All language subtitles for The.Polar.Sea.S01E07.720p.WEB.x264-CRiMSON Eng

NARRATOR: Last time on
The Polar Sea...

Richard Tegner is sailing
on the Akademik Ioffe.

They are deep
in the Northwest Passage,

braving narrow channels

where ice can block ships
big and small.

MAN 3: Okay, Nick,
it's holding, it's holding.

NARRATOR: The lone sign of
southern civilization out here

is the Canadian ice breaker
that gets them through.

But in nearby Gjoa Haven,

founded by the explorer
Amundsen,

civilization has come
at a cost.

JORDAN AGLUKKAQ:
I lost a couple of friends.

One of them just
committed suicide.

NARRATOR:
As young Inuit struggle
with a changing culture

and now a change
in the climate,

some are paying
with their lives.

(OCEAN WAVES CRASHING)
(WIND HOWLING)

RICHARD TEGNER:
It was traveling, definitely.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

And a big party also.

And...

Well, I hadn't had
much of party

so I really enjoyed that.

How's the weather outside?

Windy and rough, you know?
Oh, no.

I appreciate
the contrast.

Scary, but yeah...

(MUSIC PLAYING
THROUGH SPEAKERS)

CROWD:
# He was a hard-hitting man #

(INDISTINCT)

Richard.

What's the most appropriate
drink for a polar bear?

How about an old fashioned?

I don't want any more booze.

I will feel awful tomorrow.

Soda water on the rocks,

with a twist of lime
and a dash of gin.

TEGNER:
It was a Russian cruise ship

with mostly
Canadian passengers

and mostly Canadian staff.

Whoops...

NARRATOR:
Richard Tegner has become
unofficial chronicler

of the voyage of the Ioffe.

TEGNER:
That was nice actually.
I didn't...

I thought maybe
it will bother me

to have to use the camera
now and then,

but I actually enjoyed it.

Nice views are okay,

but as soon as you have
a face in front of you,

it's something
totally different.

It's a bit of a personal story
in all faces.

I really like that a lot.

BOAT MAN: We'll walk around
the top of the engines

and see what
everything looks like.

Feel free to take pictures,

and we'll eventually
make our way

to the control room or MCR.

And one hand for the ship

'cause it is slippery
on deck.

TEGNER:
The most important thing is,

all of these people
and their level of curiosity.

They were all there
because they were interested

in traveling
through the Arctic,

and learning more about it.

Some were interested in birds

and some were
interested in wildlife

and some were
interested in Inuit culture,

so different approaches.

Let's go.

And...

Are you turned on?
Yes, it's turned on.

No, I'm kidding.
And you don't have to
speak to the camera.

We can just
make it like, so...

It makes it more natural
if we speak to each other

and don't bother
about the camera.

No, that's fine. So...
Okay, so...

My first impression

of the passenger group
of this boat was

"What a boring group
of elderly people."

It takes one to know one.
(CHUCKLES) Yes.

You're a tourist now,
not a working seaman.

I... I... I certainly am.

NARRATOR:
Richard started his journey
on the small boat Dax.

TEGNER: Compared with
my first part of the trip,

it was luxurious, for sure.

I had a nice warm cabin,

and I could take
a nice warm shower.

You have each meal served.

There was a sauna on board.

That was very nice
to have a sauna.

That was really nice.

It's like everything else
during this trip.

It contrasts.

The contrast between the,
well, the western culture

and the old Inuit culture,
of course.

And the contrasts
in traveling,

the contrasts in temperature
and in the nature.

It's kind of ironic that
we blame the global warming

to make a lot of damage
around the world

but there is also
positive things.

We can come here and meet
these people of this

barren land
and make our experience
from their living.

Yes.

Change is difficult,
whatever change

that causes
lots of difficulty
for everyone,

I mean, we all

are very concerned
about the changes that

our life brings
to the world we live in.

NARRATOR:
The Ioffe is steaming west
in Victoria Strait,

bound for Cambridge Bay.

This is the most southerly leg
of the passage,

its exact middle and the last
part that was discovered.

In the 19th century,

explorers aimed
to cross paths here.

Those coming north over land

hoped to meet those
sailing east or west

to connect the dots

and complete the map
of the passage.

Now, a new generation
of explorers cross here

as they challenge the passage
from both directions.

Some seek only freedom,

like Jurgen
and Claudia Kirchberger,

young Austrians sailing west
in their steel ketch,

Belle Epoque.

