Silent Snow, an Inuit search for solutions to the chemical poisoning of the world

I am learning with a film and documentary maker, to be one too, one day. Usually his movies are about worldwide subjects, about people on the edge of cultures. This time we're working on a movie about an Eskimo/Inuit girl that sees her homeland Greenland, the land of her ancestors, actually disappear. Because of global warming and poisoning of their grounds and traditional (sea)food. The Arctic is the first place on earth where the consequences of chemical pollution are rapidly visible. The chemicals attach to snow which is melting rapidly nowadays and leave a trace of poison. Accumulated into the foodchains of the Arctic.

People have less chance to grow old, babies less chance to be born or stay alive if they drink their mothers milk. The elderly hold on to their harsh traditional way of life, hunting whales, seals and icebears. They think their god (Sila) is mad with them. The young ones learn about invisible danger but there's nothing they can do. They have to leave or disappear but where to go? The Inuit say: 'nobody wants sealfur anymore but they want us to eat american canfood to survive. We are the Labotary Rats of the world. They should stop poisoning us'

In this movie, an Inuit girl travels the world to find the source of this pollution. She discovers the problems and dilemma's faced by individuals, concerning the use of pesticides. In Mozambique f.i. it's the battle against malaria to save lives right now by the use of dangerous amounts of pesticides, or ecologic alternatives that will save more lives at the end and is more effective but needs a longtime-vision approach while the urge is NOW. Or in India, where cottonfarmers are forced to use pesticides to bring up a harvest, but where many people are victimized by the use of pesticides and the economic pressure. There's a gulf of suicides going on in India amongst the poorest farmers. Or in the US, Washington where pesticidefactories dump their waist in the river where the poorer, black population, used to fish and consequently get sick. In the oceans, where everything is dumped without anyone noticing, but worse than anywhere on land..
With the winds and streams upwards to the Arctic, all this dirt is accumulating finally upnoard, and downsouth. Land, animals and people there have a hard time to survive right now. It's a clear and loud signal.

It's not a rich-men's problem. These things consider everyone on earth. What are the problems exactly, how difficult it is to change ways. People in India, Mozambique, Washington etc. are very aware of the direct risks. What are the alternatives.

The problem of moviemaking is always: how and where to get the money, to film the next scenery. Sometimes the storie can't be told because there's no more money. So i'ts necessary to create alternatives for the original script. Meanwhile looking for subsidies. All the time.All over the place. Or some money shows up in the very last minute. so we have to re-create. And the next thing: when the movie is finished: how to reach a public. Who wants to know about pollution, Eskimo's, farmers and malaria. And how can we get them to want so.

It's difficult but challenging :)

ps: check the trailer of the shortpitch movie on www.silentsnow.org.