Documentary tells story of Churchill's polar bears from unique perspective

A critically acclaimed film about Churchill's polar bears has done something no other documentary has before, says one of its producers, by telling their story from the bears' point of view.

Nuisance Bear is a short documentary that follows polar bears in and around the northern Manitoba town on the shores of Hudson Bay during their annual migration season, showcasing their interactions with tourists and Churchill's residents.

The documentary, by filmmakers Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden, has landed a series of awards and nominations, including an honourable mention in the best Canadian short film category at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021, where it premiered. 

More recently, it made the short list for potential Academy Award nominees in the best documentary short film category, but didn't make the final list.

Osio Vanden, a Venezuelan Canadian filmmaker from Ottawa, said the filmmaking pair first went to Churchill in 2015 and became interested in the relationships between the bears and humans. 

"That's what really stuck with us. We just felt that, despite this place being filmed so often, there was a story that we weren't seeing," she said. 

Osio Vanden said they wanted to showcase the "interesting tension" and complexity in the bears' interactions with people around the town. 

"The bear management in Churchill do a really good job, but it's hard because the bears have a really strong sense of smell. They're always going to be attracted to the town so it's a really challenging task." 

Weisman, who is from the U.S. but now lives in Ontario, said it took a few trips to get the footage they needed for the film. The footage in Nuisance Bear is from their last trip to Churchill.

"We kept coming away with like, maybe fragments of a movie," he said.

"We realized that by putting the camera on the car and being able to drive around with the bears, like the tourists do, we were a lot more efficient and sort of revealed this journey that these bears embark upon in a more experiential way." 

'Amazingly different type of film'

Dennis Compayre, a Churchill resident and a field producer on the film, has spent the last 40 years working with filmmakers and photographers who want to document the town's wildlife.

"I grew up with the bears. I'm all about polar bears," said Compayre.

He said most of the documentaries shot in the area have some commonalities, but for Nuisance Bear, "that was thrown out the window." 

For example, "there [is] no narration to it ... so you made up your own mind on what [is] going on in the film," he said. "That was pretty cool."

But what makes the documentary truly unique was filming from the bears' point of view, even positioning the camera at the eye-level of the animals, said Compayre.

The concept of filming from the point of view of the bears in Churchill had never been done before, to his knowledge. 

No one working on the film knew how it would be received, he said, but "we're all excited about it. I mean, it's well-deserving. Jack and Gabby, they took the leap of faith into producing this amazingly different type of film." 

Weisman said despite the disappointment of missing out on an Oscar nomination, the experience of making Nuisance Bear was incredible.

"I'm just really thankful we got to meet the people that we did. I think that's more important than any trophy," said Weisman.

Nuisance Bear is now available to watch online.