Nuisance Bear movie review
Directors: Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman
Rating: ★★★★★
For the last few days, the short clip of a lone penguin walking away from its colony has become fodder for memes, with many dubbing it the ‘lone penguin’ and the ‘nihilist penguin’. But do we realise what really happened in that clip? What are the consequences of that choice made by the penguin? If the viral penguin can be seen as a hook, then the new documentary Nuisance Bear, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win the Grand Jury Prize, is essential viewing for its haunting exploration of how an animal is branded as a predator. (Also read: Amber Heard confronts intense public scrutiny and media trial in powerful doc Silenced | Review)
The premise
Nuisance Bear is the result of the work of filmmakers Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, who expanded their 2021 short film of the same name. The film traces the journey of a polar bear in Churchill, Manitoba- known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World, as it is closely monitored throughout the migration cycle. Why? Because their migration cycle stands in the way of the livelihood of the populace, even threatening their survival.
Narrated by Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, a native of the Inuit community of Arviat, the film’s central conflict is the question of branding the animal as a nuisance and forcing it into a cycle of adaptation. This not only has direct implications for the animal kingdom but also raises questions about control and conservation. Tourists arrive to see the polar bears from a distance, and more and more people settle on the land over the years.
The booming tourism industry brings a gradual Westernised social outlook to the Indigenous tradition that has historically shaped the place. The bear and the human were not seen as enemies. But over the years, the polar bear has been monitored and captured for every single move, which has resulted in grave consequences.
What works
The comments made by Gibbons are juxtaposed with stunning visual sequences, giving Nuisance Bear a compelling perspective and depth. Based on the visual storytelling alone, Nuisance Bear is a revelatory accomplishment. The team of cinematographers Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Michael Code, Sam Holling, Ian Kerr and Jack Gawthrop offer a wealth of material- and some of them come dangerously close to the polar bear.
I gasped at times, unable to understand how they managed to get so close to the subject. The response, in many ways, is inherently the point the film wants to make. It wants to ask about the cost of monitoring and why the system continues to exploit these animals, given how endangered they have become as a species. The tracking shot in particular, as the polar bear is transported by helicopter while hanging in the net, is devastating.
Final thoughts
These animals are tortured, paraded and hunted down because they are perceived as the predator. But do they have a choice, given so much of their land is gone, and they are being constantly separated from their own kin? Gibbons comments that this is not just a story of polar bears, but also a story about us. Their lives are intertwined with ours, and it is high time we remove the blinders and see the reality of humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Nuisance Bear is a radical piece of non-fiction filmmaking, subverting the viewer’s gaze to interrogate the difference between protection and exploitation, morality and activism. In its insistence on asking tough questions and in its extraordinary portrait of animal life, Nuisance Bear might just be the most essential film of the year.
