The 36th Annual Anchorage Folk Festival
A double Feature at the Wendy!
Sunday, November 17, 2024
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“Roots of Fire has the power to make you a fan of Cajun music for life, while also making you more of a fan of life itself.” —Michael Talbot-Haynes, FilmThreat | “The 78 Project grabs American music by the roots.” —USA Today |
Anchorage Folk Festival presents a Double Feature Fall Film Festival in our home venue, the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. This event will support the main event, our two-week festival in January! The films are both documentaries about music, culture, and history. It begins with Roots of Fire at 6pm and continues (after a 20-minute intermission) at 7:45pm with The 78 Project Movie. Watch closely, and you’ll see one of our 2025 guest artists in both films!
Admission is $15 for the double feature and $7.50 (half price!) with any valid student ID (UAA or ASD). Tickets are available for purchase at MyAlaskaTix.com.
The Wendy Williamson Auditorium is located at 2533 Providence Drive on the campus of University of Alaska, Anchorage.
Read on for more film details and links to trailers and websites. We are deeply grateful to the producers of these two films for allowing us to show them!
Tickets will also be available at the door.
The battle to revive dying tradition comes to life through the young musicians of Southwest Louisiana in this powerful musical documentary. Amidst shuttered rural dance clubs and encroaching globalization, five Grammy award-winning artists lend their voices, examine the discrimination that almost erased their customs, and share the unique sounds created when the forces of fresh talent and deep history collide to fight for cultural survival.
When Abby Berendt Lavoi and husband Jeremey Lavoi started their Roots of Fire project, and more specifically what would become this feature-length documentary, they say, “we were incredibly interested in ethnicity in the world of Louisiana French music, particularly the areas where Cajun and Zydeco music blend, diverge, and how racial history in Louisiana influenced that. We also had a lot of interest in how Native Americans influenced Louisiana French music.”
Featuring electrifying performances, this vibrant documentary examines the intersection between music and preserving tradition for future generations. Folk festival fans will recognize musicians who have graced our stage and the Alaska Folk Festival stage too.
Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Learn more about the film at its official website: www.rootsoffire.com/aboutthedoc
Featuring:
Joel Savoy ★ Jourdan Thibodeaux ★ Kristi Guillory ★ Wilson Savoy ★ Kelli Jones (K.C. Jones)
With music from:
Jourdan Thibodeaux et les Rôdailleurs ★ Feufollet ★ Pine Leaf Boys ★ T’monde ★ Bonsoir, Catin

Our second feature, The 78 Project Movie, will begin at 7:45pm (after a 20-minute break) and partners beautifully with the first. You’ve never seen or heard anything like this before!
Inspired by the field recordings of Alan Lomax, director/producer Alex Steyermark and producer/recordist Lavinia Jones Wright created The 78 Project, an ongoing documentary journey to record today’s musicians with yesterday’s technology. Using just one microphone, an authentic 1930s Presto direct-to-disc recorder, and a blank lacquer disc, the musicians are invited to cut a record anywhere they choose. The result is an artifact—a 78rpm record—and a new connection to our cultural legacy. 78 Project participant Rosanne Cash called the experience “time-travel.”
Along the way, a kaleidoscope of technologists, historians and craftsmen from every facet of field recording—Grammy-winning producers, 78 collectors, curators from the Library of Congress and Smithsonian—provide insights and history. In Tennessee, Mississippi, California, and Louisiana, the folk singers, punk rockers, and Gospel and Cajun singers share their lives through intimate performances, and find in that adventure a new connection to our cultural legacy. The 78 Project Movie is a documentary of the project’s travels and recordings between August 2012 and September 2013 and has been called “part road movie, part concert film, and part journey through the past.”
Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Learn more about the film and project at its official website: the78project.com/the-78-project-movie/
Featuring:
Todd Harvey Library of Congress, Washington, DC ★ Jeff Place Smithsonian, Washington, DC ★ Matt Barton ★ Brad McCoy Library of Congress, Culpeper, Virginia ★ Richard Matthews Leeds Radio, Brooklyn, New York ★ Wayne Cory Apollo Masters, Banning, California ★ Joe Bussard Frederick, Maryland ★ Bob Saliba Randolph, New Jersey ★ Alan Graves Port Tobacco, Maryland
With musical performances by:
The Reverend John Wilkins Como, Mississippi ★ Louis Michot, Corey Ledet, & Ashlee
Michot Arnaudville, Louisiana ★ Victoria Williams Los Angeles, California ★ John Doe Fairfax,
California ★ Dawn Landes Brooklyn, New York ★ Holly Williams w/ Chris Coleman Nashville,
Tennessee ★ John Reilly & Tom Brosseau Pasadena, California ★ Gaby Moreno & Adam Levy
Los Angeles, California ★ Jaron Lanier Berkeley, California ★ Ella Mae Bowen Franklin, Tennessee ★ Dylan LeBlanc Franklin, Tennessee ★ Coati Mundi Murrieta, California ★ The Bo-Keys w/ Percy Wiggins Memphis, Tennessee ★ John Paul Keith Memphis, Tennessee ★ Ben Vaughn Wonder
Valley, California ★ Sea of Bees Sacramento, California ★ The Easy Leaves Santa Rosa, California ★ Little Wings Topanga Canyon, California
