Yukon Kings

[Go Project Films] [wind sounds] [A FILM BY EMMANUEL VAUGHAN-LEE] [wind sounds] [engine sounds] [Yukon River, Alaska] [engine sounds] [engine sounds continue] [I'm hungry. Where's the fish?] [The Yup'ik peoples have lived off King Salmon for centuries.] [Since 1998 the King Salmon have been disappearing.] [♪ music ♪] [male speaker] I've been fishing all my life. In fact I used to fish with my Dad. [scraping sounds] [♪ music ♪] I don't know. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] We have nine kids, thirty-three grandchildren. We've been blessed by our children. They help us out. Warm gear, life jackets, don't forget. [footsteps sounds] Every one of my grandkids, since they were small, they've been with me in the camp. Don't forget your rubber gloves. But they all work, even the littlest ones. [rustling sounds] [boat horn sounds] [♪ music ♪] [water and engine sounds] When I was young, average fish was like thirty pounds. [♪ music ♪] But now you're lucky if you get eighteen pounder, fifteen pound king. Nobody can explain that. But they can guess. They can talk. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [fire crackling sounds] Right now for subsistence, average person can take maybe ten kings and they're satisfied. [fire crackling sounds] Salmon is a way of our life. I hope it doesn't go away. [♪ music ♪] I remember when I was growing up, I used to hear— elders will talk. They said, "People will change, the weather will change." It's true, I see it now. There's no stopping it. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [seagull sounds] It's hard. For our younger people, it's very hard. They gotta have that money to pay for the gas. Gotta have gas to go out and try to get your subsistence. If there's no more salmon, there will be no more work, I know. [♪ music ♪] [seagull sounds] [♪ music continues ♪] [seagull sounds continue] [♪ music ♪] [water sounds] Yeah, I take my grandchildren out fishing. I teach them how to check net and how to set net and how to use the current. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] I feel good when I teach them something they can remember. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] Because we're not going to be around forever. We'll be gone. [rustling and rattling sounds] This is how they used, long time ago, no cooking pot, they cooked it out on open fire. It sure beats cup of noodles. So far they're okay, the grandchildren. [♪ music ♪] But we're not there all the time to watch them. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] I know my grandchildren will teach their kids how to fish. They will. I know they will. [♪ music ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [♪ music continues ♪] [Yukon Kings] [Kuigpiim Taryaquii] [♪ music ♪] [directed by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee] [produced by Dorothée Royal-Hedinger] [Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee] [edited by Adam Loften] [director of photography] [Andrew David Watson] [music by H. Scott Salinas] [guitars: H. Scott Salinas] [Matthew Atticus Berger] [cello: Artyom Manukyan] [sound design/mix by D. Chris Smith] [assistant camera: Elias Koch] [color grading: Leo Hallal] [special thanks: The Waska Family] [Kwik'pak Fisheries] [©2012 GoProjectFilms.com]