For the Apassingok family, this is extremely personal. It’s a story about their family, their son, their daughter, their nephew and niece and the way in which attacks from animal rights activists almost destroyed him, their family, and their way of life, a culture that stretches back thousands of years.

For me, Jim Wickens, it’s intensely personal as well, but ironically, for totally different reasons. I am an environmental activist, who for the last two decades has been fighting around the globe to protect animal rights and fight against hunting wildlife. I created the first environmental investigation agency called Ecostorm. But in recent years, I’ve become deeply uncomfortable with the racist rhetoric that I feel is embedded within conservation narratives, whereby people of color who depend upon subsistence hunting practices are all too often demonized and blamed for the environmental problems of the world.

When I heard about the attacks on Chris by Paul Watson and his armchair activists, that was the final straw. It was time to act. I reached out to Susan Apassingok on the other side of the world, openly disclosing my activist past, and asked if we could meet and discuss making a film together. It took a while to build relationships and garner trust, but together with my partner Pete Chelkowski, we quickly became the unlikeliest of friends.

That was four years ago. This film for us is about reaching beyond polarization and across ideological divides to find better ways to listen and work together as human beings.

We also undertook a seismic shift in production protocol, working to phase out a hierarchical system for a more lateral one, where everyone’s voice counts. It is important to acknowledge that the narrative for the film is steered and ultimately decided by Native voices within or in close proximity to the village of Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island.

This is a film made by a community, determined to build Yupik cultural power and voice in northwest Alaska: a mix of Siberian Yupiks from St. Lawrence Island, an Alaska Native from the mainland, two Americans from the Lower 48, a Canadian and a Brit. We are Aakapak Apassingok and children Agra and Nalu Apassingok, Yaari Toole Walker, M. Watanabe Milmore, Pete Chelkowski, Jim Wickens, Dewey Hoffman, and Justine Nagan. It has been a collaborative effort, a joining of skills and talents. Pete Chelkowski and Jim Wickens were given the privileged invitation by the Apassingok family to act as directors on their story but since ultimately this has been a co-creation the final credits are still being determined. For now, we are saying Directed by Pete Chelkowski and Jim Wickens