Some are seeking records
for the fun of it.

Olivier Giasson
and Sebastien Lapierre,

are firefighters from Quebec,

rowing eastward
to be the first kayak

through the passage
in one summer.

(SPEAKING IN FRENCH)

NARRATOR:
Westbound in Libellule,

the Cottier family
from Switzerland

is hoping to be
the first cruising catamaran

through the passage.

Others want their journey
to make a statement.

The crew of the Arctic Joule

hope to highlight
climate change

by being the first
to row the whole passage.

Then there is the crew
of the American
reality TV show,

Dangerous Waters.

You guys got some
gas for us?
CAMERAMAN: Yup!

Starving again!
Need some fuel!

NARRATOR: These guys
just want to be the first

to jet ski through
the Northwest passage.

I was able to get
the latest ice information.

I also got the phone numbers
of this ship.

So they said call any time,
wherever we're at,

any questions about
ice or wind, anything.

They've heard about us.

That's cool.
And that's good to know.

Everybody's heard of us.
Yep.

We are
the Dangerous Waters crew.

We will enter Cambridge Bay
I suppose, 25th,

and that's the end
of our journey.

NARRATOR:
In the harbor is a reminder

of the twisting fates
of Arctic explorers.

Here lies the wreck of Maud,

the last Arctic ship
owned by Roald Amundsen.

Amundsen was the first to sail
the Northwest Passage in 1903.

In 1916 he returned
in the Maud,

hoping to sail past
the North Pole to Russia.

He was trapped
by pack ice.

The three-year
long expedition failed

and bankrupted Amundsen.

He sold Maud.

She was eventually sunk by ice
in Cambridge Bay.

She is one
of the many ghosts here.

Shadows of strangers
who lost, or won,

because of
the shifting climate.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

The first strangers
to come here

were the Inuit themselves.

They arrived 1,000 years ago

to find another people
already here.

Those first people
were called the Tunit.

They are known to us
only by fragments

of tools left behind

and by stories the Inuit tell.

So what we have here
is a model of a
Tunit longhouse

and this is actually
a reproduction

of what was found
at Ikaluktutiak,

which is fairly close to
Cambridge Bay.

Each family had their own tent
and they joined them together.

TEGNER:
So this is several generations
living together like this,

in a row with
different entrances?
Exactly.

But each family has a tent.

Okay.
Exactly.

And so their lifestyles were
fairly similar to the Inuit.

They hunted the same animals

and made the same use
of the items on the land

and even modern Inuit
have stories

of the little people,

they call them
the little people...

Okay. They were short?
They were shorter.

And many elders
living in Cambridge Bay now

still see the Tunit
on the land.

This past summer

Mary Kunnilak,
an elder from Cambridge bay

was on the land and she said
that she saw them.

(DOGS BARKING)

NARRATOR:
The Tunit relied on the cold.

They hunted seal and walrus
on the sea ice.

But around 1,000 A.D,

there began a 300 year
long warm period.

That climate change melted ice
in the Northwest Passage.

Sailing on its
newly opened waters

came strangers from Alaska.

They were the modern Inuit.

They had new technology

like kayaks
and bows and arrows
to hunt caribou.

At the time, the Tunit

lived across the whole
of the eastern Arctic.

But they disappear
from the archeological record

soon after Inuit arrive.

For the next 1,000 years,
the modern Inuit thrived.

The Cambridge Bay museum

has a group of elders

who provide
cultural knowledge.

They grew up with a lifestyle
virtually unchanged

from that of their ancestors.

(WOMAN SPEAKING
IN OTHER LANGUAGE)

(MARY KANIAK SPEAKING
IN OTHER LANGUAGE)

NARRATOR: We have
a record of that life
because Inuit crossed paths

with visionary filmmaker
Robert Flaherty.

In 1920, Flaherty made
Nanook of the North,

which was the world's
first documentary.

Previously people
had only seen paintings

of Inuit or artifacts.

Nanook was an intimate look
at living Inuit

who seemed happy

despite a hard life
in a brutal climate.

Like every documentary since,

Nanook was a blend of candid
and directed footage

that only told
part of the story.

But it was a huge success

and created an image of Inuit

that still haunts
communities today.

TANYA TAGAQ:
There's a couple parts
of the film

that I really despise.

There are couple moments
in the film where I just go...

You know, "Why did
that have to happen?"

NARRATOR: Tanya Tagaq
grew up in Cambridge Bay.

Brilliant.

