Three years ago, adventurer Jamie Young set sail for Greenland on his 15 metre (50ft) aluminium yacht, Killary Flyer as Afloat reported here.

The 1500 nautical mile course aimed to take Young and his crew to the West Greenland coastline, where ice “highways” are now affected by warming seas, and communities from the south up to the Arctic Circle as far as Thule are under extreme pressure

With him was Sligo film-maker Vincent Monahan, and Dutch co-producer Marieke Lexmond, who have made an award-winning documentary on the voyage examining the impact of climate change on Greenland’s indigenous community.

Entitled A Greenland Story,it is set to air on RTÉ television on Monday, August 29th next.

A Greenland Story movie poster

Monahan and Lexmond say it “takes audiences on a journey to remote villages in the Arctic Circle, providing a fascinating insight into Inuit culture at a time of extreme cultural, technological and environmental change.”

The yacht visited towns and villages along Greenland’s west coast, interviewing hunters, fishermen, high-school students, native artists, a marine biologist and Greenland’s Minister for Finance and Resources, Vittus Qujaukitsoq.

An indigenous fisherman

“With no roads connecting its villages and a minuscule budget, the crew lived aboard the ship for three months during filming in 2019, sailing in near 24-hour daylight through icy waters to capture stunning scenes of towering icebergs and encounters with cresting humpback whales,”the documentary makers state.

“Greenland is a country at the forefront of climate change. Its ice sheet covers 80% of the island and, if melted completely, contains enough water to raise global sea levels by more than seven metres. Meanwhile, Arctic temperatures continue to rise at twice the global average, presenting an existential problem for humanity,”they point out.

The Killary Flyer in the Arctic Circle

The documentary has already won a number of international awards, including Best Environmental Film at the Montreal and Vancouver Independent Film Festivals, and Best Feature Documentary at the London Independent Film Awards.

Monahan and Lexmond also shared the Best First-Time Director Award at the same event, where Vincent, too, collected Best Editor. 

A Greenland Story is Monahan’s first effort at editing and directing a film, through his company Duck Upon Rock.

“A vision of Jamie Young’s for many years, the crew, including Pauline Jordan and Ciaran Lennon, set sail from Killary Fjord in Galway in June 2019. We had three months to film before the ice and storm season set in. It took another two years to edit, which I did from my home in Sligo,” Monahan says.

“As a filmmaker this was an amazing opportunity to spread an important message about a widely misunderstood culture, to say something bigger. In the film we see a society with such a modest impact on their own environment suffering the effects of the wider industrialised world’s activity,” he says.

“Suicide rates are surging in Greenland in parallel with depopulation and desertion in remote villages – a clear sign that serious issues are a foot. Numbers of sled dogs have also plummeted by 60% in the last decade,”he notes.

“We wanted the film to be equally a celebration of their proud Inuit culture as much as it is about the uncertainty that lays ahead. We can learn a lot from the level of respect they have for the natural world,” he says.

“With social media reaching a stage of climate change saturation, repeated instructions to listen to the science assures the information is clearly and objectively presented, but it can feel distant, and lack a relatable narrative. We felt that the audience would relate most to these intimate everyday human stories rather than simply disaster framing,” Monahan adds.

“We’re really grateful to our sponsors Transitions Optical, NRT Foundation and Killary Adventure Centre for their support for this project. We hope that in spreading this story our film can raise awareness of Greenland’s unique Inuit culture and the impact that climate change is having on their society,”he says.

Meanwhile, Irish adventurer, climber and sailor Peter Owens is en route home from Greenland after a successful trip on board Danú of Galway, during which research was conducted on the impact of microplastics in the Arctic

A Greenland Story is due to air on RTE One August 29th at 10.35pm and will be available online via the RTÉ Player.