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Film does justice to Peratrovich legacy

Published on February 11th, 2010

By VAN WILLIAMS

What does Feb. 16 mean to you? To most Alaskans, Elizabeth Peratrovich Day comes and goes like the middle of the week. Maybe it's because most people don't get that day off work. Maybe it's because her name doesn't ring a bell.

Other important dignitaries from Alaska have their names stamped on schools, airports and government buildings all over our state. And while few have a day to themselves like Peratrovich, her public perception pales in comparison despite the fact her historical achievements overshadow virtually every one of them.

Peratrovich was the driving force behind the passage of the state's Anti-Discrimination Act, the first of its kind in the United States. It was her eloquent testimony to the Alaska territorial Senate in 1945 that reportedly swayed Gov. Ernest Gruening to sign the equal rights bill into law just two years after it had gone down in defeat.

Diane Benson of Anchorage was so inspired by Peratrovich's courage to challenge inequality that she created a one-woman play in honor of the fellow Tlingit woman. Benson became interested after meeting Peratrovich's husband, Roy, before he died in 1989, drawing inspiration and gaining knowledge from the man that knew her best.

"I would present the one-woman play more as a history lesson," says Benson, who has performed at schools from Alaska to Washington, D.C.

So when Anchorage filmmaker Jeff Silverman wanted to bring Peratrovich's story to life in a made-for-TV documentary, he knew the perfect person.

Benson collaborated with Silverman on his film, "For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska," which aired on Public Broadcasting System stations nationwide last fall. The idea started with a story about one activist and blossomed into a movie about the entire Alaska Native movement to end segregation in the Last Frontier.

It features pioneers like William Paul, Alberta Schenck and Elizabeth and Roy Peratrovich and how they overcame the odds to win the most influential court case in history, long before the 1964 Civil Rights Act that redefined how Americans live.

It's a feel-good story that grabbed Silverman by the heartstrings and didn't let go.

"I've always been into stories of justice, triumph, nonviolent social change and regular people who don't accept the status quo and do something about it," he says. "When I first heard of the Elizabeth Peratrovich story and the work that she and her husband did ... I was like, 'Wow, this is a movie.' "

Born to a role

Benson was born to play the role of Elizabeth Peratrovich. She bears a striking resemblance to her in costume, so much so that someone once told her, "You bring Elizabeth back to life" after a show. And Betsy Peratrovich told Benson, "It's eerie how much you look like my grandmother," before a performance at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

"I was very affected by Elizabeth's ability to speak what she really felt, and not something she was instructed to believe," Benson says. "That really struck a cord with me because growing up in the atmosphere of silence in some ways over people being afraid to speak their minds, you kind of learn that not everybody speaks up when there is an injustice and that there is punishment generally if you do speak up about injustice.

"I think in a world that too often has labeled Native women as a victim, here is a powerful Native woman. That sort of gave me validation."

The documentary used Alaska actors and was filmed exclusively in Alaska. In Juneau, Silverman and his crew shot the dramatic re-enactment of Peratrovich's infamous testimony. In Anchorage, they filmed in the lobby of the famed Fourth Avenue for part of the Alberta Schenck story.

"I didn't want it to be a glorified slideshow with narration. There's enough of that already," Silverman says. "I really wanted to bring to life, and a lot of the stories just had an inherent, dramatic element and so we did extensive re-enactments. We had actors in costume and shot it in film style."

Peratrovich's dramatic testimony scene was recreated inside the present-day Senate Finance Committee hearing room at the Capitol Building. "The actual room is still there and still looks a lot like it did, but it's been remolded to make room for offices so it's way too small now to have filmed a scene like this," Silverman says.

It took him four years to finish the 60-minute film, but that was the easy part. The hard part was living amidst segregation and discrimination during a time in Alaska when indigenous people were treated like animals and local stores hung signs that read: "No Natives, No Dogs."

"We have to acknowledge the past, as painful as it is," Silverman says. "But this is a good story. The Elizabeth Peratrovich state holiday is testament not only to just Elizabeth but a way of thinking and standing up."

Forgotten history

Silverman hopes his documentary shines light on an era that he believes is mostly forgotten by a TV-powered society that seemingly only learns history through lights, camera and action.

"The Peratrovichs aren't heard of much and William Paul is not at all," Silverman says. "I think William Paul has really not been acknowledged for the great man that he was as Alaska's first Native attorney, Alaska's first Native legislator and a very important leader in the Alaska Native Brotherhood."

Paul and his brother Louis are considered founding members of the Alaska Native Brotherhood, which is credited for championing voting rights for Natives in the 1920s. Roy Peratrovich, a four-term mayor in Klawock, later became grand president of the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Elizabeth Peratrovich held a similar position with the Alaska Native Sisterhood at the same time.

And then there is Alberta Schenck, "the other heroine in this picture," Silverman says.

Schenck, a Native teenager, was arrested by police in Nome in 1944 for not giving up her seat in a whites-only section at the Dream Theater - an act of defiance that came 11 years before Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man in Alabama.

Schenck originally worked at the movie theater as an usher and one of her jobs was to monitor segregated seating. When she complained about it, she was fired by the manager. That didn't stop her, though. In fact, it set the stage for one greatest acts of courage this country has ever seen.

"She went back later on a date with a soldier," Silverman says. "There were only two seats left in the theater. They were in the whites-only section and when she refused to move she was arrested and spent a night in jail."

All over a seat at a movie theater.

"It's kind of scary to think things were like that for Native people," said 21-year-old Anchorage actress Debra Dommek, who portrayed Schenck in his film.

Dommek, a dancer at the Alaska Native Heritage Center who was handpicked by Silverman for the part, says portraying a civil rights legend like Schenck was a great honor.

"I hope I did justice in re-enacting her. That's big for me. She's Inupiat. I'm Inupiat. When you get offered something like that, it's such an honor. I just hope I did her justice," Dommek says.

"She seemed a lot more fiery than my own personality, so it was actually pretty inspiring to re-enact some of the things she did. ... I really look up to that because it made a big difference. For me to be born with rights is amazing."

Schenck's arrest enraged the local Native people at the time, yet the Dream Theater continued its hard stance on segregated seating. They weren't budging, but change was on the way. The seed had been planted.

"There were letters she wrote and they heard about it in Juneau," Silverman says. "It was mentioned in the hearing that Elizabeth gave a year later. It really got the governor going. It really galvanized the end of this movement."