Based on their Academy Award-nominated short film, directors Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman extend the narrative of Nuisance Bear, a documentary that follows a polar bear looking for purpose in Churchill, Manitoba.
Nuisance Bear opens with a group of polar bears entangled with each other, snuggling to stay warm. It’s a comforting image, something fit for a desktop background, until the camera pulls back to reveal a camera crew watching the bears, almost like paparazzi. You’re in Churchill, Manitoba — Polar Bear Capital of the World.
Directors Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman take their Academy Award-nominated short film with the same title and expand it into a feature-length documentary, following one particular bear as he searches for food, and essentially, meaning in his world. He wanders around a bit like WALL-E, an alien roaming a dystopian landscape filled with Coke cans and scrap heaps. But unlike the Pixar robot, our polar bear friend no longer recognizes the world as “his” anymore, his animal instinct at battle with human takeover.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a polar bear this close before in a film, the long shape of his nose prominent, his shuffling character-like. Vanden and Weisman really tether you to this creature, emotionally and physically, and you feel like you’re part of his pack.
Featuring Inuit narrator Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, the film ties the story of the polar bear with that of the indigenous people. The Inuit revere the bears with a specific term, whereas Churchill people call them “Nuisance Bear.” The score from Cristobal Tapia de Veer pulses as authorities chase the bear, making you feel like we’re in a political thriller (which, essentially, we are).
Closing out the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival, Nuisance Bear won the Grand Jury prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. With its stunning footage and intimate direction, it’s a devastating look at how human interference, whether good or bad, can cause irrevocable harm.
The Mammoth Lakes Film Festival takes place May 20 to 24.
