Nuisance Bear

In northern Canada, the polar bear is increasingly becoming a “nuisance bear” that roams landfills and industrial sites and breaks into fishing cabins. But the animals also attract tourists from all over the world. This tension lies at the heart of Nuisance Bear.

The opening shot shows a mother polar bear and her two cubs waking up in the snow. The camera then turns to the crowd of photographers and filmmakers documenting the scene. Climate change has placed the polar bear directly in the path of humans: as winter ice freezes later and later, the animals seek food in populated areas.

This film explores the consequences of that fact. In Manitoba, for example, an entire industry has emerged around relocating polar bears to the most sparsely populated areas—where Inuit communities live. For a long time, they lived in harmony with polar bears, but now they too are having to deal with the nuisance—while being barely allowed to hunt the animals. Inuit Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons provides the film with historical context. He sees parallels between the treatment of the bears and the oppression of his own people: “The story of the bear is our story too.”