Overview

• Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady spent nearly a year embedded at Pasvik Folk High School above the Arctic Circle to film three late-teen students confronting grief, social anxiety and self-confidence issues through immersive wilderness and traditional crafts.
• Pasvik’s folk school model prioritizes character-building over grades by teaching knitting, leather-working, igloo-building, survival skills and dog mushing in a remote Arctic setting.
• Framed by the Norse mythology of the Norns, the vérité film contrasts the students’ early phone dependency with their growing bonds to Alaskan huskies and the natural world.
• Following its Sundance premiere and featured articles in the Boston Globe and Time, critics have lauded the film’s visual storytelling and emotional depth.
• The feature opens August 1 at Boston’s Coolidge Corner and select regional theaters after New York’s IFC Center runs screenings through July 31.