Timely doc “The White Gold of Greenland” is sparking controversy in the Nordic film and TV community just as U.S. President Donald Trump has set his sights on the Arctic island’s mineral wealth.
Directed by Claus Pilehave and Otto Rosing – the latter is known for directing “Nuummioq,” considered the first locally produced feature film ever made in Greenland – “White Gold of Greenland” delves into the colonial relationships between Greenland and Denmark.
The doc – initially aired by Denmark’s national broadcaster DR – claims that between 1854 and 1987 Danish mining companies operating on Greenland’s west coast extracted the equivalent of nearly $59 billion worth of a precious mineral called cryolite that is crucial for producing aluminium, without pumping much of that wealth back into Greenland’s economy.
That claim sparked an uproar. Two weeks after going on air in February “White Gold of Greenland” was pulled by DR and the broadcaster’s editor-in-chief Thomas Falbe was reportedly forced to step down. Danish Culture Minister Jakob Engel-Schmidt said in a Facebook post that the doc’s directors had failed to make clear “the difference between revenue and profit.” Engel-Schmidt further noted that “White Gold of Greenland” came “at the worst moment” with Trump raising the prospect of trying to annex Greenland and make it part of the United States.
Enter the International Sámi Film Institute in nearby Kautokeino, Norway, which has come to the rescue. The film organization dedicated to the Sámi people and to other Indigenous people in the Nordic countries has now decided to make “White Gold of Greenland” available to stream on its Sapmifilm.com platform in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greenland, Canada, and Germany.
“We are publishing the film because we want to showcase the Indigenous perspective,” said Sámi Film Institute chief Anne Lajla Utsi, adding that “We have not independently analyzed the parts of the film that led DR to remove it from its platform, but we have watched it and believe others should have the opportunity to do the same,” she added, noting that “The filmmakers are reputable professionals.”
Other titles on the institute’s platform include Sámi classics such as Nils Gaup’s “Pathfinder,” and “The Kautokeino Rebellion” and Amanda Kernell’s “Sami Blood.”
