Alaska

Hunting on the Sea

Micro Experimental Film

Runtime: 2minutes 20seconds

2022

The main inspiration for this video was drawn from the performance of indigenous dance at the Alaska Heritage Center for the Inuit people. Performed by five descendants of Inuit people, this show was accompanied by singing their traditional songs and unique drums. I couldn’t help but be fascinated by this show because it not only shares Inuit oral tradition that interweaves life histories to shows as legacies for the younger generation but also the subjective will for younger generations to inherit and advocate for their cultural background. The show was so contagiously cheering that all the audience was invited to join their dance in the end. At that moment, I wish I could find ways to document this sensual experience through an experimental film.

I recorded the audio track from their live performance, and I aim to recreate the visualization of the story behind the song- a simple narrative that grandma taught her grandson to hunt on the sea. Each dance gesture represents different meanings, ranging from scoping out the field, going to the field, and hunting and cutting the animals. Clips to resonate these procedures are taken from a group of contemporary tourists hiking at one of the glaciers. Instead of making the video narrative straightforward, I applied various editing techniques to complicate the speed, frame, and composition. By doing so, I wish to push back humans’ instinct to perceive objects based on empiricism, encouraging them to think about the potential metaphorical meanings for each visual element present in the scene. The juxtaposition and integration of mobile and still are employed both explicitly on the clips and through editing or camera techniques such as repetition, loop, and changing the speed. The manipulations are utilized to emphasize the concept of cultural reproduction and the social and environmental costs of modernization.