Director: Aleksei Vakhrushev
Russia I 2011 I 105 minutes I Russian and Chukchi with English subtitles
DC Premiere

The Tundra Book: A Tale of Vukvukai, the Little Rock presents a rare and stunning documentary about the lives of the Chukchi people who inhabit a remote Russian peninsula in the Arctic Circle, leaving them virtually isolated from modern life. The story centers on Vukvukai and his community. Vukvukai, the Little Rock, is Chukchi from eastern Russia and lives along the Bering Sea region. He has lived his lifetime as a reindeer herder and thus is known in his community as a true man of the tundra whose life is inseparable from the reindeer. The Chukchi herd more than 14,000 reindeer. Vukvukai lives in one of the harshest climate zones in the world, the Arctic Circle. His story and that of the Chukchi is one of a nonstop struggle for survival, but the people believe that following the practices of their ancient, nomadic, cultural traditions contributes to the perseverance of their survival in the unyielding, frozen tundra. The film presents a glimpse into a land, culture, and people that few have ever dared to capture, since it is so remote. For now, the nomadic Chukchi culture remains virtually intact away from the influx of modernity.

A discussion with the director, Aleksei Vakhrushev, will follow the film.

Director:
Aleksei Vakhrushev was born in Anadyr, the capital of the Chukchi autonomous region (Russia), in 1969. He has received his degree in actors’ art at the Theatre Institute of Vladivostok and started his filmmaking study at the All Russian State Cinematography Institute (VGIK) in Moscow in 1991. He began his film career with the documentary Time When Dreams Melt, 1993–1996, the real story of his people—Eskimos of the Yupik group of Northeastern Asia. His view from the inside provided a completely new perspective on the life, problems, and hopes of the indigenous people of Chukotka for the first time.

His 1996 film, Birds of Naukan, was dedicated to the fate of Asian Eskimos, too. The film was awarded the Festival Directors Prize at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools and the Silver Plaque Award in Documentary History/Biography category at the Chicago International Film Festival, 1997.

Aleksei has experience in several areas within film. He has written scripts, made commercials, worked as an AVID editor, and participated in ethnographic expeditions as a TV film director. He also has dozens of scripts, projects, and ideas in his bottom drawer waiting to be made and realized. These projects are connected with the history, culture, spiritual, and social life of the native people of the far northeast of Russia.

Co-presented by All Roads Film Project and the Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital