Almost twenty years ago, I traveled to Kamchatka as part of a film crew. We were the first westerners allowed to visit that part of the world since 1917, and the invitation came about as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of Perestroika in the former USSR. On that trip, we visited a family group of Koryak reindeer herders. The boy in this photo was one. A couple of hours before I took this photo, the boy’s father had killed this reindeer from their herd to welcome and honor us and prepare for dinner. The boy’s mother had then gone through an elaborate ritual of thanks for this meat, according to their custom. Now the boy was taking his turn, pretending he was a living reindeer and prancing about the camp.

At that time, I knew the boy meant no disrespect for the reindeer. In fact, the opposite was the case. I knew that he and his family held their herd -their livelihood- in very high regard and were making a living as best they could.

There are a few places in America today where you might find this kind of child play in some form. Alaska, Montana, my own home state of Maine… places where a resource-based economy is alive or where people hunt and fish and farm.

The changing relationship to nature in America has many facets to explore. What is our understanding of what happens when animals die? How is that changing? For parents? For children? For a child at play?

Posted on May 21st, 2009 in Educators, Indie Film, Parents