"Spotlight Greenland" — Arctic & Indigenous Film Programming at Scandinavia House

April 26 - May 17

SCANDINAVIA HOUSE
58 PARK AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10016
212–779–3587

New York, NY—This April and May at Scandinavia House, see some of the latest Greenlandic feature films and documentaries with the series Spotlight Greenland, screening in coordination with our exhibition Arctic Highways Works By Twelve Indigenous Artists From Sápmi, Canada and Alaska! Screenings will take place weekly on Wednesday evenings at 7 PM in Victor Borge Hall. 

The series kicks off on April 26 with the first feature film filmed and produced in Greenland in 2009, Nuummioq (dir. Torben Bech & Otto Rosing, Greenland). A construction worker from Nuuk, 35-year old Malik meets the love of his life, Nivi, shortly before being diagnosed with cancer. When Malik sets out on a boat trip with his cousin, the outing turns into a transcendent journey as he grapples with his past and tunes into the present. “A startlingly accomplished piece of filmmaking” (Hollywood Reporter)

The series continues on May 3 with director Ivalo Frank’s acclaimed documentary The Last Human /Siunissaq Det Sidste Menneske (Greenland/Denmark/Germany, 2022). When Greenlandic scientist Minik Rosing discovered the first traces of life on Earth in a small fjord near Isua, it turned all understanding of our origins upside down — but as its melting ice masses accelerate, Greenland could drown our entire civilization. In Frank’s tribute to her vast, scenic country, scientists and locals reveal a tale of life and its origins between the beginning and the end of life on Earth.

"Far-reaching, impassioned and densely details" (Screen Daily) — on May 10, director Kenneth Sorento’s The Fight for Greenland explores the debate about independency, language, and identity in modern-day Greenland through four young people — Tillie, Kaaleeraq, Josef, and Paninnguaq — who, while deeply disagreed on which direction their country should follow, are all fighting for its future. 

And on May 17, director Ainara Vera’s documentary Polaris follows skilled seawoman Hayat who crosses the Atlantic to escape her troubled youth in France. But when her little sister Leila gives birth to a baby girl Inaya, the promise of new beginnings offers an opportunity to break the cycle of their history. 
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—For more information and hi-res images, please contact lori@amscan.org or 212-847-9727.