Ellen Frankenstein
Introduction (2-3 lines)
Ellen Frankenstein's latest addition to the New Day collection, is Cruise Boom: a Community on the Cusp of Change. Before that Ellen created Tracing Roots: A Weaver’s Journey, a portrait of Haida elder Delores Churchill and a mystery that raises issues about the meaning of ownership, connection and legacy.
Frankenstein has seven documentaries in the New Day collection,Cruise Boom, Tracing Roots, Eating Alaska, No Loitering, A Matter of Respect, Miles from the Border, and Carved from the Heart. She directs a non-profit called Artchange Inc. dedicated to using media, storytelling and community art to promote dialogue, collaboration and participation. She hosts and wrangles a live storytelling series called Sitka Tells Tales and has been involved in community arts and school-based media projects from South Central Los Angeles to Savoonga, Alaska. Frankenstein has exhibited her still photography nationally and internationally and helped her spouse sail a 30-foot wooden gaff-rigged ketch sail boat from Mexico to New Zealand. She has a Masters in Visual Anthropology from the University of Southern To learn more about Ellen's current projects, visit Artchange Inc's website at www.artchangeInc.org.
Frankenstein’s newest addition to New Day, Cruise Boom, explores the impact of rapid growth in cruise tourism on a small town. The film asks questions including how do you go from an extra low passenger-count in pandemic times to more visitors than ever before? How will the quest for economic development affect the character of the town? What is "good" tourism?
Between longer projects, Frankenstein launched an episodic short film series based in her home town, Sitka, Alaska. 14 Miles is an experiment in short-form storytelling. Serious, wry, curious: it’s about digging and uncovering what might get passed by, even in a remote town with only 14 miles of road from one end to the other. The short films address both what brings people together and what divides and challenges the community. The stories ask the following questions: What are the places and people that make up a community? What are the stories that are unique to a particular place and time, what is going on in this moment that has never happened before? How do we share our perspectives with each other in a contemporary time? Learn more at 14Miles.org
