Kivalina is a candid portrait of life 130 miles above the Arctic Circle of an Inupiaq Eskimo tribe living on an island disappearing into the ocean. Once a nomadic people, the film begins its telling a century after their ancestors were settled on the tiny island made of silt, sand, and permafrost. With no resources to move and only a precarious sea wall to protect them, the film poetically explores the community’s struggle to maintain their way of life within a landscape and a system that is failing them. Weaving together observational storytelling and cinematic imagery Kivalina is an evocative and rare portrait of one of the last surviving Arctic cultures.

Directed by Gina Abatemarco. Produced by Anne Takahashi and Gina Abatemarco.