6 February - 22 February 2007 | Jacob, Jan van den Berg & DRS Films
DRS Films and Jacob's documentary about Persistent Organic Pollutants:
The War on Persistent Organic Pollutants that threaten the World from Pole to Pole. The film shows the consequences for the Inuit, the detection and cleaning in Eastern Europe and conflicts arising from the search for alternatives in Mexico. Planned premiere September 2008 on a ship somewhere between Greenland en
Spits Bergen.
Pop's
Persistent Organic Pollutants are chemicals (most of them pesticides) applied mainly in
tropics, like DDT for the fight against Malaria, which comes into the biosphere and travel to other parts in the world with a disastrous effect. The positive effects of for example applying DDT will be counteracted by many long term negative effects.
Due to use of other chemicals for industrial purposes we have allowed huge releases of chemicals in the atmosphere during the last decades. As such, our atmosphere has become a global chemical factory while nobody understands exactly what is happening in that factory. But one thing is clear: There are severe consequences for the Ozone layer. Ozone layer issues are closely related to the use of certain persistent organic pollutants.
The Poles
The negative effects are clearly visible at the Poles. There we see the disastrous effects of the pollution by
Pops, nuclear waste and the enormous gas fields being found and exploited. Especially
Pops tend to travel to the colder parts of the world and continue to be toxic. Severely increased levels of persistent pesticides in blood and tissues of Eskimos and defect anti-systems with amphibians in larger geographical areas are examples of the negative consequences of indiscriminate application during the last decades. As yet nobody can estimate the consequences for human health and the environment on a global scale.
Films take years to produce and I always select projects which I find are of importance. When I met Jan Betlem early 2006 his story and motivation struck me. He is the only expert in charge with finding sustainable solutions and alternatives of
Pops pesticides and in finding ways often not yet existing - to deal with them. Known as "Toxic Waste Hunter" he used to travel to various countries all over the world to search for stockpiles of obsolete pesticides.
We decided to wait for the best opportunity to work together on a film about this. Now is the right time to make the film, because 2008 will be the beginning of the International Polar Year and the upcoming event is a good moment to start distribution and use of the film.
The Film
The film will start with scenes in the arctic where people suffer from the effects of a vanishing ozone layer and the effects of the
Pops. We will also show in other parts of the world - examples of the hunt for
Pops and the finding of solutions (like alternatives to
Pops chemicals applied in the health and agriculture sectors, or alternative approaches to reduce the amounts of chemicals used in these sectors).
POP hunter Jan Betlem travels all over the world and meets local people who are struggling against them, or hiding the effects for political and / or economic reasons. He tries to find these
Pops everywhere, from Mali to Georgia , and helps to organize safe transport and storage or other good alternatives which
are more sustainable. His goal is to stimulate projects in which people try to live without
Pop's, sometimes with surprising
 results. But there is a lot to do and in many countries they still import these
Pops because they are cheap, they have a
sudden outbreak of malaria, and because of other more obscure reasons.
In the film we'll follow the actual journeys, with as yet unknown results. That way we see how difficult and new the issue still is. And we come to understand the political impact of trying to get these methods to be accepted in different countries.
Portraits of People
In the film we follow three families in three different regions for a longer time, as I often do in my documentaries. They are very good examples of how people live in nature and are dependent of their environment, in the tropics as well as in the poles.
In following these families we show the consequences for the Inuit, the detection and cleaning in Eastern Europe and conflicts arising from the search for alternatives in Mexico .
Use of the Film
During the filmmaking we gather information for a website and a DVD which can be used in schools. A shorter version of the film will be made for this purpose. In that way we are able to reach more people in different situations: action
programs in different countries, and through ecological film festivals like the ones I visited after making the film Taming the Floods, on nature and water management in Poland . More info about that film (including some scenes) on our website www.drsfilm.nl
 Premiere
The premiere is scheduled for August / September 2008 when UNEP is planning a
boat trip from Greenland to the area of Spits Bergen , with many religious and other
world leaders on board. Kofi Annan will give a video statement and journalists from
among others the New York Times and the Financial Times are expected to attend the
symposia on board and report about it. It is the start for the distribution of the film and
the showing in all the countries involved.
