With "sealfies" and social media, a new tech-savvy generation of Inuit is wading into the world of activism, using humour and reason to confront aggressive animal rights vitriol and defend their traditional hunting practices. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.
The happy life of an Eskimo is disastrously changed when he mingles with an unscrupulous white trader.
Ocean, ice and bitter cold in a seemingly untouched corner of the world. A crew who can only trust each other in the kingdom of polar bears and sudden storms. Until now this has been an annual ritual for the obstinate, ageing skipper Bjørne and his first mate Espen. In the beginning of the 20th century, more than 200 Norwegian sealing vessels were active, now there’s only one ship left. Massive international condemnation and the EU ban on all imports of seal products has almost wiped out the industry. But the skipper and his first mate refuse to give in. With a motley crew of greenhorns and old-timers, they set out on the dangerous journey into the polar ice. They are the last seal hunters of Norway. Sealers is a chilling feelgood roadtrip story of blood, sweat and frosted cream cakes.
Originally called White Thunder, American producer Varick Frissell's 1931 film was inspired by his love for the Canadian Arctic Circle. Set in a beautifully black-and-white filmed Newfoundland, it is the story of a rivalry between two seal hunters that plays out on the ice floes during a hunt. Unsatisfied with the first cut, Frissell arranged for the crew to accompany an actual Newfoundland seal hunt on The SS Viking, on which an explosion of dynamite (carried regularly at the time on Arctic ships to combat ice jams) killed many members of the crew, including Frissell. The film was renamed in honor of the dead.
Short film about seals, the hunt for them and how they are processed afterwards.
In the frigid waters off of Russia’s Bering Strait, Inuit and Chukchi hunters today still seek out the giant sea mammals that have provided their people with food since time immemorial. It is known, that the whale hunting today is controversial and subject to international criticism and regulations. But the Inuit and Chukchi hunt is permitted by international law because of the whaling is the foundation of their culture and their life.
The contemporary story of elders Aleksandr and Aleksei blends seamlessly with that of “the woman who gave birth to a whale” and other ancient myths, told here in vivid animation, in this ongoing struggle for survival and preservation of a traditional lifestyle in one of the most remote places on earth.
