Independent Lens

One With the Whale

By Pete Chelkowski and Jim Wickens. A production of Vitamin Sea Productions LLC.

Hunting whales is a matter of life or death for the residents of St. Lawrence. When a shy Alaska Native teen becomes the youngest person ever to harpoon a whale for his village, his family is blindsided by thousands of keyboard activists brutally attacking him online - without full perspective on the importance of the hunt to his community’s well-being.