Everything is still. The woman looks directly into the camera, air bubbles streaming from her lips and nose. A voice comes from nowhere, a stressed, tired voice on the verge of breaking, emotion welling up in every word. “Each time I touch the water … I can’t forget. I want to. Oh, how I want to. But I can’t. I shouldn’t.”

In fall 2016, a dedicated and diverse film crew began production on one of the most personal projects ever developed by the Department of Theatre and Film, principal film production on the screenplay "Bodies of Water," written by Adrina Knutson.

In 2012, Knutson passed away in a car accident in Tanzania, where she had been working on a film project with UAF Professor Len Kamerling. Knutson received a posthumous degree in film from UAF in 2013, the year she would have graduated.

Knutson wrote “Bodies of Water” while enrolled in Kamerling’s class. A few years later film professor Maya Salganek decided to produce it. Salganek is an assistant professor of film/video arts, and the director of “Bodies of Water.” She knew Knutson very well and had been looking for a screenplay of hers to produce. This script stood out to everyone who read it. Jill Shipman, the assistant director, described it as “inspirational and heartbreaking.”

The screenplay tells a story of two sisters. The oldest sister, Leona, fails to save her younger sister, Willow, from drowning. The remainder of the story follows Leona through a particularly difficult path to find escape from her overwhelming guilt, all the while exploring themes of grief, sorrow, cruelty and isolation. Salganek described it as “a story of feeling estranged from something bigger than us.”

The characters and symbolism contained within the script drive people to deeply examine the psychological sides of the message Knutson’s work conveys. According to Salganek, members of the cast and crew still disagree on what certain aspects of the script mean. Screen plays this good do not come around often, and Salganek knew it. “There was almost no question in my mind,” she said. “We needed to film it.”

Filming would be a challenge. The script was ambitious, much more than what Salganek believed a beginning film crew could handle. As part of the new course structure put into effect this year, Film Production I and Film Production II were combined on set, the idea being the students with more experience would be given pivotal roles. Beginners, including high school students taking the course for dual credit, would have supporting roles. Salganek also hired a number of professionals to mentor her students. A few alums who knew Knutson volunteered to help mentor as well.

The crew had to alter the script to fit the available resources. For instance, there was a scene in the original screenplay that took place in a subway station. Fairbanks is a little short on subway stations, so the scene was moved to a bus stop. Everyone wanted to stay as close to the original script and message of the film as possible while reworking these details. In order to achieve this, Deanna Knutson, Adrina Knutson’s youngest sister, was brought on as assistant script supervisor.