Inuit Film Series | 15 September | 1:00 - 1:30 p.m.

The worldmaking and sensitive bridging of traditional knowledge with contemporary media throughout this series are expressions of arctic cultural sovereignty and resilience. This series includes many award-winning favourites. These include Alethea Arnaquq-Baril's feature length film Angry Inuk, which challenges outdated perceptions of Inuit by presenting themselves as modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy, and asinnajaq's Three Thousand, which plunges viewers into a sublime imaginary universe that recasts past, present, and future Inuit in a new radiant light.

Arctic Song
2021, 06:25 Mins.
Hand-drawn images with digital painting and animation
Inuktitut with English subtitles

By Germain Arnattaujuq, Neil Christopher & Louise Flaherty

Arctic Song, by Inuit artist, storyteller and co-director Germaine Arnattaujuq (Arnaktauyok), is an animated short about Inuit creation stories from the Iglulik region in Nunavut: the raven who brings daylight to the world, the giants who turn into mountains, and the animals that create shimmering constellations and northern lights.

The film makes traditional knowledge accessible to younger generations by combining some of Arnattaujuq’s existing graphic art with animation and Inuktitut narration. The stories are sung in haunting tones, lending a sense of meditative beauty to the film.

Arctic Song not only shares Inuit knowledge in Inuktitut, but highlights the rich world of Inuit art that has always flourished in the Canadian Arctic and continues to delight international audiences.

The Bear Facts

2010, 03:00 Mins.
by Jonathan Wright

In The Bear Facts, a self-important colonial explorer emerges from a sailing ship and plants a flag on the Arctic ice, as a bemused Inuit hunter looks on. Then the explorer plants another, and another, and another, while the hunter, clearly not impressed that his land has been “discovered,” quietly goes about his business.

In this charming and humorous re-imagining of first contact between Inuit and European, Jonathan Wright brings us the story of a savvy hunter and the ill-equipped explorer he outwits.

Shaman

2017, 05:00 mins.
by Echo Henoche

Shaman is a first collaboration between the National Film Board of Canada and Labrador Inuk artist—and first-time animator—Echo Henoche. The short brings to life Henoche’s favourite legend, told to her by her grandfather in her home community of Nain, Nunatsiavut, on Labrador’s North Coast. It is the story of a ferocious polar bear turned to stone by an Inuk shaman. Hand-drawn and painted by Henoche in a style all her own, Shaman shares with the world her perspective on this Labrador Inuit legend.

Three Thousand
2017, 14:00 mins.
by ashinnajaq

“My father was born in a spring igloo—half snow, half skin. I was born in a hospital, with jaundice and two teeth.”

In Three Thousand, Inuk artist Asinnajaq plunges us into a universe—14 minutes of luminescent, archive-inspired cinema that recast the past, present and future of Inuit in a radiant new light.

Diving into the NFB’s vast archive, she parses the complicated cinematic representation of  the Inuit, harvesting fleeting truths and fortuitous accidents from a range of sources—newsreels, propaganda, ethnographic docs, and works of Inuit filmmakers. Embedding historic footage into original animation, she conjures up a vision of hope and beautiful possibility.

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, Three Thousand is directed by Asinnajaq, also known as Isabella Weetaluktuk, and produced by Kat Baulu.

Supported by