Ole Jørgen's Summertime
Expedition
We just received, the day you left Uummannaq, the
footage of Ole Jorgen summertime expedition film he
broadcast on this link
Go to website:
Greenland
(Greenlandic : Kalaallit Nunaat, meaning "Land of the Kalaallit (Greenlanders)"; Danish : Grønland , meaning "Greenland") is a self-governed Danish territory. Though geographically and ethnically an Arctic island nation associated with the continent of North America , politically and historically Greenland is closely tied to Europe .
History of Greenland
Greenland was home to a number of Paleo-Eskimo cultures in prehistory , the latest of which (the Early Dorset culture) disappeared around the year 200 AD. Hereafter, the island seems to have been uninhabited for some eight centuries.
Icelandic settlers found the land uninhabited when they arrived c. 982. In c. 984 they established the Eastern and Western settlements in deep fjords near the very southwestern tip of the island, where they thrived for the next few centuries, and then disappeared after over 450 years of habitation.
The fjords of the southern part of the island were lush and had a warmer climate at that time, possibly due to what was called the Medieval War Period. These remote communities thrived and lived off farming, hunting and trading with the motherland, and when the Norwegian kings converted their domains to Christianity, a bishop was installed in Greenland as well, subordinate to the archdiocese of Nidaros . The settlements seem to have coexisted relatively peacefully with the Inuit, who had migrated southwards from the Arctic islands of North America around 1200. In 1261, Greenland became part of the Kingdom of Norway. Norway in turn entered into the Kalmar Union in 1397 and later the personal union of Denmark-Norway.
After almost five hundred years, the Scandinavian settlements simply vanished, possibly due to famine during the fifteenth century in the Little Ice Age, when climatic conditions deteriorated, and contact with Europe was lost. Bones from this late period were found to be in a condition consistent with malnutrition. Some believe the settlers were wiped out by bubonic plague or exterminated by the Inuit. Other historians have speculated that spanish or English pirates or slave traders from the Barbary Coast contributed to the extinction of the Greenlandic communities.
Denmark-Norway reasserted its latent claim to the colony in 1721. The island's ties with Norway were severed by the Treaty of Kiel of 1814, through which Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden, while Denmark retained all of their common overseas possessions, which, at that time, included small territories in India, West Africa and the West Indies, as well as the
Faeroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland.
Norway occupied and claimed parts of (then uninhabited) East Greenland aka Erik the Red's Land in July 1931, claiming that it constituted Terra nullius. Norway and Denmark agreed to settle the matter at the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1933, where Norway lost.
During World War II, Greenland's connection to Denmark was severed on April 9, 1940 when Denmark was occupied by Germany, and Greenland was on its own. Through the cryolite from the mine in Ivigtut, Greenland was able to pay for goods bought in the United States and Canada. During the war the system of government changed. Eske Brun was governor and ruled the Island via a 1925 law concerning the governing of the Island where, under extreme circumstances, the governors could take control. The other governor, Aksel Svane, was transferred to the United States as leader of the commission to supply Greenland. The Sirius Patrol, guarding the northeastern shores of Greenland using dog sleds, detected and destroyed several German weather stations, giving Denmark a better position in the postwar turmoil.
Greenland had been a protected and thereby isolated society until 1940. The Danish government, which governed the colonies of Greenland, had been convinced that the society would face exploitation from the outside world or even extinction if the country was opened up. During World War II, though, Greenland developed a sense of self-reliance during its period of self-government and independent communication with the outside world.
However, in 1946 a commission (with the highest Greenlandic council Landsrådet as participant) recommended patience and no radical reformation of the system. Two years later the first step towards an alteration of the governing of Greenland was initiated as a grand commission was founded. In 1950 the report (G-50) was presented. Greenland was to be a modern welfare society with Denmark as the sponsor and example. In 1953 Greenland was made an equal part of the Danish Kingdom. In 1979 home rule was granted.
