Toxic Blubber and Seal Skin Bikinis, or: How Green Is Greenland? Ecology in Contemporary Film and Art

Abstract

This chapter offers a nuanced complement to an understanding of ecological discourses and ecocriticism in the anthropogenic Arctic by focusing on Greenlandic actors and agency as represented by selected recent Greenlandic and international documentary films and art works. These representations draw on local or indigenous environmental knowledge as well as on globalized discourses about Arctic natural resources, climate change, and pollution. The films and art works presented by the author portray Greenlanders as global citizens who self-consciously—and with a sense of humor—weigh the potential hazards of resource extraction and global warming against the desire for postcolonial national self-determination.