She left to become
one Canada hottest musicians.

You go the other way...

Her music crosses
Inuit throat singing

with jazz and hip hop.

She's has created a new
musical interpretation
of Nanook

and come home to film it,

bringing her band mates north
for the first time.

TAGAQ: There's one
where he is pretending

to like, kinda eat
at the record.

It's like "Oh, what's this?

"I'm just a silly person
that thinks he should eat it."

Like, it's little things
like that.

NARRATOR: In fact, the Inuit
that Flaherty met

understood the benefits
of modern technology.

While Flaherty
filmed a walrus hunt

in which they feared
being dragged into the water,

they begged him to shoot
the walrus with his rifle.

He pretended not to listen
so that he could keep filming.

Flaherty later wrote
that his falsehoods

were intended to portray
traditional Inuit culture

while it was still possible.

TAGAQ: I don't really get
so angry with the film

because a lot of it
is the land

and the land is so beautiful.

That's... It's where we are.

Like, the Earth
is so beautiful.

NARRATOR: What was true
was that Nanook of the North

captured the ways
of the only people

who could live comfortably
in the Arctic.

But that exclusive advantage
ended with the Cold War,

when America and Russia
crossed paths here

and the region suddenly moved

from the edge of history
to its center.

(EXPLODING)

MALE NEWSCASTER:
Here is the motion picture
spectacle of all time.

NARRATOR 2 (FROM FOOTAGE):
The Arctic...

Desolate.

Savage.

Remote.

No place for human beings.

What was once
the impassable Arctic

now provides the quickest
routes for attack

from a wide sector
of Europe and Asia.

Beset by the nightmare
of this threat,

the nation's leaders decided
on a tremendous undertaking.

This was to build,
with the cooperation
of Canada,

a radar early warning line
north of the Arctic Circle.

It would stretch 3,000 miles
across the continent

to Baffin Island
opposite Greenland.

Men had to conquer
that unknown frozen wasteland

and transform it into
a vital outpost
of western civilization.

But at some sites
the wind kept piling up
the snow so fast

that a small tractor
was helpless.

Then the only way
to get a bigger tractor in

was to drop it by parachute.

The first time they tried,
it didn't work.

One way they learned
on the DEW Line

was from mistakes.

They had lost
one tractor this way

but they wouldn't
lose anymore.

They knew now
how to do it right.

Finally, they had
ice tips wide enough

and long enough
for the biggest cargo planes.

The Eskimos too were recruited
and they did a good job.

NARRATOR: They were recruited,
but not required.

The US military did not
need their help to survive.

Its Arctic bases
were the first developments

big enough to make
the climate irrelevant.

NARRATOR 2 (FROM FOOTAGE):
Summer in the Arctic brings
a bloom of wildflowers.

And temperature sometimes
as high as 60 degrees.

Then it was good weather

for erecting the search
radar antennas.

And once more
the Arctic winter closed in.

But nature in the Arctic
no longer seems so savage,

for life on the DEW Line
has become pretty civilized.

But perhaps the true
historical role
of the DEW Line

will prove to be
the opening up for peaceful

and productive purposes

of a vast new frontier
above the Arctic Circle.

The untapped resources
of which we have as yet
barely glimpsed.

TAGAQ: But looking at
that DEW Line site,
like as a child

I was kind of taught
that it was like,

"Look at this awesome thing
it's going to protect us,

"it's going to protect us

"and everything's
going to be great

"because we've got
this amazing protection."

I didn't understand it
until I went to Europe.

I started having a deeper,
way deeper respect for like,

"white people"

because it's like
"Oh, there's the root
of their culture.

"That's where they came from."

And, you know,
let's be frank

you spent the last
couple thousand years

scrapping over every
little bit of land there
was over there.

Like, you know you guys
were warring people

so when you came over
you were still warring people

and you didn't know what to do
but be warring people.

NARRATOR: Cambridge Bay
was a DEW Line supply hub.

The remote crossroads
filled up with strangers

and all their social problems.

And Tanya's
generation of Inuit

became the first to grow up
in the global village.

MALE NEWSCASTER: In the era
of intercontinental airplanes

the polar ice cap,
once a barrier,

has become an open highway.

Thanks to operation DEW Line.

Remote regions of the Arctic

have seen more visitors
in a single summer

than all their
previous history.

TAGAQ: I know
there was a bar there

and I know bad things
happened at it.

As a child,
that was just a part of life.

TAGAQ: We had a lot of fun
in that house.

