Three women uproot their lives and go on a culinary adventure together in “Baking Alaska.”
Uprooting your life and taking it to an unfamiliar place is a scary idea, but it's necessary, sometimes, to keep your sanity. That's what the ladies in "Baking Alaska" did. After Jackie and Kathy's father passed away from cancer, the sisters wanted their mother, Doris, to have a new experience. Jackie jumped at the chance to open a bakery in Homer, Alaska. She left her life and her job in San Antonio, Texas, and brought Kathy and Doris along for the ride.
The women went to Homer around the end of April 2009, when the town was blanketed in snow, to get ready for the bakery opening May 1 of that year. Due to harsh weather conditions, Boardwalk Bakery could only stay open from May to Labor Day.
The film follows the ladies' adventures running the bakery going for those first few months. The first couple of weeks are the hardest, but eventually, the bakery became a hit with the locals. It's not all roses, though. The film highlights the ups and downs the ladies experienced of running a new, temporary bakery in a harsh environment. They work 12, sometimes 14, hours a day, and stay open all week. Whenever they can, which is rarely, they spend some of their time off winding down at the local bar or walking along the beach. But all in all, their passion and joy in running Boardwalk shows through.
To navigate the story, the film editor uses a recipe card that pops up over b-roll footage occasionally, counting down the months the bakery stays open or focusing on aspects such as how many customers they served, and general life moments for Jackie, Kathy and Doris. Some focused on Jackie's love life (or lack thereof) and one counted the number of fights Jackie and Kathy had in the last month.
"Baking Alaska" screens at 1 p.m. April 6 on Screen A as part of the Food for Thought for Life block.
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