Mubi picks up worldwide rights to Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize Doc winner Nuisance Bear. This is interesting because A24 served as the production company. There’s nothing really offbeat about this film, other than it’s just very profound.
My full deep dive after watching:
Synopsis:
A polar bear’s traditional migration path leads it into populated areas, sparking conflict between human interests and wild nature as the animal struggles to survive in a changing world.
It is one of the best POVs I’ve ever seen in documentary filmmaking. We’re taken to Churchill, Manitoba, where we see how the town coexists with polar bears that increasingly encroach upon their habitat.
But this is not a story told from the town’s perspective, the mayor’s, the folks who trap the bears, or even the tourist trucks that bus people across the rock to see the animals. Nor is it told from the polar bear’s perspective.
It’s told from a third POV, that of the Inuit people who have coexisted with the bears. And this lens allows us to see more purely the effects that the bears have on the people and the people have on the bears.
It is a perspective removed and yet able to capture the entire situation with a beautiful balance.