Tundra Book: A Tale of Vukvukai, the Little Rock

This screening took place on Friday, February 8, 2013 at 10:00 amYukon Arts Centre

In the magnificent landscape of Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula, just across the Bering Strait from Alaska, 72-year-old patriarch Vukvukai leads his indigenous family in caring for their herd of 14,000 reindeer. Living in isolation except for their wind-up two-way radio and occasional visitors, the family depends on their reindeer for food, shelter and clothing. Through the seasons, unflagging Vukvukai alternates between chuckling and barking orders at his sons and grandchildren, instilling in them the practical knowledge and spiritual traditions that have allowed the Chuckchi to survive for thousands of years. There is change in midst of the family, however, as the grandchildren are forced to go to residential school in the city. Beneath the film’s humour is an undercurrent of concern for the disappearance of a way of life, under constant threat from industrialization and ostensible progress. Grand Prix winner at Bansko Mountain Film Festival 2012 in Bansko, Bulgaria! Best International Feature at the 7th International Documentary Film Festival of Mexico City