Nuisance Bear

As animals and humans collide in the world’s “Polar Bear Capital”, this acclaimed doc pairs gorgeous photography with broader climate change questions.

Welcome to the snowy Canadian outpost of Churchill, Manitoba, the self-proclaimed “Polar Bear Capital of the World”. Driven towards urban developments by changing climate and the increasing encroachment of ‘civilisation’ into wilderness, the iconic animals arrive as both dangerous predators and photo-op fodder for tourists. As the bears forage for food and scrap for survival, indifferent to the circus that surrounds them, locals debate whether to welcome them, drive them away peacefully or follow a more traditional mode of coexistence informed by Indigenous practices.

Adapted from Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman’s award-winning 2021 short of the same name, this stirring and beautifully observational film won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Blessed with stunning photography of bear and landscape, narrated by Inuit Elder Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons, and highlighted by a playful score from The White Lotus composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer, this tragicomic portrait of one of the animal realm’s most regal creatures gives rise to bigger conversations about climate change, displacement, migration and the rights of habitation.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival