As part of this year’s Stories from Greenland program, Cinehill visitors have the opportunity to hear first-hand what life is like in a country that finds itself ever more frequently at the centre of attention of the world’s most powerful nations. Greenlandic politician and activist Aaja Chemnitz joined Rada Borić, herself an activist and former MP, for a conversation discussing the relationship between Greenland and Denmark, colonial heritage, self-determination, international security, and the importance of preserving a nation’s language and culture.

Chemnitz highlighted that any decisions about Greenland’s future cannot be made without Greenlanders themselves. She also addressed the US setting their sights on the island, which has generated fear and uncertainty among its inhabitants, and delivered a clear message: “You cannot buy the soul of a country.” She spoke too of the importance of language as a carrier of a people’s identity. Drawing on her own experience of growing up between Greenlandic and Danish culture, she reflected: “I think language is the place where you keep your culture and pass it on to the next generation.” For this reason, she sees the preservation of the Greenlandic language as one of the central questions facing the country’s future – and as the foundation of Greenlanders’ right to shape their own people’s narrative.

The conversation complemented the section of Cinehill’s film program dedicated to Greenland, through which audiences can discover the diversity of Greenlandic cinema and the themes that preoccupy its filmmakers. Screening in this program are the documentary Twice Colonized, about Inuit lawyer and activist Aaju Peter and her fight for the rights of indigenous peoples; Entropy, dedicated to the consequences of the climate crisis; Sumé: The Sound of a Revolution, the story of musical resistance to Danish rule; and In the Shadow of the Tugtupite, a film about the uncertain future of the Inuit in the shadow of mining projects.