FAIRBANKS — The Recover Alaska project, which aims to reduce addiction and limit the effects of alcoholism throughout the state, added another honor to its list of accolades this week. The project received a Northwest Regional Emmy for its video series “Day One: Voices of Recovery” this week. The series comprises eight documentary-style videos that focus on individuals who have overcome struggles with addiction.
The project received a Northwest Regional Emmy for its video series “Day One: Voices of Recovery” this week. The series comprises eight documentary-style videos that focus on individuals who have overcome struggles with addiction.
Production company Video Dads — run by duo Travis Gilmour and Slavik Boyechko — created the videos for Recover Alaska and received the award over the weekend for public service to the community. Gilmour and Boyechko worked in public media before breaking away to form their own production company. They previously worked with Alaska Public Media and the Public Broadcasting Service to create a series of mini-documentaries about residents of the 49th state called Indie Alaska.
The pair formed Video Dads in 2014 and shortly thereafter received a request from Recover Alaska to produce a similar series of authentic short documentaries on Alaskans who have wrestled with addiction.
“We wanted to show there’s light at the end of the tunnel, so people who are maybe thinking about making a change in their life can think, ‘Oh, there’s hope. There is a positive potential outcome for me,’” Gilmour said.
In creating the videos, Boyechko and Gilmour didn’t shy from showing the low points experienced by their video subjects, but that wasn’t the focus, they said. The real focus of the stories moved beyond the low point to the brighter future that’s possible, the pair said.
“It happens to so many other people (than what might be stereotyped),” Boyechko said. “We really wanted to approach people that we could relate to and then people that other partners we were talking to could relate with.”
The first person the pair approached was actually Tiffany Hall, now executive director of Recover Alaska. At the time, Boyechko and Gilmour said, Hall didn’t even know what the Recover Alaska project was.
“Now she’s like the boss of the thing,” Gilmour said.
Boyechko added, “She’s taken Recover Alaska pretty far. It’s kind of cool to be able to go back and see her story now and realize where she’s at now.”
Recover Alaska has shared the video series on its website and Facebook page, and just last week the website www.upworthy.com shared one of the videos on Facebook with its 9.4 million followers.
You can find the entire Day One video series online at www.day001.org.
Reporting for the Daily News-Miner’s expanded coverage of efforts to reduce alcohol misuse in Alaska is supported financially by the Recover Alaska Media Project fund at the Alaska Community Foundation has helped fund the Daily News-Miner’s “Paths to Recovery” project, which has been reporting on various programs and efforts to reduce alcohol misuse and overuse in Alaska. Contributors to the fund are the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, Mat-Su Health Foundation, Southcentral Foundation, Rasmuson Foundation, Providence Health & Services Alaska, and Doyon, Limited.
Contact staff writer Weston Morrow at 459-7520. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMschools.