We Breathe Again

Suicide is 3.5 times higher among indigenous people in Alaska than in the U.S. as a whole. Filmmaker Marsh Chamberlain’s moving and powerful documentary We Breathe Again explores the despair experienced by young people who feel disconnected from their eroding native culture. The film focuses on four individuals from different communities who have each been touched by suicide in some way. One is a charismatic elder and leader determined to help kids change their attitudes toward life into something positive and expansive by increasing awareness of ancestral ties and what has been bequeathed to them in terms of nature and identity. The others are a single mom police officer trying to make a difference, a young hip-hop artist expressing indigenous pride as well as the perils of his generation, and a fisherman who will experience a family suicide during the course of filming. Captured with a delicate humanity and compassion, the film never portrays its subjects as an exotic "other" culture; indeed, more than enough diversity exists between different towns—including geography, weather, and professions—that it serves as a reminder not to paint everyone with the same brush just because they share commonalities. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)