On April 21 & 22, American-Scandinavian Foundation and the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund AIFF present a special film event “Climate Action — Future Changes,” exploring the Arctic Indigenous peoples’ fight against climate change through films and media.

The second day of the program on Saturday, April 22 will feature screenings of four films, including the documentary short Salmon Reflection (dir. Anna Hoover, Alaska, 2022); the documentary short Ealát (dir. Elle-Marja Eira, Sápmi, Norway, 2021), and the short film Ivalu (dir. Anders Walter, co-dir. Pipaluk K. Jørgensen, prod. Rebecca Pruzan, Kim Magnusson, co-prod. Emile Hertling Péronard, Denmark/Greenland, 2023), followed by the feature film Night Raiders (dir. Danis Goulet, Canada; prod. Taika Waititi, New Zealand, 2021).

Arctic Indigenous peoples have a vivid and active storytelling tradition, with stories that have played an essential role in maintaining sustainable living in the Sámi and other Indigenous people’s traditional living areas. By telling their own stories and being in charge of their narratives, they create a new future for their people. This is why all Indigenous peoples must have the ultimate right to tell their own stories about climate change in the Arctic tipping points — ice caps melting, permafrost collapsing, and changing the Oceans and vanishing the snow. How we can fight back?

Salmon Reflection (Dir. Anna Hoover (Alaska) | 2022 | Documentary | 4 min.)
Salmon are the lifeblood of the communities they feed and support. Salmon Reflection provides a portal into an Indigenous worldview of what salmon need through carefully curated voices and visuals, as well as Aassanaaq Kairairuak’s Yup’ik song Seal Boy, that communicate the sacred reverence held by Hoover and her culture for salmon. 

Ealát (Dir. Elle-Marja Eira (Sápmi, Norway) | 2021 | Documentary | 15 min.)
“As long as the reindeer exist here, so do we.” Through filmmaker Elle Márjá Eira’s eyes, we follow her family in different seasons with their reindeer herd in this film about living and surviving in Sámi reindeer husbandry during strange times.

Ivalu ( Dir. Anders Walter (Denmark), Co-dir. Pipaluk K. Jørgensen (Greenland) | Prod. Rebecca Pruzan, Kim Magnusson (Denmark), Co-prod. Emile Hertling Péronard (Greenland) | 2023 | 16 min.
Ivalu is gone. Her little sister is desperate to find her; her father does not care. The vast Greenlandic nature holds secrets. The search for Ivalu is on.  *Nominated for the 2023 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. 

Night Raiders (Dir. Danis Goulet (Canada) | Prod. Taika Waititi (New Zealand) | 2021 | Feature | 101 min.)
In 2043, a military occupation controls disenfranchised cities in post-war North America, where children are the property of the state. Night Raiders follows Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) as a Cree woman who joins a resistance movement to the military government in order to save her daughter, in a dystopian drama about resilience, courage and love.

SCREENING
Salmon Reflection
Dir. Anna Hoover (Alaska) | 2022 | Documentary | 4 min.

RECEPTION
Refreshments from the Arctic

SATURDAY

This event has been organized by the American-Scandinavian Foundation with Arctic Indigenous Film Fund (Kautokeino, Sápmi), International Sami Film Institute, Saami Council (Sápmi), Film.gl Greenland Film Makers (Nuuk, Greenland), University of the Arctic — UArctic — Education & Research Network in the Arctic.

Arctic Indigenous Film Fund AIFF was founded in 2018 at the Indigenous Film Conference in Kautokeino, Norway. The goals of the AIFF are to support, advocate and change financial structures so Indigenous peoples can tell their own stories on their own terms. The founders were the major film institutes and organizations in every Arctic Indigenous area in Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Sápmi.