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U.S. Documentary Competition

Nuisance Bear

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United States/Canada202690 minInuktitut, English
Nuisance Bear

A polar bear is forced to navigate a human world of tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as its ancient migration collides with modern life. When a sacred predator is branded a nuisance, it becomes unclear who truly belongs in this shared landscape.

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A polar bear is forced to navigate a human world of tourists, wildlife officers, and hunters as its ancient migration collides with modern life. When a sacred predator is branded a nuisance, it becomes unclear who truly belongs in this shared landscape.

Filmmakers Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman return to Churchill, Manitoba — affectionately known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World — to deepen the inquiry begun in their award-winning short film. The result is a striking portrait of the fraught coexistence between polar bears and humans, guided by an Inuit narrator whose insights resist simplification.

The film traces this relationship with nuance, revealing how these arctic creatures deal with being constantly monitored, photographed, and redirected. There is a thrill in watching a polar bear outwit human efforts to contain it, underscoring the bears resilience and the fragility of the systems that attempt to control them.

By challenging the conventions of a nature documentary and favoring confrontation over moralism, Nuisance Bear invites us to reconsider our assumptions about wildlife as spectacle. — AT

Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 29–February 1) and credentialed press and industry (January 28–February 1). 

U.S. Documentary CompetitionAll FeaturesBIPOC StoriesEnvironmental StoriesFirst-Time FeaturesIndigenous StoriesInternationalNon-English LanguageNonfictionClosed CaptionOpen CaptionU.S. Only- less

Credits

  • Director(s)

    Gabriela Osio Vanden

    Jack Weisman

  • Producer

    Michael Code

    Will N. Miller

    Teddy Leifer

  • Executive Producers

    Joe Karetak

    Eric Anoee

    Nicole Stott

    Emily Osborne

    Harry Go

    Nicole Quintero Ochoa

    Moudhy Al-Rashid

    Sam Frohman

    Alex Pritz

  • Cinematographers

    Gabriela Osio Vanden

    Jack Weisman

    Michael Code

    Sam Holling

    Ian Kerr

    Jack Gawthrop

  • Editor

    Andres Landau

  • Composer

    Cristóbal Tapia de Veer

  • Sound Design

    David Rose

  • Colorist

    Joseph Bicknell

  • Re-Recording Mixer

    Lou Solakofski

  • Company

    Documist

  • Website
  • Contact

    Will N Miller

    willnmiller@gmail.com

    6077390190

Meet the Artist

Panelist Name

Gabriela Osio Vanden

  • Instagram

Gabriela Osio Vanden is an award-winning Venezuelan Canadian filmmaker based in Toronto. She brings her background in visual arts and an intuitive aesthetic to elevate the projects she works on, whether documentaries, narratives, or commercials. Her work has screened at the Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, TIFF, and Camerimage.

Panelist Name

Jack Weisman

  • Instagram

Jack Weisman is known for original storytelling that defies easy classification. His breakout short, Nuisance Bear, offers a gripping, wordless study of polar bears navigating human-dominated landscapes in Churchill, Manitoba. The film received widespread acclaim, earning a spot on the 95th Academy Awards shortlist for Documentary Short Film.

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