MAN 1:
What happened there?

TAGAQ: My friend
Michelle Adamak,
her parents

would go on long camping trips
and we'd just...

There'd be a group of
like 12 little kids

hanging out in there
for a couple days

and we'd have a lot fun like,

we'd slide down the stairs
in garbage bags

and, like, play stupid games.

MAN 2: Did you get in trouble?
TAGAQ: No.

One time we stayed awake
for three days

out of mere boredom.

(DOGS BARKING)
(LAUGHING)

MAN 2: Look at all the dogs.

TAGAQ: Hi puppies.
MAN 2: They're going crazy.

TAGAQ: They're just excited
to see us, that's all.

Oh, that guy hates me,
I hate that guy there.

He's the worst.
He's the worst guy in town.

Driving that truck?
Yeah.

Why, what happened?
He's just...

He's constantly trying
to sleep with young girls

and cheating on his wife.

And then spreading rumors...
Oh, boy...

TAGAQ: And telling everyone
I'm sleeping with people,

but that's small town dynamics
for you, right?

TAGAQ: I realize
that there was
a time in the past

where life was so hard
up here in the winter

that you couldn't waste
your time on your emotions

and those kinds of feelings

surrounding sexual abuse
or physical abuse or anything

because it was so hard to live

and people were dying
all around you.

Just because
of the environment

that people wouldn't care
about something so small

as like being raped...
(LAUGHS) You know?

'Cause it was so hard.

But let's be frank,
it's not like that anymore.

People are allowed to care,

and people
are allowed to feel.

I'm not afraid to say it

because the more people
talk about it the
easier it's...

Like, I was sexually abused
from five years old on.

You know, I grew up
seeing a lot of shit.

And I think a lot people
here were.

And, you know,
when I was a teenager

and I was very confused,

you know, I attempted
suicide myself

and those are things
you battle for a long time,

probably your whole life.

Sometimes it comes back,
that feeling comes back,

and I'll never do it,

but that's a terrible feeling
to have to feel.

And knowing
that's why I'm so angry,

there's a whole,
whole groups of people,

like, that feel this hurt.

TAGAQ: Yeah, so sometimes
I do subbing in the schools

and then sometimes
I'll kind of do

things like suicide prevention
or embrace life kind of thing.

And I'll go from
classroom to classroom

and talk to the kids.

TAGAQ: I meet a lot of people
all over the world

who are in
the same state and...

But one main thing I notice
about everybody who's hurting,

everybody feels like there's
something wrong with them.

Everybody feels like
if they were a better person

they wouldn't have
these terrible feelings.

MAN 2: Slush puppy.

He's drinking
a slush puppy.
(SCOFFS)

Hi.

Are you Lawrence's son?

Hi.

Nice to meet you.
I went to school with him.

And you look exactly
like your dad.

I'm Tanya.

What happened to your arm?
Dislocated.

Aw... Well, I hope
you locate it again.

(LAUGHS)

I got in a fight
with a couple guys.

Oh, no!

Why?
Huh?

Why? What were
they doing?

Just got into a fight.

Aw... Well,
quit scrapping.

(LAUGHS)

See you.
Nice to meet you.

TAGAQ: I grew up in that house
until I was 12 years old.

MAN 2: Right there?
Yeah, that house.

MAN 2: Are you cereal?

TAGAQ: Yep, I remember
watching Three's Company

when I was really small,
like these kids.

Who are your parents?

You look familiar.

I must have went to school
with one of your parents.

I want to see somebody
do something awesome on here.

Oh, my goodness.
(WHOOPING)

TAGAQ: Nice, nice.
MAN 2:
That's pretty dangerous.

Man,
you got it together.
TAGAQ: Yeah, that's good.

And they just put this up too,
man, you got good quickly.

It must be tiring.
(TAGAQ SHRIEKING)

Oh, my God!

That's scary.

Oh...
How come
you never wipe out?

(SHUDDERS)
(TAGAQ WHOOPING)

TAGAQ: Oh, God,
it's no good to have
a mother watching this.

(TAGAQ LAUGHING)

MALE NEWSCASTER:
Twentieth century civilization
with its complexity and strife

and its promise for the future
has come to the frozen north.

What changes this will bring
to the ancient pattern of life

in these regions,
no man can say.

One thing however seems clear.

Here is tangible, visible
evidence of a shrinking globe.

NARRATOR: While the DEW Line
was being built,

nuclear missiles
replaced bombers.

