The Great North: Life at the Edge of the World
- Julia Alekseyeva
- Department of Cinema and Media Studies, Department of English, School of Arts & Sciences
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Independent Creative Production Grant
What can the art created by people living in the Far North reveal about life at the borderlands? The Great North: Life at the Edge of the World is a full-length nonfiction, ethnographic graphic novel that immerses the reader in the often sensorial and experimental art practiced by the Sámi (Finland/Sweden/Russia), the Ainu (Hokkaido), and Inuit, Métis, and First Nations communities (US/Canada).
This project brings together art that documents the experiences of Indigenous communities living in Arctic regions, interviewing artists creating autoethnographic works about life in the Far North. The Great North also investigates the appeal of the Far North to non-Arctic peoples during eras of tremendous political change, from the earliest documentaries (i.e., by ethnographer Robert Flaherty and Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov), up to the present day. This research-based storytelling document tells the story of life in the Arctic, as well as stories about these stories, identifying points of overlap and productive tension between the people of the Far North and those drawing inspiration from the region.
Overall, The Great North argues that understanding life in the Arctic through its people and their artwork can re-acquaint humans with a grounded, communitarian perspective on land and embody political and spiritual resistance and resilience in our own era of collapse and climate catastrophe.