Held at the renowned New York Explorer’s Club, the annual Polar Film Festival was staged for the third time from November 21-22 presenting a selection of shorts and documentaries with Arctic and Antarctica themes.  The program included the 2013 feature film Maina by Michel Poulette on the role of an Innu leader’s daughter in the conflict between two clans. Given its focus and the superb photography of most productions selected the imagery of nature and icescapes shown was stunning.  The polar film festival was introduced by a lecture by Russell. A. Potters: “Before Nanook:  Fact and Fiction in early arctic Films”. It dealt with filmmaking of the arctic before Flaherty’s 1922 Nanook documentary and the challenge of representing arctic reality between fact and fiction. The polar film festival with its specialized focus and a captive audience presented productions which for the most part cannot be seen elsewhere.  Principal sponsor of the 2014 edition was the Adventure Canada agency.

Across the Ice:  Greenland Victoria March, 2014, Sebastian Copeland The explorers Sebastian Copeland and Eric McNair-Landry engaged in a 42 days record breaking track over the Greenland ice sheet covering more than 2300 kilometers. They started their journey in Southern Narsasuq to finish in Northern Qaanaaq (Thule) spanning all of Greenland. The documentary reflects an amazing adventure because they mastered the distance on skis which were pulled by kites. Exposed to the deafening silence of the icescape with no direct contact with any other living being their track was interrupted by a blizzard which pinned them down for five days. Their brief midway stop at the relic of an abandoned cold war radar station DYE-2   with its hastily abandoned equipment and supplies created an amazing visual contrast.

Expedition to the End of the World, 2013, Daniel Dencik In this visually stunning international co-production a three-mast schooner sets out for North East Greenland with artists and scientists. They have no set  agenda other than exploring  fjords in North East Greenland, which due to climate change can now be navigated for a couple of weeks only. They brave an unpredictable adventure from encountering polar bears to their ship being stuck in ice. They find traces of Stone Age people who once lived there, sample thawing permafrost layers, observe rapidly disappearing ice massives, and discover new micro species dragged from the deep water bed of the fjord.  Philosophical discussions of the voyagers prompt reflection as they are confronted with nature and forced to question the function of civilization and the end of life in their exploration of the unknown.  Global warming melting the ice packs will end the polar bear species. As one scientist observes the polar bear may survive on land if he mates with brown bears.

Heimo’s Arctic Refuge, 2010, Vice: Far Out series      Heimo Korth lives in total isolation 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle the national arctic wildlife refuge set up by the US government in 1980 and 100 miles from the nearest neighbor. He has been staying there and living off the land for more than 30 years after a long learning survival skills period. He is the only white person left of the six families who were allowed to stay there when the refuge was established.

With his Inuit wife Edna he stays in his compounds throughout the year except for the summer and raised two daughters now grown up but living elsewhere, though visiting from time to time.  His encampment consists of a hut they built out of logs and moss and a tent. Completely self-reliant they move from this cabin to two others they built if the resources of the first cabin are exhausted. They use more than100 snares to capture small animals and fish in a nearby river. But most of their food is derived by hunting lathe animals like caribous which they slaughter and freeze. Their only luxuries are a radio, a satellite phone for emergencies and access to the internet.

The production is an object lesson in Cariboo hunting, bear defense and other survival skills without which living off the wilderness is not possible. Heiman wants to avoid contact with people and lives as far away from them as he can.  According to the producer this escape may be linked to his family background. The Vice audience was so responsive to the programs that more Far Out nature programs were produced.

Magnetic Reconnection, 2013, Kyle Armstrong  Juxtaposing moving images of  the aurora borealis with  remainders of our technologies as shown in rusting ship wrecks and elements of industrial ruins, Armstrong provides a superbly filmed introduction to nature as it “is stripping away our attempts to conquer”.  Photographed in the tundra surrounding of Churchill in Manitoba, the production features cutting edge filming and an innovative sound track. The film reconnects us with the beauty of nature and makes us question the very notion of technological progress.

The polar film festival successfully delivered an impressive program and met the expectation of outstanding photography yet pinpointing important environmental issues.

Claus Mueller   filmexchange@gmail.com