Kivalina, a tiny Inuit village located on an Alaskan island 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle, has faced more than its fair share of global warming disaster. The 2011 documentary Kivalina vs. Exxon traced legal efforts by the community to hold one of the world's worst polluters accountable for the climate change that is slowly destroying a way of life. Five years later, the new documentary Kivalina attempts to capture the village's culture—which is still under threat from environmental havoc—through an annoyingly narrow perspective on food. Granted, the hunting and preparation of food is a major aspect of a society with no convenient grocery stores. And the involvement of entire families in catching, butchering, and cooking whale, caribou, sea lion, and walrus forms a cornerstone of intergenerational tradition in Kivalina. But there are only so many times one wants to see tonight's dinner skinned, gutted, and carved into little pieces, and while filmmaker Gina Abatemarco makes her point about Arctic cuisine and local culture early on, she continues to hammer it home. Random scenes at a Christian service and a community dance do little to round out this portrait of Kivalina. And while reflections by villagers about a historic loss of tribal identity (including U.S. government intervention, shortly after Alaska's statehood, in the education of Kivalina's children) suggest that the island has been affected over the years by more than global warming, such insights are comparatively few. Not recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)
Kivalina
(2016) 64 min. DVD: $95: public libraries; $375: colleges & universities. Grasshopper Film (<a href="http://www.grasshopperfilm.com/">www.grasshopperfilm.com</a>). PPR. January 8, 2018
Kivalina
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