyone around him , because at the same time that in a way that he's choosing his own path , he's relying totally on everybody around him for for everything. But I do think he is a model of passive resistance in that he's not doing anything against anyone. He's choosing his , in a sense , righteous path. And it's interesting the degree to which that creates tension among the other people. I don't know , what's your what's your response to that , Paul ? Yes.
S7: I mean , we've talked about this forever as to what his motivations are and if he has a plan or if he has no plan , if he's responding to each question individually. And I think part of the appeal to of the short story is that it is a mystery , and we don't really know exactly what is going on with Bartleby. And so to say , it's just this one thing , or it's just this other thing limits the the possibilities and the wonderful life of the story and the language. Each time he's asked any of these questions , he has the ability to say yes or no or anything else , and he chooses to say what he says. And so whether that's an act of resistance or I don't know what you would call it , but I think there's there's real juice in that dramatically to say that every single time the potential is that it could go either way , and that the fact that he continues to stay on his path again , to the point of absurdity , possibly , is quite remarkable , if nothing else.
S6: I also think that one of the miracles that Melville pulls off in this story is that there's no one is clearly right or clearly wrong.
S8: All I need you to do is to prove this paper with me. It's a page long. It'll take all of five minutes. I would prefer not to.
S6: There's the person resisting. But then on the other side is the person kind of saying. But aren't there a set of norms that we've all agreed to hold to so that we can all kind of work together and get things done , and you can question whether those , those norms and those systems are equitable or , you know , if they should be adhered to. But it's hard to question that , like we do kind of make a pact as a society to , like , work together. And one guy just deciding to say , I'm just not going to observe any of your rules does throw society into chaos. And It. So in a way , Melville is able to like , let us just interrogate the whole question without giving us an easy default to like , here's the person who's right and here's the person that's wrong. But individual audience members may very well side with one or another or project themselves into more of one side than the other. And it makes , in a sense to me , it makes the the question or the conversation more interesting than the answer.
S7: I think we had hoped putting this piece up and trying to maintain the mystery and the enigma of the character , that those are the conversations that would be having , it seems to be happening , and that there is debate and conversation , and some people side with a lawyer , and some people sighed with Bartleby. And ideally you're you're at times switching back and forth when you can. That's one of the things that I love about it is sort of bouncing back to forth , back and forth , sometimes moment to moment as to who I'm empathizing with , who I'm comparing myself to , and who I'm rooting for now.
S5: This adaptation comes at a point in time where many of us have experienced the show The Office , whether it's the British or the American. And I noticed in the production notes that there was a reference to The Office.
S6: The story and the show kind of morph from genres , but early on , it certainly struck me there. Like , this is an office place comedy. This is absolutely an office place comedy with , with tropes that we've come to kind of understand. It's also happening at the time when America is becoming much more mercantile and much more work factory oriented in 1850. So it's it's an early version of that. We in our show , it's even a sort of we even kind of invented the office cubicle , and that is definitely an aspect of it. And then there's also , like Beckett was a name that came up for us a lot , and absurdism and surrealism. And I'll , I'll hand over to Paul here to , to to add more. Yeah.
S7: Yeah. And I think one of the things that was very exciting as we first started working on this is that that humor was there , that we were interested in exploring the humor by putting those things on stage that are mentioned in the short story , or expanding those characters or expanding those ideas , these weird characters that Melville has created and put in a small room together. There's just so much information and so much potential in putting those things nose to nose that sort of create that tension and create that sense of play. And so when we were discovering that we were like , this is great , because I think also fiasco enjoys bringing the joy to a production and bringing fun and doing productions that are fun for the actors to do every night. We want to be finding the fun and the weird and the absurdity in it anyway , and then to find it in the text was , I think , a relief in some ways , and just such a joy to work on because. Because then you could look at what's on the page and say , all right , what are the ways to do that ? That are fun for us. Is it in the text ? Is it in the staging ? Is it in weird music coming on underneath this big tirade ? And so then we could play in all sorts of directions and find that fun and absurdity and the way that we understood.
S6: The office is the office. No matter where you go or what country you're in , it's just like all of a sudden you're thrust into a family that you didn't choose. And oftentimes doing work that is not terribly interesting and for for not enough pay. But , you know , maybe there are some good pens and , and pencils you can steal on their way out the door.
S7: There's one character in it named nippers , and one of nippers issues is that he can never get the height of his desk. Right , so his desk is always a little too high or a little too low , or if it's too high , his shoulders hurt because his arms are up over his head writing , and then. So he'll lower it and it'll get too low. And then his back hurts , and so he'll put pieces of paper underneath it and he'll stack things on it , trying to get the perfect height of the desk. And this is what he does just on and like throughout the day , every day. And it just it speaks to me , you know , these little things that start to eat away at you in a job , especially a job that you you think you are better than , or you don't want to be coming to do. Every day these little things start to grow and grow and work on your psyche in a way that it just it's such a relevant , tiny little detail that really makes , makes the whole thing make sense to me on a very visceral level.
S5: Well , and Melville was always so good at those details.
S6: Is his language , his ability to paint those pictures and those intimate , complex , compound interior moments and choose just the language for them. It's unparalleled. In my experience , the sentences are astonishing , and not just because you want to , like , sit back and clap , but because you are suddenly you understand something very deeply in a way that resonates with you. Like , oh , I know exactly what that's like. I could never have put it that way , but that's exactly how it feels.
S5: Well , I want to thank both of you very much for talking about Bartleby.
S6: It's been a pleasure. Thank you.
S7: All right. Thank you.
S1: That was Beth Accomando speaking with the playwrights of Bartleby. The world premiere play has been extended through March 22nd at The Old Globe's Cheryl and Harvey White Theater. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning.
S4: In to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
