2025 Year in Review

This past year has been a whirlwind: we filmed 2025’s unique 1.5 mile Iditarod Ceremonial start, spent a week in an RV filming an Alaska travel show, and recorded lots of amazing local music with artists like Taylor Vidic, Shady Pines Retirement Home, and Ya Tseen + Portugal. The Man.

We’ve been honored to take part in a lot of cool projects this year, and we feel that’s worth celebrating! Below is a list of just a few of this year’s releases and awards that we’ve been part of making possible. All of these achievements are just as much those of our colleagues, collaborators, and clients as much as they are our own, so here’s to all of you! We’re so grateful to be part of this creative community.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT (SERIES)

Our work with Adventure for Ava is always a highlight of our summer, and this year was no exception. While we’ve been with Adventure for Ava since the beginning, we stepped up our involvement this year and produced two of the five films from start to finish, in addition to assisting with the cinematography on some of the others, and doing the color and sound in post-production for all of them.

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

From Affinity Films and Vision Maker Media, In The Wake of Justice Delayed explores the aftermath of the brutal murders of two Alaska Native women and their families’ fight for justice in a lagging legal system. The feature documentary passed through Frostline Studios for its finishing touches in color and sound. It premiered at the Bear Tooth in September, and later aired nationally on PBS. It also played in the Anchorage International Film Festival at the beginning of December.

NARRATIVE SHORT

What initially started as just some fun between friends for filmmaker Courtney King’s birthday has quickly become a film festival favorite. Rivalry and romance mix at the bar after a hockey game in this short, edited, color-graded, and mixed here at Frostline.

NARRATIVE SHORT (SERIES)

Also from Courtney King, this series of shorts is part of a larger project, inspired by a true story, that explores the dark underside of the glitzy and glamorous 1940s entertainment industry. Produced and directed by CK Productions in LA, we do all the post-production for these.

TELEVISION SERIES

North of North is a new comedy series from CBC Television and APTN, available in the US on Netflix. It follows a young Inuk mother trying to reinvent herself after an extremely public divorce in a small Arctic town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. It quickly became a hit since its release in April, and has already been renewed for a second season. We did ADR on this with the talented Nuutaq Doreen Simmonds for her role as Elisapee.

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Blood and Myth, the documentary adaptation of master-storyteller James Dommek Jr.’s Audible original, Midnight Son, released on Hulu this fall. The film trended among the most popular movies on the platform, even reaching #1 on Hulu and Apple TV for a number of days.

James and the artists he brought in recorded traditional drums and vocals with us for the soundtrack of the film. He stressed the importance of recording new samples, rather than relying on archival recordings of Inupiaq drumming for the arrangements. “We are not an archival people,” he said. “We are not going to use archival recordings of our songs. We are going to record this right, with great gear in a great facility.”

NARRATIVE SHORT

We wrapped our year with a bit of festive fun, collaborating on a narrative short with Evan Silcox. He wrote, directed, and edited the film while we handled the cinematography, producing, and assistant direction, color grade, and sound (both location and post).

We’re still putting some finishing touches on the film, but we’ll post it here when it’s ready! In the meantime, here’s some BTS photos from the shoot in early December.

Witty Youngman’s debut EP was produced by Witty and Derek here at our studio, and released this November. The titular song, “Forget-Her-Not,” which speaks to themes of domestic violence and MMIP, is about reaching out to someone before it’s too late. The EP was supported by the Rasmuson Foundation Project Award Derek received in 2022 to promote Indigenous representation in the music industry.

Ya Tseen’s second album from Sub Pop Records will drop in January 2026, but a few of the singles – which Derek both played and engineered drums for – were released earlier this year. “Ixwsiteen (I See You)” and “Taste on My Lips” both spotlight Derek’s drumwork, and the latter also features vocals from Portugal. The Man, recorded here at Frostline.

“Think Fast,” the debut single from Shady Pines Retirement Home, dropped this fall. They’ve been in and out of the studio all year working on their first album, so there’s a whole lot more from them on its way! Stay tuned!

refraktion (EP) – Jacques Maree
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Frostline.

Can I Call You (single) – Wiley Post
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Frostline – with more to come soon!

Subculture Royalty (album) – Razor Syndikit
Recorded, mixed, and mastered at Frostline.

ADVENTURE FOR AVA 2024

We doubled our collective Emmy® Award count at NATAS Northwest Emmy® Awards in June with our work on 2024’s season of Adventure for Ava films. Along with Dan Redfield, Steven Cornfield, Kerry Tasker, and Josh Larson, our post-production team – Courtney Dean (editor), Hannah Pratt (colorist), and Derek Haukaas (audio) – received Emmy® Awards for each of the Adventure for Ava films that were nominated.

THE NEUTRAL ZONE & BLOODY SHAME

At the London Women’s Film Festival, Hannah’s work recieved recognition when “The Neutral Zone” received an award for Best Editing in the Short Film category. The film was also officially nominated for both the Spirit and Committee’s Choice awards at the Newark Independent Film Festival.

Another film we worked on with Courtney King, “Bloody Shame – Lauren,” was selected for numerous film festivals – including the London Women’s Film Festival, where it was named “Best Micro Short.”

IN THE WAKE OF JUSTICE DELAYED

In the Wake of Justice Delayed broadcast nation-wide on PBS World, which is a high honor for any documentary. It was also chosen as one of the Feature Documentaries at the Anchorage International Film Festival.

ALLERGIC TO LOVE

Steven Cornfield’s hilarious short film, which was mixed here at Frostline and premiered in 2024, continued to earn awards this year as it travelled from coast to coast and even into Canada on the film festival circuit. Most recently, “Allergic to Love” was named the Best Comedy Short Film at West Sound Film Festival. Congrats, Steven!

Coming April 2026

A true highlight of our year was a visit from Taylor Vidic and her entourage of musicians in the spring as part of the recording sessions for her debut album, which we’re also mixing and mastering. Stay tuned!

We also made lots of progress on our own docu-style series exploring health, wellness, and travel. Written, directed, and produced by our very own Audra Henderson, filming for this series has sent us to the Iditarod, up and down mountains in all sorts of weather, and into our own backyards to discover the healing properties of local plants.

And in August, we collaborated with an up-and-coming producer here in Anchorage on a new travel series. We can’t share much about this project yet, but we can say it was an unforgettable week of adventure that took us from Talkeetna to Seward and nearly everywhere in between. We’re not sure when this will be released yet, but be sure to stay tuned: you won’t want to miss this one.

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