In October 2017, POV asked The Islands and the Whales filmmaker Mike Day what's happened since the cameras stopped rolling.
Are you still in touch with the individuals and families featured? What were their reactions to the film?
I am still in touch with all the characters in the film and miss the islands very much, we filmed there for 53 weeks over a four-year period, so we all got to know each other well!
Bjarti who rescued and released the seabird in the film is now working as a fisherman, currently in Greenland and is now a proud father himself.
Our puffin-stuffing conservationist, Jens-Kjeld, has since been given an honorary doctorate and continues to try and explain the realities of what is happening in the islands.
Dr. Pál Weihe is now Professor Pál Weihe after his work on the toxins in the whales and their effects on human health were internationally recognized. He continues tirelessly to try and communicate his message that the marine pollution is damaging the health and cognitive abilities of those exposed in the Faroes and internationally
The Isaksen family still eat whale, but only a couple of times a month, and the girls and their mother, Elsa, don't eat the blubber because they say they don't like it, so at least their exposure to PCBs is lower.
They all really enjoyed the film. Pál and I have joked about whether he would have done it if he'd known I'd be in his house for 4 years, but in the end it was worth it, and they are all very glad they were part of this story.
How has the film been received in the Faroe Islands?
The film was well received in both the whaling and anti-whaling communities. There should be a uniting common cause in the message of the film, and while there will be no agreement between the sides on the issue of killing of whales, all agree that the insidious polluting of the seas is a threat to marine life and human life alike. The film was met with great laughter and sadness in the islands. It gives a perspective on an issue that was often hard to distinguish from the anti-whaling arguments, but the reality that their local meat is polluted by human sources including coal-burning in America, Europe and elsewhere is a grim thing to come to terms with. But it was also very funny for the islanders to see themselves on the big screen, laughing along with their deadpan humor that is sometimes lost in translation elsewhere.
Do you expect to see any changes in traditional Faroese hunting practices or diets in the near future?
If it can be proven that there is excessive wasted meat, or that the pilot whales are endangered, I believe they would scale down or stop the hunting. If the meat wasn't eaten it would stop. However, it is very difficult to prove the reduction in consumption in relation to the amount caught and the government resists placing a quota in line with the maximum amount of consumption recommended by Professor Weihe. Currently, although annual hunts differ greatly, it is common for more meat to be caught than is safe to eat according to Professor Weihe.
What do you hope American audiences will take away from the film?
I hope American audiences feel their interconnection with the rest of the world. Americans are only 4.5 percent of the world's population, yet they are one of the biggest polluters, and staggeringly there is still somehow debate on whether environmental changes are man made, in the face of all evidence. The plastic in the birds' stomachs is real and a terrifying warning as to the dangers of ignoring what we are doing to the rest of the planet. The mercury in the whales and the warming seas are not theories, they are hard evidence, and if America, as the largest polluter and major power, doesn't wake up to that reality and take serious action, rather than protecting the commercial interests of a few, then we will all suffer together.
What are you working on now?
I'm currently working on two documentary films, one in Greenland, and another in the U.S. with cowboy poets which I look forward to sharing with audiences next year.