Female Film Critics 24/375
The Grizzlies travels to the Inuit Kugluktuk for an inspirational story. Director Miranda de Pencier establishes historical context through 1920s and 30s sixteen millimeter footage shot by her grandfather in the Canadian Arctic. Now, in the twenty-first century, this area has the highest suicide rate in North America. And flying into remote Kugluktuk to complete community service requirements is recent university graduate Russ Sheppard.
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The Grizzlies is based on the inspiring true story of a group of students in a small, struggling Arctic town and centers around the experiences of a recently graduated White teacher, Russ, working his first job as a high school history teacher in the isolated Inuit town of Kuluktuk, where the hardships of life far exceed its joys. In this inspiring tale, Russ and the students are transformed by the power of sport and hope. Canadian filmmaker Miranda de Pencier is an award-winning actress, producer and director. The Grizzlies, which premiered at TIFF and won the DGC Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, is her feature film directorial debut.
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The Grizzlies, based on a true story, is about a fired-up white outsider coming into a close-knit Indigenous community full of confidence that, with his passion and approachability, he can connect with the skeptical teens he’s there to teach and make a difference. And, to be fair, he does exactly that. But not before he’s forced to learn some hard truths about the folly of thinking you can “fix” another culture — or understand people who’ve been traumatized for generations by colonialism if you haven’t been through it yourself.
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The Grizzlies, about a real-life lacrosse team of Inuit high-schoolers in a small Arctic town in Canada, has much more at stake than just winning or losing. It’s about living rather than dying in a colonized community where a diamond mine is the main source of income and few opportunities exist for the marginalized indigenous people who reside there. Drugs and alcoholism are rampant as are domestic abuse and teen suicides.
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From the opening title sequence featuring vintage photos of the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic, The Grizzlies is rich in cultural specificity and in an atmosphere that’s both gritty and beautiful. The remote Canadian town is bleak and barren save for a few desolate shacks where kids with no futures commit suicide at alarming rates and where adults regularly pass out drunk on sagging sofas.
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Canadian filmmaker Miranda de Pencier’s The Grizzlies, a truth-based sports narrative set in the Canadian arctic, is a story centered around the experiences of a recently graduated White teacher, Russ, working his first job as a high school history teacher in the isolated Inuit town of Kuluktuk, where the hardships of life far exceed its joys.
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While this poignant true life story of a young teacher who changes the lives of the troubled indigenous students he encounters may initially seem like another white saviour narrative, sensitivity and realism ensure it never succumbs to that cliche.
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