Etymology
The name "Greenland" comes from Scandinavian settlers. In the Norse sagas, it is said that Erik the Red was exiled from Iceland for murder. He, along with his extended family and thralls, set out in ships to find the land that was rumored to be to the northwest. After settling there, he named the land Grænland ("Greenland"), possibly in order to attract more people to settle there. Greenland was also called Gruntland ("Ground-land") on early maps. Whether Green is an erroneous transcription of Grunt ("Ground"), which refers to shallow bays, or vice versa, is not known. It should also be noted, however, that the southern portion of Greenland (not covered by glacier) is indeed very green in the summer, and was likely even greener in Erik's time because of the Medieval Warm Period. It is said that Greenland and Iceland switched names to throw off the vikings.
Demographics
Greenland has a population of 56,361, of whom 87% are Greenlandic, a mixture of Inuit and European races. The majority of the population are Evangelical Lutherans. English, Danish and Greenlandic are all spoken by the population.
Nearly all Greenlanders live along the fjords in the south-west of the main island, which has a milder climate. Most Greenlanders have both Kalaallit (Inuit) and Scandinavian ancestry, and speak Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) as their first language. Greenlandic is spoken by about 50,000 people, which is more than all the other Eskimo-Aleut languages combined. A minority of Danish migrants with no Inuit ancestry speak Danish as their first language. Both languages are official with the West Greenlandic dialect forming the basis of the official form of Greenlandic.
The Village of Uumannaq
Uummannaq or Umanak is a town in north-west Greenland . Located at 70 degrees north, it is about halfway up Greenland's northwest coast.
Uummannaq is 700 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle , just north of Disko Island . Qaanaaq ( Thule ) lies several hundred miles further north. The town has a population of around 1,500 and is home to Greenland's most northerly ferry terminal.
Uummannaq is located on an island ( Uummannaq Island ) which is also home to Uummannaq Mountain . It rises very sharply to a height of 1170m. Climbing it requires technical skills. The mountain is heart-shaped. Indeed Uummannaq is Greenlandic for "heart-shaped".
Danish and Greenlandic children believe that Santa Claus lives on the bay of Spraglebugten on the west of the island. A turf hut ( Santa's Castle ) was built there for a Danish television
program and remains Santa's home in the popular imagination.
Uummannaq Fjord is the general name given to the series of inlets into the Greenlandic mainland north of the promontory at Niaqornat on the Nuussuaq Peninsula .
Air Greenland operates air services to Uummannaq. In addition to being a hunting and fishing base, there is a canning factory and a marble quarry located nearby.
Uummannaq is situated 590 km north of the Polar Circle at 70° 40'N and 58° 08' W on an island which covers 12 square km, and is dominated by the 1175 m high mountain "Hjertefjeldet", which means "Heart-shaped Mountain", after which the city is named.
Up where the sun does not set for 2 months every year, but on the other hand does not rise from December to February!
Uummannaq is what you would call the "real" Greenland. A majestic and harsh landscape with tall mountains, rare vegetation, many glaciers and icebergs, and a population to whom fishing and hunting by dog sledge and boat is a natural part of daily life.
The district of Uummannaq has 7 settlements and is a very typical dog sledging district. The 2784 inhabitants live mainly by hunting and fishing.
Uummannaq is one of Greenland's northernmost municipalities. 2,800 people live here. Approx. half of them in one of the 7 settlements.
The town is surrounded by islands and peninsulas, up to 2,000 meters high.
The sea around Uummannaq is rich in whales, and impressive icebergs can be seen everywhere, ice mountains in shades of blue and white, with fantastic shapes. They stem from the world's fastest moving glacier, originating from the inland ice.
And this is where you will find a special type of hospitality. As in these areas, hospitality has never been a question of just friendliness, but a matter of survival. Hospitality, a sense of
humor and a respect for nature are deeply ingrained in the local population.
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