The Film “People of the Ice”: A Cautionary Tale

Excerpts from the Paper

People of the Ice: A Cautionary Tale
The threat of climate change to the already-endangered Canadian Inuit culture is starkly presented in the documentary People of the Ice, produced by the National Film Board of Canada in 2003 and broadcast on CBC Television’s The Nature of Things. Although narrated by David Suzuki, the film’s real point of view is that of the Inuit themselves (or rather several Inuit participants who are interviewed and filmed carrying out their day-to-day activities), and this personal perspective underscores the severity and urgency of the crisis under discussion.
The Inuit have thrived in the frozen Arctic environment for some 40,000 years. It’s only a short time ago that Western values, in the form of science and...

.....plight is unknown to most North Americans.
Ferrand’s
film goes some way toward replacing that ignorance with awareness.
*When the film was produced, the organization was called the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and
Cloutier
-Watt was its president. This is how she is identified in the film.
Works Cited
Ferrand
, Carlos (director). People of the Ice. 2003. 52
mins
. National Film Board of Canada. Producers: Jean
Lemire
,
Éric
Michel, Colette
Loumède
and
Stéphane
Millière
. Source: NFB
Mediatheque
, 150 John St., Toronto.
Roach, John. “Arctic Largely Ice Free in Summer Within Ten Years?” Oct. 15, 2009. National Geographic web site.
Url
for article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091015-arctic-ice-free-gone-global-warming.html