The Witness short films have been created by Indigenous filmmakers in their home communities around the Arctic. Through films, the directors describe the impacts of climate change in their everyday lives, and how people adapt and adjust to those changes.
The Skábmagovat festival program featured five Witness films by Isaac Partridge and Sadetlo Scott from Canada, Dennis Møller from Greenland, Hans Pieski from Sápmi/Finland, and Svetlana Romanova from Sakha. Covering many perspectives, their short films spoke of urban life and cultural identity, hunting and food, environmental changes over time, links between language and identity, self-expression, and loss and love.
Over 2023, the filmmakers participated in a training program with workshops and mentoring, and also received production grants to make their ideas come to life. Their short films premiered at the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival in Toronto in October 2023.
The 2023 Witness series was co-produced by the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund and Telefilm Canada, in collaboration with UArctic.
The second grant round for the Witness series is expected to open soon.
Witness short films featured at Skábmagovat:
Illuunnata Silami / All of Us in the World
Isaac Partridge, Canada
Explore how climate change affects Inuit living in urban centres, how it (climate change) keeps them away from their home up north and cultural traditions, and what are they doing to maintain Inuit identity, that is deeply attached to having a relationship with the land while living in urban centres.
A Culinary Tale of Greenland’s Changing Climate
Dennis Møller, Greenland
The film is about a hunter and a climate specialist talking about the changing climate in Greenland, the importance of its impact, how it affects hunting in Greenland, and what stands to be lost due to the changing climate. Later on, there’s a brief introduction to the importance of Greenlandic food with serving.
The Past and the Future of the Arctic
Hans Pieski, Sápmi/Finland
The film explores the few positives, and many negative aspects of the warming. The film is viewed through the eyes of a passionate fisherman, fishing tourism entrepreneur, reindeer herder and children’s perspective who have only lived in the era of warming. The film compares 50–100 years old film and picture footage with modern footage taken from the same places as the old footage. This shows the speed of the change in the Arctic nature to viewers in a concrete way, and the footage is commented on by old people who have lived through this period of time.
Edaxádets ’Eete / We Save Ourselves
Sadetlo Scott, Canada
As the land changes, so too does our Dene languages. This film documents how language revitalization can lead to climate action. Often when we think of climate change, we think of how the water, land and animals are impacted. But what happens when Indigenous languages no longer have the words to describe what is now changing with the land, water and animals?
Hinkelten
Svetlana Romanova, Sakha
The making of histories, myths and mining archives for memories in the age of epistemicide can be understood as an act of resistance. Our globalized constant, hyper-capitalist culture, releases tremors that shake, uproot and degrade our oldest and most sacred truths. Some of the seperversions feel apocalyptic coming in sudden seismic bursts, others go unnoticed slowly slipping away.
The Witness series production, including the training program and workshops for filmmakers, is part of the activities of the UArctic Thematic Network on Arctic Indigenous Film.
The Skábmagovat film festival takes place annually in the village of Inari, 320 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. A unique feature of the festival is the outdoors Snow Theatre where you can watch films with only the sky and stars above you. The festival showcases short films, documentaries and feature films that tell stories and offer insights into the world as told by Indigenous peoples themselves. The program also includes seminars and art such as Sámi music.
https://skabmagovat.fi/en/