The other day I was browsing though the archives of The Evolving Critic and came across a post from 2011 titled "How to Build an Igloo." The week I published the post, Boston had been blasted with a winter mega-storm similar to this weekend’s "Nemo." I figured if there was a way to cope with all the snow that had been dumped on us, it would be to have some fun blogging about it and maybe even inspire some people to create a snow sculpture or snow angel or who knows, even an igloo! I searched YouTube and Google for instructions on how to build an igloo. (I know right? Who searches for instructional videos on how to make an igloo while living in Boston? I do, apparently.) Amidst all the silly YouTube videos and Google search results, I came across the work of Douglas Wilkinson (1919-2008), a Canadian documentary filmmaker who filmed Inuit life on the land and their struggles.
Known for Land of the Long Day, a film that documents a year in the life of the well-known north Baffin hunter Joseph Idlout, Douglas Wilkinson also made the classic short film How to Build an Igloo which shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Easy right? Well, if we only had the kind of snow required to make an igloo, we'd have those all over Boston. For now, we'll just watch this beautiful short film while we ponder this latest snow emergency.
http://www.nfb.ca/film/how_to_build_an_igloo
How to Build an Igloo by Douglas Wilkinson, National Film Board of Canada
If the building-an-igloo-thing doesn’t work out for you, you can join Greg Cook and the rest of the staff at The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research in building snow sculptures on the Rose Kennedy Greenway park at Dewey Square tomorrow (Sunday February 10, 2013). It looks like the event may be postponed if the MBTA isn't up and running by tomorrow, but for the latest updates check NEJAR's website constantly.
