Sitka-based filmmaker Ellen Frankenstein’s latest documentary, “Cruise Boom,” premieres nationwide Saturday on PBS.
The national debut culminates years of work on the part of Frankenstein and her co-director Atman Mehta, who explored both the potential benefits and downsides of cruise tourism’s explosive growth in Sitka.
Frankenstein and Mehta began filming “Cruise Boom” in 2021, as Sitka transitioned from the 2020 pandemic summer of zero cruise passengers. The Southeast Alaska town began a startling rebound to nearly 600,000 passengers in 2023 – roughly three times more than a typical summer prior to the pandemic.
“Cruise Boom,” however, is not a scathing indictment of the industry. Frankenstein wants the audience to think broadly about what’s unfolding, as communities react to the surging numbers.
“It is a really complex issue we try to cover in a very impressionistic film, because tourism, as we know, is super complex,” Frankenstein said. “Everybody loves to travel. We all love experiencing new places. The economic side is so amazing, because we have new food trucks in town, new businesses and all these good things. But globally, you can’t miss it in the news that over-tourism, or the saturation of tourism, is affecting places. And there’s pushback from Barcelona to Bali, there’s an upcoming vote in Juneau about ship-free Saturdays. So it’s just this interesting conversation that is not just pertinent to Sitka. So when people respond to this film elsewhere, they’re seeing it kind of as a case study.”
Frankenstein and Mehta intend the film to stimulate conversation. In fact, there are several scenes in the movie that are just conversation – Sitkans discussing how to confront, and possibly manage, the rapid growth.
No one is blind to the obvious benefits, as new businesses emerge downtown, and the municipal budget swells with increased sales tax revenues. But there are hazards, too.
In an excerpt from the film, four anonymous Sitkans discuss the future of their city:
“I’m either a fifth or sixth-generation Sitkan, and in order for myself, my family, friends, to continue to be able to live here, there has to be an economic means for us to work and make money.”
“I don’t want us to be a destination. I value our community, because we’re a community. You know, the pulp mill sustained the community for years, but had excesses in how much it logged and how fast it logged in the environment. Cruise ships is a similar thing.”
“If we’re going to help shape tourism, we really have to be active and engaged stakeholders. That means talking to the cruise ship lines. It means asking the hard questions.”
“The story is unfolding right now. So we can’t tell the ending because it’s happening right now.”
Frankenstein and Mehta shot the film over a couple of years, so Frankenstein describes it now as history, although Sitka is far from settled into the new volume of passengers. They released rough cuts early in the process, and have shown the final film several times, most recently for a group of graduate environmental-policy students from Johns Hopkins University.
Frankenstein says the screening prompted an intense conversation about solutions.
“When there’s something like this that happened to Sitka in another place, who is responsible to help manage it and see how it all works out?” asked Frankenstein. “And we had this discussion: Is it the responsibility of the city and the government? Is it citizens? Is it tourists? Do we expect tourists to be more responsible in the way they travel?”
For Alaskans who live in tourism destinations, “Cruise Boom” is a kind of mirror. The film is set in Sitka, but the same questions are being asked in many of the state’s other coastal communities.
“We’ve also had community screenings in places like Skagway and Cordova and Homer in the state, and Juneau, and it’s been great,” Frankenstein said. “People have this discussion about their relationship to tourism and what they value in their communities?”
“Cruise Boom” will be available to stream on the PBS website or app beginning Saturday. The film will air on KTOO 360TV at 7 p.m. Sunday, then be broadcast on the PBS television network nationwide – including Alaska’s PBS stations – starting Tuesday. To learn about other ways to view the film, visit the Artchange, Inc. website.
KCAW’s Darryl Rehkopf contributed to this story.