2025 Daily Spotlight Films
Monday's Film Spotlight
The Monday spotlight films focus on hydrology specific topics particularly highlighting
the paths that water takes across our planet.
26 min; English
A joint science and film project that explores these far-reaching effects. The film follows Dr Juliette Becquet, a French Hydro-Ecologist who grew up in the shadow of Chamonix's retreating glaciers.
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Contact: takeaction@protectourwinters.eu
Photo Credit: Science Storylab
Photo Credit: Ville Kankare
10 min 35 sec; English, Finnish (Subtitles in English)
"There is nothing without water. Nothing happens without water. Water is everywhere". Source To Sea is a film made by scientists to scientists about Finnish freshwater research - from small streams all the way to the Baltic Sea coast. It's a story about snow, ice and water, the changing climate and the scientists talking about what it means for them to work with the water element.
Contact: annupek@utu.fi
Tuesday's Film Spotlight
The Tuesday spotlight films focus on experiences from diverse communities across the Arctic region.
Photo Credit: Adrian Fisk
59 min; English
With fraught geopolitical tension and the impact of climate change life in the Arctic is more uncertain than ever. As the European Union looks to the polar north to enable its clean energy transition, what do the people of this remote region think? What agency do they have over decisions made for them, ones that all too often are made by external forces with little or no understanding of the Arctic? What would it look like if we were to understand these local inhabitants and indigenous people of the polar north, hear their hopes and understand their concerns and learn what they think is a sustainable, just and resilient future. Filmed over two years, the JUSTNORTH documentary meets Sami reindeer herders, Icelandic fishermen, Inuit islanders and the residents of Europe’s largest iron ore town. Embarking on a journey across the Arctic this film seeks to understand what the people of this extraordinary polar region really want in their lives.
Contact: adrian@adrianfisk.com
Photo Credit: Liivo Niglas
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Password for Vimeo: puud
30 min; Nenets/English
The film follows a group of Nenets women gathering firewood in a snow-covered tundra. This film is part of a larger series, which explores the daily life of nomadic reindeer pastoralists on the Yamal Peninsula in Western Siberia during the calving season in the spring. The footage for the series was captured during a three-month ethnographic fieldwork in 1999.
Contact: liivon@gmail.com
Wednesday's Film Spotlight
Wednesday’s films showcase artistic expressions of a changing world,
as the globe feels the impacts of a warming planet.
Photo Credit: Idun Isdrake
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4 min 33 sec; English
Year of glaciers is an art house research video filmed around Svalbard, and a test for a science based game project intended at building a game world based on real ice melting data and digital twins of glaciers in the Arctic and Nordic areas. 2025 is the year of glaciers and the video is also a tribute to them, my favourite kind in the environment of this planet. The retro VR and pixelated features are both a result of growing up with games and working with a tech industry that has a tunnel perspective on innovation, and a reminder that digital twins will be all there is left of many glaciers if humans do not change their ways and perspectives.
Contact: idun.isdrake@gmail.com
7 min 40 sec; English
Elegy For A Glacier embodies a multimedia “poem of affection and sorrow,” originating from a distant epoch, dedicated to the Earth and our interconnected companions beyond the human realm, during the era defined as the Anthropocene.
Contact: sebachinger@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Sarah Bachinger
Photo Credit: Sam Anderson
5 min 55 sec; English
In July 2024, a group of twelve researchers spent two weeks on the world's largest uninhabited island: Devon Island, Nunavut, in the Canadian High Arctic. This film highlights the captivating range of landscapes of the island, using drone footage to follow the team throughout the course of their research. We are grateful to the Inuit people of the Qikiqtaaluk region for the permission to work on and experience these remarkable lands.
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Contact: anderson.sam.lucas@gmail.com
Thursday's Film Spotlight
Thursday’s spotlight films focus on the lived experiences of Indigenous communities across the Arctic.
