Canada: N.W.T. filmmakers get $20K from Robert Redford’s environmental film production company
The idea behind Food For the Rest of Us is that farming or harvesting is an act of resistance, Cox says.
By Loren McGinnis
CBC News
Oct 04, 2020
Excerpts:
The three women behind the project, director Caroline Cox, and producers Jerri Thrasher and Tiffany Ayalik, are from the N.W.T. The feature film is an extension of Wild Kitchen, a documentary show airing on Northwestel Community TV, which Cox and Ayalik worked on. All of its cast and crew are from the territory.
The idea behind Food For the Rest of Us is that farming or harvesting is an act of resistance, Cox says.
“If you’re in a marginalized community it’s generally like an oppressive system,” she said. “So the idea that if you’re growing your own food, then you have control of your destiny a little more acutely, I guess you could say.”
Cox says they found five stories from across North America and they are now in the post-production process of the film.
In their own part of the continent, the filmmakers wanted to document how northerners were supplementing their hunting and fishing in the wake of climate change.
They were drawn to communities in the N.W.T.’s Beaufort Delta region, all of which have started greenhouses.
“We just thought that was really interesting,” said Cox, adding “part of it is sad.”
“With climate change, the hunting patterns have changed so much, and then also because of the vast distances, food security and access to healthy food is really a challenge in the high Arctic.”
