Denaliwood: A bid to bring moviemaking back to Alaska [Video]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Over a decade ago, tax incentives designed to encourage filmmaking in the state of Alaska were repealed, causing multiple big-budget productions slated to be filmed in the state to pull out, going to places like Canada and Iceland.

Now, ten years later, a small group of filmmakers are trying to bring those productions back.

“In that time, there was a lot of movies that filmed up here, and a lot of jobs were created.” said Alaskan-born filmmaker Steven Cornfield. “Bigger production companies out of L.A were moving up here, moving branches of their business to buy a giant studio and film up here and bring money to the state.”

Cornfield, one of the creators of the Alaska Film Initiative, is a born and raised Alaskan who began his career as an electrician working with several film studios being built in the state when the previous film …