Children of the Northern Lights

Andrew Okpeaha MacLean is an Iñupiaq filmmaker born and raised in Alaska. His feature film debut On the Ice premiered at Sundance in 2011 and has won top prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, and American Indian Film Festival. His short film Sikumi won the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking at Sundance 2008. His other films include Natchiliagniaqtuguk Aapagalu (Seal Hunting With Dad), Kinnaq Nigaqtuqtuaq (The Snaring Madman), Such a Perfect Day, and When the Season Is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska. He co-founded the Iñupiat Theater, the first theater company in the country dedicated to performing entirely in the Iñupiaq language.

Cara Marcous produced the feature film On the Ice, which won Best First Feature and the Crystal Bear for Generations 14plus at the Berlin International Film Festival, the FIPRESCI Prize for Best New American Film at the Seattle International Film Festival, and Best Feature and Best Cinematography at the Woodstock Film Festival. She also produced the short narrative film Sikumi, the documentary feature When the Season Is Good: Artists of Arctic Alaska, and several plays, including the premiere of her own full-length piece Lapse. Marcous is the recipient of the Sheila Johnson Fellowship for the 2009 Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Creative Producing Initiative.