Director:

Andrew Walton

Producer:

Dallas Brennan Rexer and Elizabeth Mandel

Directors of Photography:

Jon Furmanski and Jeff Stonehouse

Editor:

Bryan Gunnar Cole

Original Score:

Michael Rohatyn

Executive Producer:

Katy Chevigny and Nick Quested

Arctic Son was made possible by generous funding from:

The Chris T. Christ Initiatives Funder/The Battle Creek Community Foundation

The Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund

The Experimental Television Center’s Finishing Funds Program

The LEF Foundation

Hanmin Liu and Jennifer Mei/The Low Dot Chew and Lee Shee Fund

The Unity Avenue Foundation

The Wellspring Foundation

And other kind supporters

Arctic Son Screenings and News

News:

Arctic Son is proud to be featured on Public Television as part of P.O.V.’s 20th anniversary season. Read more…

Arctic Son was recently awarded Best Feature Length Film at North Carolina’s Third Annual Neuse Riverkeeper Film Festival. The festival was established to celebrate 25 years of the Neuse River Foundation’s environmental victories.

Arctic Son has been picked up for broadcast by Canada’s Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN), the first and only national Aboriginal broadcaster in the world, with programming by, for and about Aboriginal Peoples.

Arctic Son picked up the award for Best Cinematography at the 2006 Spudfest Family Film & Music Festival.

Upcoming Screenings:

Native Revolution Film Festival, Fairbanks, AK, October 26-27.

International Mountain & Adventure Filmfestival, Graz, Austria, November 7-10.

Past Screenings:

Tiburon International Film Festival, Tiburon, CA, March 22-30.

Ashland Independent Film Festival, Ashland, OR, April 12-16.

Arctic Son World Premiere, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, Durham, NC, April 6-9

Independents Night presented by IFP and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York, April 11

Independent Film Festival of Boston, April 19-24

Arctic Son Canadian Premiere, Hot Docs Film Festival, Toronto, April 28-May 7

Seattle International Film Festival, Wednesday, June 7th, 7:30pm, Broadway Performance Hall & Thursday, June 8th, 4:15pm, Broadway Performance Hall

Newport International Film Festival, Saturday, June 10th, 7:00pm, Opera House & Sunday, June 11, 2006, 1:00 PM, Newport Art Museum

Rodos International Films + Visual Arts Festival Ecofilms, Rodos, Greece, June 19-24.

Arctic Son European Premiere, Munich Filmfest, Museum Lichtspiele Kino 1, Sunday, July 16th, 5:15pm & Tuesday, July 18th, 10:15pm

Spudfest, Driggs, Idaho, July 28

Martha’s Vineyard Independent Film Festival, August 16

American Indian Graduate Center’s “Walking in Two Worlds” Conference, Albuquerque, NM, September 22, 7pm

Atlantic Film Festival, Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 14-23

Bay Street Film Festival, Thunder Bay, Ontario, September 16 - 18

Camden Film Festival, Camden, Maine, September 28 - October 2

National Geographic’s All Roads Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA, September 28-October 1, Washington, D.C., October 5-8

Woodstock Film Festival, October 11-15

Heard Museum Film Festival, Phoenix, AZ, October 12-15

Hawaii International Film Festival, Waikiki, Hawaii, October 19-29

Neuse Riverkeeper Film Festival,New Bern, North Carolina, November 11

Movies that Matter, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, November 13

National Geographic’s All Roads Film Festival, Santa Fe, NM, December 6-10

The Ninth Annual Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival, Bainbridge, WA, March 10-11

Arctic Son

In the tiny village of Old Crow, 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle, a father and his son are reunited after almost 20 years apart. They share a name and a bloodline, but the worlds they know and the lifestyles they lead are as different as their respective hometown climates. Stanley Sr. is a hunter, a rugged man of the land steeped in native traditions. Seattle-raised Stanley Jr. immerses himself in hip hop music, video games, and drunken debauched nights. Embedded within this moving father–son story is a larger exploration of the complex relationship between tradition and modernity; old and young; nature and pop culture; addiction and independence; and the bigger quest we all embark on at one point or another—the need to know who we are and where we belong.

The story unfolds in a town unlike any other. Old Crow, population 250, is a native Gwich’in village in the Canadian Yukon. A place of raw beauty and extreme location, there are no chain stores, restaurants’, movie theaters, or roads in or out. But the town is arriving at a critical point of transition, with the Internet and satellite television now connecting it to the outside world (and the temptations and challenges that world offers). Like father and son, Old Crow is caught in the struggle to find a sustainable balance between old and new.

Arctic Son, a generation gap story with an unusual backdrop, picks up just prior to the reunion of “the Stanleys.” Stanley Sr. learns of his son’s aimlessness and increasing drug and alcohol use and invites him to Old Crow—hoping to instill some sage advice and bring him to his senses far from the chaotic American city. Stanley Jr.’s transition from life as a troubled teenager in Washington State with his mother to life in Old Crow with his father is by no means smooth, but he tries to make it work. At first he misses the conveniences and pace of life back home and seeks solace in his art and in phone calls to his friends back home He also discovers that homebrew is available in this dry town, and drinks heavily and angrily.

Stanley Sr., hoping to instill in his son a sense of balance and groundedness, draws upon what he knows best — his history and the land. He takes him out into the unforgiving arctic wilderness to teach him the skills he needs to survive — how to shoot a gun, skin a rabbit, make a fire, catch a fish — skills Sr. believes hold lessons that will help his son make wise choices in any environment. Sr.’s instinct is right on target. Out on the land, Jr. thrives — learning, growing, and even enjoying (at times) having a father to rely on or complain about.

But then this moving story switches gear again when Jr. returns to Seattle to visit his mother. Through a haze of neon and asphalt, we watch as all he has learned “up north” becomes undone by the temptations of readily available alcohol. As Jr. struggles to decide where he belongs and what he values, it becomes clear that the Stanleys’ story is a metaphor for larger issues of identity, choice, redemption and ties that bind to us all to family and place.

“Arctic Son is unique, heartfelt, optimistic, personal and very entertaining…. the soul of this film is reflective of a good life.” -Chris Eyre, director, Smoke Signals, Skins

“…[An] intimate doc that required extraordinary access is Andrew Walton’s beautiful slice-of-life, Arctic Son.” -Andrea Meyer, IndieWire

“Alongside Smoke Signals and Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner, the new documentary Arctic Son is distinguished by its depth of understanding about indigenous life as well as its ability to tell a story” -Louis Proyect, independent film critic

“While the isolated backdrop of Old Crow is a visual novelty, Walton understands it’s the human element that drives this documentary through his subtle and understated portrayal of Stan Sr. and Jr. The film hones in on the fact there is nothing particularly unique about the Njootlis or their situation, and therein lies its appeal - they’re real people with real problems we’ve all experienced at one point in our lives.” — Dario Feltracco, FFWD, Calgary’s News and Entertainment Weekly

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