Photo Credit: Tanguy Sandré
22 min; Tunumisut (subtitles in English, Spanish, French)
Inuuniddinni Ilaaralaaor is a documentary film written and produced in Ittoqqortoormiit (Kalaallit Nunaat, Greenland). While in 2021, only two narwhals were caught in the community, concerns about environmental restrictions are voiced by community members as pertaining to epistemic injustices and expressions of coloniality. Through the creation of the film, the voice of the researchers is lowered to make room for the lived experience of the community members.
Photo Credit: Күн оҕолоро (Children of the Sun) studio
8 min 17 sec; NA
Bulchut (hunter). Children in the Arctic are introduced to the traditional trades of indigenous peoples from an early age. Hunting for Indigenous peoples is not just a way to obtain food but also an important part of their culture, traditions, and connection to nature. Hunting skills are passed down through generations, helping to maintain ecological balance and respect for the animals that ensure survival. The film illustrates a small episode from the life of a little hunter.
Contact: diana.hudaeva@gmail.com
22 min; Sakha/Russian (subtitles in English)
The film is about Munkha. Munkha is a traditional Sakha under-ice fishing method using a seine net, primarily for catching crucian carp. Munkha is a traditional Sakha under-ice fishing method using a seine net, primarily for catching crucian carp. It takes place on lakes from late October to early November. Up to 100 people can participate in muÅ‹kha, and the entire catch is equally divided among them—usually one or more sacks per person.
Contact: diana.hudaeva@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Kyun Ogoloro (Children of the Sun)
Friday's Film Spotlight
Friday’s spotlight films focus on climate change’s effects across the Arctic.
Photo Credit: Jivko Konstantinov
16 min 42 sec; Bulgarian (subtitles in English)
Antarctica – an infinite world of fearfully hanging glaciers cut by malicious cracks. Biting cold, cunning climate and countless secrets waiting to be revealed. The documentary takes viewers on a journey with the bulgarian famous musicians Theodosii Spasov and Hari Tsvyatkov to the ice continent. They will perform a concert for the most unconventional audience on Earth - a large colony of penguins. For the first time Bulgarian musicians create music in the coldest place on the planet, inspired by the majestic nature. The documentary tells the story of climate change on the ice continent of Antarctica. Is the life of penguins and other animal species endangered by human activity? What are the consequences of rising temperatures on the planet? What research by global environmental organizations shows. A film that poses the problem of danger to our planet.
Photo Credit: Stockholm University
23 min; English
Chasing the Arctic Melt follows researchers aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden as they endure harsh Arctic conditions to study the seasonal ice melt. The film captures their emotional journey—joy, frustration, and uncertainty—while highlighting the scientific risks they take to uncover climate change’s impact. It showcases both the camaraderie among scientists and their critical mission to understand the mechanisms behind the Arctic melt.
Contact: stella.papadopoulou@aces.su.se; gunnar.zetterberg@su.se
Photo Credit: This study was carried under the auspices of the Presidency of The Republic of Turkey, supported by the Ministry of Industry and Technology, and coordinated by TUBITAK MAM Polar Research Institute.
8 min 45 sec; Tunumisut (subtitles in English, Spanish, French)
While the Arctic is the area most affected by global climate change due to geographical location, maritime activities, trade routes, overfishing, mining, oil and gas exploration, human pollutants, plastic waste in ocean waters, the glaciers in the warming region continue to melt rapidly. The National Scientific Arctic Research Expedition team is searching for solutions for the future of the world with its work in the Arctic. Polar bears, the largest land carnivore in the world, which have "vulnerable" status on the Red List of species threatened with extinction prepared by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), are predicted to become extinct as a result of the continued melting in the Arctic. Ringed seals living in the Arctic are known as one of the most important prey for polar bears. The melting sea ice, which ringed seals need to hunt and hide from predators, makes them easy prey for polar bears.
Contact: scoskunn01@gmail.com