The line was obsolete
when it opened in 1957.

But it has operated ever since
and now has a new purpose.

As the
Northwest Passage melts,

many countries
are looking to exploit

its shipping
and mineral potential.

Canada and the U.S
are as motivated as ever

to maintain military
surveillance here.

Even though they now use
private contractors to do it.

RICK CHAULK:
The actual importance I guess

with the opening up
the Northwest Passages

that are projected to happen
for year round shipping.

Without the contestant
of the north

between the Soviets,
the Americans,

the Canadians, the Norwegians,

it probably will remain

a prominent part
of the North American,

prominent part
of the Canadian's...

Canada's signature
for the north for a while.

NARRATOR: In the Arctic,
nothing goes away quickly

and so,
bizarre encounters abound.

Just out past
the DEW Line station,

elders still meet
Tunit ghosts.

(MARY AVALAK SPEAKING
IN OTHER LANGUAGE)

(JIMMY MANIGYOGINA SPEAKING
IN OTHER LANGUAGE)

(VOCALIZING)

(APPLAUDING)

(SINGING FOLK SONG)

TAGAQ: In case you
can't tell I'm mad.

Just like the whole happy
Eskimo thing, you know?

Look we're happy Eskimos.

And a lot of the performers
and a lot of people,

to tourists they really
want to go

"Look we're happy Eskimos."

Yeah, I'm happy
and I'm an Eskimo

but I mean, people they...
Just... It has to stop.

(BIKE MOTOR RUNNING)

TAGAQ: If those colonialists
would have at least gleamed

a little bit of
information from us

and lived a little more
harmoniously with the Earth

then none of this would
have been happening.

I've gotten that stand point,

but frankly we enjoy
the niceties

of the modern
existence as well.

You can take care
of people socially

and you can have progress

without destroying
everything completely.

Hi.
CAMERAMAN:
Who are you?

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

I'm Rygoul.

(SPEAKS IN LOCAL DIALECT)

I'm Rygoul.
Evily.

CAMERAMAN:
Rygoul?
Rygoul.

CAMERAMAN:
Rygoul. Okay.

(SPEAKS IN LOCAL DIALECT)

TEGNER: I prefer to think that

this development
will be for the better.

They are building
an Arctic university

and they're building
a huge research center there.

New facilities
for sewage and water

and they are building
new housing.

So we shouldn't think that
we destroy everything we do.

We also

do good things.

We build up possibilities.

(WIND HOWLING)

MAN: All right,
we gotta wait for a chance

to get a position.

(INDISTINCT CHATTERING)

(LAUGHING)
MAN: Tense up, everybody.

I gotta get
the background going here.

Great.

MAN: Go. Tap the line.

Take one!

(THUDS)
(AMBIENT MUSIC PLAYING
VIA SPEAKERS)

(SINGING INUIT FOLK SONG)

TAGAQ:
When I'm singing, I feel like
I could not be a human.

The beauty of this life
is completely overwhelming.

The joy of life
can come to you

in a way that

is so grand.

The way I love,
not just being human,

but being, being alive,
like being a living form.

NARRATOR:
The Northwest Passage
cruise season is ending.

The Akademik Ioffe
will sail back to the East.

TEGNER: This evening,
I'm expecting a Catamaran
from Switzerland

coming here to Cambridge Bay.

Hopefully, they can
take me along.

I might join them
as a crew member,

might be a lot of ice that
will force us to stay and...

Well, you'll just have to
adapt to the circumstances.

If I can't get away
from Cambridge Bay with a boat

I have to try to do it
in some other way.

NARRATOR:
August is almost over.
Soon freeze up will begin.

Yachts challenging the passage
must race to the finish.

For eastbound boats,
it will not be easy.

Ice flowing down
from the north

is clogging
the narrow channels

between the eastern islands.

(CONVERSING IN FRENCH)

MAN: You know,
under normal circumstances

I would think this was like,
beautiful and awesome.

What we're going to
have to do is

we're going to go
more offshore.

To get out of this.

We can't. It's like sucking
rocks with the propeller.

NARRATOR:
For boats sailing west,
along the mainland coast,

there is still blue water.

And Richard Tegner
still has a chance

to hitch a ride to Alaska.

It's cold now.

It's really cold.

And sitting at the tiller
on a sailing boat

in this temperature,

and with unknown

place to harbor,

little scary,
but nevertheless,

that's what
adventures are for.

You don't know
what's ahead of you,

you just have to jump

and do the best of it.