Sikoqqinngisaannassooq (trailer video)
SYNOPSIS
A remote Inuit community in Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) faces dramatic transformation of their sea ice by climate change.
Iceberg-projected interviews are punctuated with Kalaallisut words describing their disappearing winter environment. Inscribed in the ice by the island's youth, they reflect climate change that originates a world away.
With summer sea ice predicted to be lost from the High Arctic before 2050, Inuit communities' winter traditions are already changing dramatically.
Are we witnessing the beginning of sikoqqinngisaannassooq: a future without sea ice?
PREMIERE
Official Selection: Tromsø International Film Festival, January 2025.
PUBLICITY STILLS
BACKGROUND
Sikoqqinngisaannassooq was a 2024 “circumpolar" collaboration between Uummannaq Children's Home in northwest Greenland and artist-filmmaker Adam Sébire from Arctic Norway.
A cross-disciplinary project focused on climate change, it delved into linguistic, cultural and environmental transformation as felt by communities in the rapidly warming Arctic region, particularly its indigenous peoples.
Adam proposed the project to Uummannaq Children’s Home’s cultural/scientific outreach program, the Uummannaq Polar Institute, convened by Ann Andreasen, head of Børnehjemmet Uummannaq.
With the help of the indigenous staff they collated a series of words in the local Kalaallisut dialect that described the difficulties posed by the changing sea ice conditions around Uummannaq. This was not straightforward, as being a polysynthetic language (and one that faced marginalisation common to many indigenous tongues) there were few official sources or agreed spellings in the local dialect. The children chose a word each, discussed its meaning, and with Adam, decided how to film it. Also through this process a new word was generated: sikoqqinngisaannassooq, which expresses the very real possibility of a future without sea ice. It became the title of their 15 minute film.
The tool known as a tooq is used by Inuit hunters to test ice thickness and make holes in it for fishing. Armed with tooqs and dressed in traditional clothing, the youth headed onto the sea ice, escorted by two hunters for safety. Adam filmed each child explaining their word and writing it in the ice; then, as an ensemble, constructing the new word. Whilst there was not enough time to involve the children in the editing, several helped Adam with translations as well as interviewing current and former Inuit staff at the Home about their experiences on the sea ice.
Adam received funding from the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture to establish this project.
It will have its premiere at Tromsø International Film Festival mid January 2025.
TECHNICAL DETAILS
Filmed in 4K25p HDR (HLG Rec.2020), stereo audio. Dur: 15’10”. DCP-P3 available on request.
CREDITS
DIRECTOR
Adam Sébire studied documentary at the national film schools of Australia & Cuba; as an artist-filmmaker his works focus on climate change. After opening a solo exhibition for Galleri Svalbard in March 2020 he found himself marooned in Northern Norway by Australia’s Covid-19 border closures; he's now become one of the Arctic Circle's 4 million human inhabitants. His earlier filmography includes his AnthropoScenes series (2015-); Carried by the Wind 2009; Echoes Across the Divide 2008; and ¿Cuántos Colores? 2000.