Nuisance Bear

A yearling polar bear is smart enough to beat a bear trap, but is he wise enough to survive the world of humans? That is a question that hovers over this Sundance grand jury documentary prize winner that follows the animal between Churchill, Manitoba, and Arviat, Nunavut. The small communities depend on bears like the one at the center of the film: Churchill relies on the dollars brought in by tourists eager to commune (at a distance) with the apex predators while Arviat’s Inuit villagers hunt the animals for their meat and skin. As the sea ice that is the marine mammals’ hunting ground shrinks, they wander into town more frequently searching for food, endangering both humans and bears. Narrated by Arviat elder Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, this immersive, gorgeously photographed, and poetic film evolves into a powerful meditation on impacts: of painful history, climate change, ursine incursions, and human interventions. –Pam Grady