Review of Village at the End of the World (2012) by Michael H — 14 Feb 2014

A pleasant hour-and-a-quarter with the residents of Niaqornat, Greenland. Some amusement. Some light insights. Sarah Gavron puts together a nice documentary about people who are coping, surviving, adapting, and reasonably happy rather than a dour portrayal of lost and doomed people as so many of these remote village documentaries do.

Gavron's skill is revealed most clearly in the juxtaposition of a tourist interview talking about the unspoiled traditional people with images of an Inuit teen trudging up from the beach wearing high top sneakers and a hoodie, then segueing to a child sitting on a bench hunched over her laptop as the tourist goes on about the lack of modern conveniences. She doesn't deliver this with a hammerblow, but lets us notice and catch on in our own time.