Directed by Ty Defoe

The Winter Bear is the story of Athabascan teenager, Duane “Shadow” David, who’s contemplating suicide when he’s sentenced to cut wood for Koyukon Athabascan elder Sidney Huntington. At first the two can’t even communicate, but they gradually find a shared language based on the old man’s hunting experience and the young man’s video game vocabulary. Together they construct a Bear Spear in the old, traditional way. Soon after, Duane is forced to kill a marauding Winter Bear using only the Spear. Sidney is wounded in the encounter so Duane, who’s deathly afraid of showing himself in any public way, must stand in the spotlight and speak for Sidney at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.