‘Nuisance Bear’ review: a creative spin on the nature documentary

Posted On February 8, 2026February 8, 2026

Nature documentaries aren’t typically intended to be very challenging, but Nuisance Bear is a bold reinvention of the subgenre from A24.

The most acclaimed and successful documentary films tend to be those that draw attention for both their area of focus and their means of construction. It’s often much more challenging to tell a dramatically compelling story when working strictly within the parameters of facts, and some subject material is inherently challenging to capture. There’s long since been an interest in nature documentaries, spurred in part by the popularity of National Geographic and Planet Earth, as simply seeing wildlife in their natural habitats can be compelling enough.

Nuisance Bear may on its surface appear to be another crowd-pleasing documentary about cute animals, but in reality, it’s far less fuzzy and uplifting. Directed by Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman, who based the film on their 2021 short of the same name, Nuisance Bear is an exploration of the growing tensions between polar bears and tourists within Churchill, Manitoba. Due to the melting of the bears’ natural habitats and fishing areas, the creatures tend to migrate south to human civilisations, where their presence can provoke and perturb the population.

The film’s title references a moniker given to bears who seemingly reject all efforts to relocate; although there are many wildlife officers who try to compassionately move the bears back to areas where they won’t regularly interact with humans, many have developed migration as a survival skill, leading to a collision course.

A larger ethical debate is raised regarding who should own the land, and what responsibility they have to protect those who previously inhabited it; it’s a question that becomes even deeper because Nuisance Bear is narrated by a member of the Inuit community, who speaks both about the genocide of his people and their longstanding relationship with polar bears.

Nuisance Bear is an impressive work of craftsmanship because it feels as if there was little manipulation needed to make for a dramatically compelling narrative. There are no talking heads or inserted title cards introducing key facts and figures, as the film simply observes the cyclical process of the bears as they take long journeys across the wild.

The rare instances of humans onscreen occur when the wildlife patrollers share terse interactions with the bears, and how local officials try to spread safety information to local schools. It’s an immersive filmmaking technique that crystallises the intentions that Vanden and Weisman had in mind; although their goal was to spread awareness, Nuisance Bear reveals how complex the issue is, and how short-sighted many of the potential solutions are.

As revealed by the passing of time, which is gracefully depicted over the course of Nuisance Bear’s tight 90 minutes, this isn’t a situation that will get any better in the immediate future. The further damage done to the environment through both global warming and pollution means that bears will be even more starved for resources, which may make them more aggressive as a result. At the same time, modern politicians have shown less interest in preserving the culture of indigenous people, meaning that the lessons they’ve learned will tend to fade away.

Nuisance Bear is still a wondrous achievement in spectacle, and often soars due to the sheer amount of detail it has in exploring the dynamics within polar bear families. Even without the outside presence of an expert who could explain distinctions, Nuisance Bear is able to make individual creatures into true characters, which makes the issues at hand more emotionally pressing.

Nuisance Bear could be broadly described as an “issue-based” movie, but that’s a broad definition for a project that is incredibly thoughtful and engaging. It’s not just a statement about protecting the natural world, but a justification as to why it is so important.

Related Topics