Laura Davies watched from the crowd in Banff, Alberta, as one of her students took the stage like a seasoned filmmaker.

The middle school teacher had traveled from Wrangell to the Banff Mountain Film Festival in Canada with eighth grader Ayla Harris. Harris was invited to speak on a youth panel at one of the world’s best-known film festivals the first week of November.

“I feel like we won the lottery,” Davies said. “Ayla got a lot of positive feedback and encouragement from several grown adults in the audience.”

For Harris, the trip opened a new door.

“It was so awesome,” she said. The experience left her eager to submit to more festivals and excited to start her next film.
The panel Harris joined was “Young Alaska Filmmakers.”

Several Wrangell students had sent films to the festival. Harris was the only one chosen and screened her film at the event.
On stage for the panel, she sat with other young Alaska creators. Moderators asked what the students hope to see in future storytelling and why it matters for young people to share their own stories.

Again and again, panelists came back to one idea: They want filmmaking to stay human.

“I think (AI) needs to stay out of it because it takes away the human element,” Harris told the audience.

For Harris and her teacher, the selection to Banff felt important. Not only as an honor, they said, but as proof of what can happen when a teenager decides that a story counts and pushes through the work to tell it.

“It took me about a month to make the film,” Harris said. “I kind of taught myself as I went, and I got help from my friends.”

Filming family and questions of identity

Harris did not choose a faraway adventure story for her five-minute film. She turned her lens on her own family.

Her film focuses on her great-grandfather, Tom Gillen Sr., and how he began to explore his Native heritage later in life. The film blends family memories with quiet questions about identity and belonging.

The project built her skills. It also brought her closer to her own history. The finished product is available to view on YouTube.

Now she is ready to take on something harder.

Harris plans to document the story of the former Wrangell Institute Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. The school operated until 1975 on the site where the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) subdivision is now being developed.

The topic is painful for many Alaska Native families. Students from across the region were sent there and faced strict rules that often cut them off from their culture.

Harris knows that makes the story heavy. She believes that makes it necessary.

“I think it’s important and people should know about it,” she said. “It’s a story that needs to be told.”

From the classroom to the festival

The Banff Mountain Film Festival began in 1976 as a one-day event for climbers and outdoor fans in the Canadian Rockies. It has grown into a major festival with an international tour that features films about mountain life and the outdoors.

For a student from Wrangell, landing on that stage was rare.
Davies said she does not expect to see Banff come calling for her students every year. She also said that is not the main goal.

Her focus is closer to home.

Stikine Stories, Wrangell High School’s documentary film club, gives high school and middle school students a chance to practice real filmmaking. The club is modeled after the Alaska group See Stories. With grant support and basic equipment, students learn to shape story ideas, conduct interviews, then edit their footage into short films.

“My focus is going to be on building this club here and seeing what we can do with it,” Davies said.

Interest is already growing.

“I have already had several sixth-graders come to me and say they want to make a film,” she said. “But there’s a difference between wanting to make a film and sticking through the whole process of editing and finishing what you start.”

Davies plans to restart Stikine Stories shortly after Thanksgiving. Harris plans to be there on day one, ready to roll on her next documentary.