ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – It’s an Alaska Film that won the Grand Prize in the Independent Film Competition at the 1979 Sundance Film Festival (The Utah/US Film Festival at the time). “Spirit of the Wind” is now having a rare showing in Anchorage.
The film is about the early life of legendary sprint musher George Attla, also known as “the Huslia Hustler”. The movie covers Attla’s struggle with tuberculosis that left him with a fused knee and his rise to becoming a dog mushing champion.
Shot in Interior Alaska over the course of a year, it was made on a small budget with a crew of 5 to 6 people. It was director Ralph Liddle’s first time producing a feature film…