The Great Alone (Greg Kohs, 2015, 80 min) is irresistible: it’s about dogs, love, fathers and sons, mothers and sons, rebellion, obsession, and one of the greatest and most cinematically stunning adventures on earth-the Iditarod dog sled race.

The Mackey family is Iditarod royalty, not by birth, but by a special kind of Alaskan cussedness. When Lance Mackey was 8, he watched his father Dick stagger across the finish line to win the thousand-mile, Anchorage-to-Nome race by one second. The son went on to become a record-setting Iditarod musher in his own right, far surpassing his father’s achievement. But not before overcoming a troubled adolescence, substance abuse problems, and a dramatic health crisis. THE GREAT ALONE has won six festival awards, including Grand Jury Prize winner for best documentary at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Rachael Scdoris knows Lance, and says that THE GREAT ALONE is “a brilliantly produced documentary that accurately and respectfully depicts the life of a truly wonderful man.”

Also screening will be SLED DOG FAMILY (4 min), produced and directed by University of Oregon film students Tommy Pittenger, Alisha Jucevic, and Matt Leslie. The short features Rachael and her family, who will all be on hand for a Q&A at the end of the program.