'Cruise Boom' Screening Draws a Big Crowd

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By Sentinel Staff, published Friday, 17 November 2023

In the second event of the week on cruise ship tourism, 175 people gathered at UAS-Sitka Wednesday to watch a screening of “Cruise Boom,” and engage in small group discussions.

Filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein was pleased with the standing room only turnout, and is planning another screening of the film in December. After the Wednesday show, she and UAS-Sitka director Paul Kraft asked participants four questions  for tabletop discussions, although Frankenstein said people generally just wanted to have a good talk about cruise ship tourism, over treats and coffee.

Filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein talks to the standing-room-only audience at UAS Sitka Campus following the screening of her documentary “Cruise Boom” Wednesday night. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

The questions:

– What scenes, images or comments in the documentary linger or resonate with you? What does the film provoke? 

– “Cruise Boom” is set in a time frame from summer of 2021 to last fall, in 2022. What do we know now, a year later, that we didn’t know then?

– What knowledge, perspective, or experience do we have now that might inform us moving forward? 

– What would you add or change in an epilogue or afterword?

– How does our experience here impact your thoughts on how and where your travel?

The screening followed a city-sponsored open house earlier this week, asking for feedback in areas affected by cruise ship tourism, including community, economy, recreation and environment, and on cruise numbers and management priorities. More than 200 attended.

The screening on Wednesday was sponsored by Artchange, UAS and the Sitka Film Society.

Frankenstein, who made the film with Atman Mehta, showed “Cruise Boom” twice in Juneau at Goldtown Nickelodeon, which drew some 300 people combined. Other shows are in the works for Homer, Ketchikan and Yorktown, Virginia, all of which are cruise ship ports.

“Sitka’s not alone,” Frankenstein said Thursday. “And from the response so far it’s a good conversation starter for communities trying to shape how they deal with cruise ship tourism.”

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