New wave of Arctic documentaries hits TV

The Arctic adventures of Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Icelandic-Canadian explorer, climate change in the Arctic, and the circumpolar peoples are the focus of a new generation of Arctic documentaries and films, recently aired on national television networks.

But increased visibility for films on the Arctic doesn’t mean there’s a huge, new wave of interest in the Arctic – at least, that’s the opinion of filmmaker, journalist and writer Peter Raymont.

Raymont says he’s been fascinated for more than 30 years by Vilhjamur Stefansson, the subject of his film, which recently aired on the History Channel.

One of the most famous explorers of the early 20th century, Stefansson is best known for first meeting the Copper Inuit, whom he called the “Blond Eskimos.” Born in Iceland, but raised in the United States, Stefansson was one of the first explorers to adopt the Inuit lifestyle, living off the land.

In 1913 he set off on the five-year Canadian Arctic Expedition to explore the Canadian northwest, which is now part of Nunavut.

One of Stefansson’s most famous books about his years in the North is called “The Friendly Arctic.” The cover shows him dragging a seal across the ice.

Raymont had a copy of another of Stefansson’s books, “My life with the Eskimos,” with him when he went in 1972 to Cape Dorset to film a National Film Board documentary on the West Baffin Co-op’s animation studio.

“I’ve kept it ever since. I’ve always wanted to make a film about him. And it’s taken this long,” said Raymont, who is the executive producer, producer and director of “Arctic Dreamer: The Lonely Quest of Vilhjalmur Stefansson.”

This film, awarded Best Social Issues Documentary: Anthropology & Ethnology at the 2003 Columbus International Film Festival, includes new information on Stefansson’s six forgotten Inuit grandchildren.

“In the process of researching this film we discovered a lot about him that hadn’t been revealed before. It’s well known in Inuvik that he had six grandchildren, but not well known in the South,” Raymont says.

Stefansson’s Inuk wife, Fannie Pannigabluk and his only son, Alex, whose stories are told in Raymont’s film, have usually been left out of histories and past films.

“It’s also because these biographers were rather lazy and didn’t bother talking to Inuit people. People who knew him in the South, they didn’t bother going up north or finding out what Inuit thought of the guy,” Raymont says.

In addition to archival material, Raymont’s film includes interviews with three of Stefansson’s six grandchildren who live in Inuvik, Sach’s Harbour and Holman.

“That is one of the major contributions to the enormous amount of material on Stefansson that this film offers – interviews and the Inuit perspective,” Raymont says.

The film seamlessly weaves interviews with Stefansson’s descendants and experts such as the current president of Iceland, along with footage and photos that Stefansson took himself when he travelled to the Arctic in the early 1900s.

“He took photographs and film of almost anything he did. He felt he needed to promote himself to raise money for the next expedition,” Raymont says.

Stefansson’s dual character is also explored in the film. His reputation suffered a blow when 11 members of the scientific expedition team he was leading perished and three others later died in a Survivor-like adventure on isolated Wrangell Island in the Bering Sea.

Raymont says his own opinion of the explorer wavered during the film’s production.

“It changed almost day to day, week to week and during the edit…. One has to admire someone who ventures off across the ice. The Inuit didn’t even want to go with him when he set off looking for new islands…. They thought he was insane. He was with sled dogs on open ice, drifting about. It was quite crazy. He was fortunate not to have died,” Raymont says.

“There’s something to admire in the man, his tenacity, his ability to raise funds for these extraordinary expeditions, to sell himself. He must have been a very engaging speaker, a charming man, yet on the other hand, he abandoned his wife and his only son and never tried to contact his son even at the end of his life when it didn’t matter anymore. I find that rather sad and maybe one of the flaws to his personality.” Stefansson died in 1962.

Raymont produced a longer version of his film for Icelandic television that includes footage from a trip Stefansson made to Iceland in 1949 where he was treated as a conquering hero.”

“People in Iceland tended to forgive him,” Raymont says.

The film will be aired later this winter on APTN. The NFB is also distributing “Arctic Dreamer” through its www.nfb.ca Web site and at Raymount’s company at www.whitepinepictures.co.

On March 2 it will also be shown in Hull at the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson and the president of Iceland are to attend the public screening.

Last October, when Clarkson was in Iceland, she gave the annual Stefansson lecture at the Stefansson Arctic research institute in Akureyri.

“In ‘The Friendly Arctic,’ the great explorer tells of how he was the first white man ever seen by the Copper Eskimos of the western Arctic. As Stefansson made his way across the ice and snow, he saw figures in the distance approaching him. Not wanting to frighten them or invite hostility, Stefansson set down his rifle and his pack on the ice and stretched his empty arms toward them. They responded by putting down their staves and harpoons. And thus the two worlds met, with arms open in peace, in respect, in a true willingness to embrace and learn about the other,” Clarkson said in her speech.

Climate change in the Arctic is the subject of another series airing on CBC television’s weekly program, “The Nature of Things,” on Wednesday and Sunday evenings.

To date, the five-part “Arctic Mission” series has featured a documentary on the voyage undertaken by the Sedna IV through the Northwest passage and a more interesting segment on Arctic wildlife and the impact of global warming.

Part three, “People of the Ice,” which aired this week, looks at the social and cultural impact of climate change on Inuit and features interviews with Iqaluit resident Meeka Mike and her father.

Part four, “Washed Away,” shows communities affected by environmental change while Part Five, “Climate on the Edge,” looks at the scientific aspects of global warming.

APTN has also launched its aboriginal documentary series, in Inuktitut, called “Voice of the Land,” that airs on Saturdays at 2 p.m., 6 p.m. and 1:30 a.m.

Last week’s documentary showed Elisapie Isaac as host as she traveled to Salluit, Cape Dorset, the High Arctic, Nome, Alaska, Anadyr, Chukotka, Kautokeino Norway and Greenland, visiting locals and experiencing the social and cultural links and differences between the circumpolar peoples.

Next week, “Unikatuuatit: ajainaa!” (“almost”), produced by Isuma’s Uqallanginiq elders group, shows Igloolik elders discussing their views of contemporary and traditional Inuit life.