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How to Build an Igloo
1949
10 min
Leaving soon
Arctic ingenuousness at its finest
This classic short film shows how to make an igloo using only snow and a knife. Two Inuit men in Canada’s Far North choose the site, cut and place snow blocks and create an entrance--a shelter completed in one-and-a-half hours. The commentary explains that the interior warmth and the wind outside cement the snow blocks firmly together. As the short winter day darkens, the two builders move their caribou sleeping robes and extra skins indoors, confident of spending a snug night in the midst of the Arctic cold!
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directorDouglas Wilkinson
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commentaryDouglas Wilkinson
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producerMichael Spencer
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cameraChester C. Kissick
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editingNeil Harris
Ages 10 to 17
School subjects
Students will research and compare other traditional native dwellings from different climates and cultures around the world. Students can do a comparative analysis of nomadic and sedentary lifestyles. Students should be encouraged to imagine and describe how different their own lives would be if they were nomadic. Students can view this film as part of a larger investigation on human adaptation and survival, or of Canada's North. Where conditions permit, students should be encouraged to build their own igloos.