Documentary film Children of the Arctic by Swiss Nick Brandestini tells the story of Native Alaskan teenagers growing up in the northernmost community of Barrow, Alaska. This is Brandestini’s second feature film and confirms the Swiss director’s talent for portraying the everyday life of communities on the edge, forced to swing between tradition and modernity, seeking a new balance that at times feels like pure utopia. The film received a Golden Eye at the Zurich Film Festival. Music is composed by award winning, Canadian composer, Michael Brook.
… For the Iñupiat teenagers of Barrow growing up has become a little more complicated than it was for their ancestors who originally named this place “Ukpiaġvik” (“a place to hunt snowy owls”). They are the twenty-first century descendants of a culture that has endured for more than a millennium on this isolated, but now rapidly changing tundra. The trappings of western civilization betray a fusion of cultures that can appear seamless. When a polar bear wanders toward town nowadays, the community is alerted via Facebook. Yet their centuries-old hunting culture is still alive and well… Read More