The Duck In Documentary Analysis

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You are starving and your family is starving, but the law told you that you could not feed your family, would you obey the law or do you decide to feed your family anyway despite what the law says? To Tommy Pikok Sr., “When I am hungry, I can protest the law. I can use my stomach as a reason to protest the law” (Edwardsen, Duck-In). In the documentary, The Duck-In, the Iñupiat people of Barrow, Alaska fought against the law by coming together as a whole community to get what should be their right as native people. The Iñupiat people would rather hunt for their food than consume white people food on a daily basis. It is our culture, tradition, and duty to hunt for food and no one or anything could change our way of thinking. The citizens of Barrow, Alaska should watch the Duck-In because the documentary informs the citizens …show more content…

In the documentary, there are several photos from 1961, and even before then. There were photos of the houses the native people used to live in, the old Top of the World Hotel, pictures of families that were associated with the Duck-In, and even photographs of newspapers that were written about the hunting law. Included in the documentary, before Eben Hopson and Sadie Brower passed away, the film and editing crew added old conversations from them and incorporated the conversations into the documentary. Clips of life back then were included in the video, which involved people gathered around outside eating and sharing food. Beverly Long explained that, “How you grew up, they cannot take that away from you,” (Edwardsen, Duck-In) and Long also said, “It is so important we know who our ancestors are” (Edwardsen, Duck-In). What Long said about the past could make you realize that if it was not for your ancestors, tradition would not carry on and the things you do today, such as hunting, sewing, cooking, and speaking the language, would all be gone if your ancestors did not carry on those

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