Polar Life

A hypnotic, fragmented mosaic of Arctic life that rewards close attention as images and narration drift across screens.

Directed by

Graeme Ferguson

Genres

Documentary

Starring

Lise Payette, Patrick Watson

Tagline

Cinema Expo 67

Overview

Polar Life’s novelty was its theatre, with the audience seated on a central rotating turntable in the middle of eleven fixed screens. Viewers have described the intricate juxtaposition of screen images and narration and the complex relationship created between moving spectators and multiple screens. Documentation images and scripts of the bilingual narration by Lise Payette and Patrick Watson show elaborate temporal and spatial representations of the Arctic and Antarctic regions: the Inuit in daily activities in the Canadian North; other northern peoples of Alaska, Lapland, and Siberia; and settlers from the South, scientists, explorers, and other inhabitants of the landscape, including reindeer, bears, and birds. Archival film footage of early northern explorers, combined with newly shot documentary footage, was edited across the various screens to create spatial relationships that are sometimes coherent, sometimes fragmented.

How it feels

Earnest, eerie and warm. Measured and needs your attention.

About

Nature, exploration, survival, identity

Content

No violence, gore, sexual content or swearing.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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