Film Festival hosts screening party at the Grange for high school basketball teams

From left to right — Coach Brandyn Pedersen, Jeffrey Volk, David Markham, Pierce Kleine, Jaxson Waldron, Drake Goodrich, Nathan Posenjak, Cyrus Rollins, Jasper Williamson, Jack Anderson, Jonah Parsons, Mason Clark, Mason Smith, Chris Gustafson, Mamadou Hoskins, Andrew Rezabek, Coach Brian Germaine

The orga­niz­ers of the Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val share a sto­ry about a recent screen­ing par­ty they host­ed for the island’s high school bas­ket­ball teams.

Fri­day Har­bor High School’s var­si­ty and junior var­si­ty bas­ket­ball teams met up at the Grange on Sun­day, Dec. 11 to watch a spe­cial screen­ing of the film Alaskan Nets, pre­sent­ed by the Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val. The film tells the true sto­ry of a small island accessed by a one-hour fer­ry ride from the main­land of Alas­ka. Their small pop­u­la­tion makes it dif­fi­cult to get a full bas­ket­ball team. The whole town sup­ports them as they win the cham­pi­onship against Anchor­age. But the real sto­ry is of the play­ers learn­ing to pull togeth­er as a team and then go on to win.

After see­ing the film at the Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val last Octo­ber, Rob Wal­dron thought of pre­sent­ing a spe­cial screen­ing of Alaskan Nets for the boys bas­ket­ball teams. He reached out to the par­ents of the team mem­bers, who rent­ed the Grange for the event. He asked FHFF for help. They sup­plied the film and pro­jec­tion­ist, Nor­ris Palmer. FHFF pro­vid­ed enough piz­za to sat­is­fy teenage boys, thanks to a dis­count from Kung Fu Piz­za. Ben Wal­dron brought drinks for every­one, and it was a party!

Spe­cial thanks to Win­der­mere San Juan Island for proud­ly spon­sor­ing the film.

The kids were remind­ed that all local stu­dents are encour­aged to come to the Fri­day Har­bor Film Fes­ti­val for free. Each year Suzy Mygatt Wake­field pro­vides a gen­er­ous grant to sup­port their attendance.

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