THE LAST DAYS OF SHISHMAREF Documentary Competition

While politicians, scientists and environmentalists debate the effects of global warming , an lnupiaq Eskimo community in northwest Alaska, just under the Arctic Circle , faces the real-world consequences of climate change every day. The ice beneath the small Alaskan village of Shishmaref, on the island of Sarichef, is melting. Homes are falling into the ocean. The situation is so severe that it has been predicted that the entire village will disappear within the next l O years. How can you move an entire way of life? And should these villagers go to the edges of a city, or retain their rural ways? Filmmaker Jan Lauter captures the transience of the lnupiaqs’ traditional way of life in the face of the collision of climate change, satellite television and mail-order shopping. The icy landscape-its water, smoke, steam and sky-is beautifully photographed, as are the village’s inhabitants. Every frame is a poignant portrait. The film doesn’t present a barrage of facts and figures to make its point, instead it gives the viewer entry into the issue of climate change by way of a third eye. We feel the loss, the pain and the sadness of the families as they realize that they will never recover a way of life being swallowed by the sea.