Hamlet shows human effects of climate change
Inadvertent activists go to war with Exxon in compelling story
Kivalina v. Exxon ★★★ ½ Playing at: Excentris cinema Parents’ guide: Documentary; serious subject matter
Global warming is given a human face in Ben Addelman’s sobering documentary Kivalina v. Exxon. The former Montrealer travelled to a remote Alaskan village to tell the story of a native community whose way of life and very geographical location have been dramatically compromised by shifts in the environment over the past two decades.
“Climate change seems so big and unfathomable. It’s so impersonal,” Addelman said on the phone Wednesday from his Toronto home. “I thought it would be interesting to see actual people dealing with the prospect of having to move their entire village.”
Kivalina, pop. 400, was traditionally a whaling community; but the inhabitants haven’t caught a whale since 1994, because of the disappearing ice around their tiny outpost on a thin strip of island bordering the Pacific Ocean. What’s more, their village is in constant threat of being simply wiped off the map by the next flood.
Addelman first heard of Kivalina through an Atlantic Monthly article in 2009, describing the lawsuit the town had launched against Exxon and a number of other multinationals. The companies’s voracious mining of the area’s natural resources has had a direct effect on their way of life, the suit argued.
In this David vs. Goliath tale, Addelman (whose previous films include 2004’s Discordia, 2006’s Bombay Calling and 2009’s Nollywood Babylon) saw the makings of a compelling drama.
But while the legal aspects of the case are fascinating, court battles are drawn-out affairs that — unlike in Hollywood — don’t always provide a quick, clean resolution. Kivalina’s lawsuit is ongoing. The real story, Addelman found, is in the town itself.
“It’s very remote,” he said. “There are no roads in. There’s a snowmobile path in the winter. You have to fly to Anchorage, then Kotzebue, which is a big hub, a 3,000-person town. Then you take a four- to six-person plane. If you’re scared of flying, it’s a crazy place to go. Sometimes you can’t see anything out the window.”
Addelman focuses his camera on lawsuit leader Colleen Swan and her extended family, who have played a central role in the town for generations. An inadvertent activist, Swan is compelled to push the case forward, against the wishes of some in her community, while meeting unflinching resistance from the companies in question.
“She’s taking on a lot,” Addelman said. “She’s the tribal administrator, and has to deal with internal town politics. She’s super resilient and smart. She got dragged into politics, but her natural state was to be a leader, (even if) she didn’t want all the negative pressures and family pressure that came with it.”
The town lacks running water or sewage, for the most part, never mind a motel. The crew was left camping out at the local school — one of the few places with basic amenities — on their various shoots, which meant getting up early and moving out to let the children in for classes.
“We would share the school with whoever was visiting — outside handymen, the military who showed up to give free dental treatment — we spent two to three weeks like that with the crew,” Addelman said. “Keeping everyone happy was part of the challenge. We did that four or five times.”
Scenes of government and oil company representatives coming to meet with the townsfolk highlight the cultural divide, as the parties seem to be speaking different languages.
An ambient electronic soundtrack, by Montrealer Tim Hecker, adds emotional depth; while the images of cinematographer Steve Cosens capture the contradictions between the destitute town and the beauty of the surrounding landscape.
Kivalina is a quietly devastating film. Witnessing the valiant struggle of this isolated community has a cumulative effect which, by film’s end, leaves a hole in the pit of your stomach.
In one way, it’s nothing we aren’t aware of (even if we choose to ignore it). But, as Addelman intim- ates, seeing the real-life repercussions of the ravaging of the planet gives the issue a renewed sense of urgency.