Nuisance Bear

As filmmakers Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman return to the town of Churchill, Manitoba - named the ‘polar bear capital of the world’ - they expand on their original short documentary through the exploration of not only the ‘nuisance’ bears themselves, but their relationship with the white and Inuit populations, as the devastating effects of climate change shrink the ice where the bears would usually abide. 

Nuisance Bear is narrated by Inuit elder Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, whose voice and perspective plays an enormous part in the film during its second half, where the filmmakers move away from the majority white-populated Churchill to document the polar bear activity nearer to the Inuit town of Arviat. The contrast between Churchill and Arviat is stark, but Osia Varden and Weisman manage to find a common ground between the three key communities depicted here - the polar bears, the indigenous population, and the white population - without demonisation or finger pointing. 

Beautifully shot, eye-opening, and occasionally heart-breaking, Nuisance Bear demonstrates the difficulties that come with co-existence on a shrinking habitat.

This screening is in partnership with Wildscreen Festival