Original Film Title: Open Water
Directors Name: Dan McDougall
Producer: Navdip Dhariwal
Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Country of Filming: Greenland
Language: English, Inuktitut
Runtime: 15 min 30 sec
Film Description:
Today Greenland feels to be at the centre of many different issues facing our changing world. The unspoken truth is the perfect storm of a changing climate, and the rapid encroachment of the modern age has already dramatically impacted the Arctic people – forcing them to cope with change beyond their immediate control in the present – not the future. The short film, Open Water, is a triptych narrative, based on the lives of three Greenlanders; a Hunter, a Ship’s Captain and a Fisherman, individuals whose very existence and heritage is intertwined with the Arctic Ocean. Like many who live in the polar north, their fortunes straddle the extremes of summer and winter. In the best of times, they can fish, hunt and be free of one of the harshest landscapes known to man. In the worst of times, they are exposed to the climate crisis and stranded between Arctic storms and an unforgiving icy interior. At the heart of a warming planet, open water, an ocean without ice, offers both economic opportunity for fishermen in terms of access to Halibut grounds in winter and a longer tourism season, but also cultural decay in terms of traditional ways of life like sled dog hunting. Faced with the looming spectre of a drastically changing environment, these seafarers hold a complex range of emotions as they reflect on both their past, their present and future.
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