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Portraits (13)
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Angotee: Story of an Eskimo BoyDouglas Wilkinson 1953 31 minA short film featuring an Inuk man from the Eastern Arctic. Made in 1953, it recounts his life from birth to maturity and marriage. Screened widely in Canadian schools, the film is now dated but accurately depicts aspects of Inuit culture of the time.
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Arctic SagaDouglas Wilkinson 1952 11 min
This film presents highlights in the life of Idlouk, Inuk hunter, and his family during the long day of the midnight sun on Baffin Island. Depicted are: a seal hunt, a narwhale chase, and scenes of busy camp life. Surrounding all is the Arctic scenery--strange ice formations, the eerie blue whiteness of Arctic winter and, during the time of continuous daylight, the green and brown of Arctic tundra.
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Breaths (Inuktitut Version)Nyla Innuksuk 2016 4 minIn this evocative short documentary, Inuk singer-songwriter and humanitarian Susan Aglukark weaves together stories of artistry, family, and belonging as she explores the complex cultural shifts of the last 50 years of Inuit life. Turning her lens on the turbulence of colonial transition, director Nyla Innuksuk examines the forces that shaped Aglukark's voice and how that voice is now being translated for a new generation of Inuit artists.
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BreathsNyla Innuksuk 2016 4 minIn this evocative short documentary, Inuk singer-songwriter and humanitarian Susan Aglukark weaves together stories of artistry, family, and belonging as she explores the complex cultural shifts of the last 50 years of Inuit life. Turning her lens on the turbulence of colonial transition, director Nyla Innuksuk examines the forces that shaped Aglukark's voice and how that voice is now being translated for a new generation of Inuit artists.
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Eskimo Artist: KenojuakJohn Feeney 1963 19 minThis documentary shows how an Inuit artist's drawings are transferred to stone, printed and sold. Kenojuak Ashevak became the first woman involved with the printmaking co-operative in Kinngait (formerly known as Cape Dorset). This film was nominated for the 1963 Documentary Short Subject Oscar®.
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Like Andrew QappikJane Churchill 2005 11 minThis short documentary is a portrait of Andrew Qappik, a world-renowned Inuit printmaker from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Originally inspired by images in the comic books he read as a child, Andrew now finds his subjects in the stories, traditions and day-to-day events of his world.
In I Can Make Art Like Andrew Qappik, he captivates his student audience by creating a soapstone relief print before their very eyes. Then it's the kids' turn. They explore Andrew's symbolic imagery - and their own - as they each create a self-portrait relief point. -
LypaShelagh Mackenzie & Sharon Van Raalte 1988 29 minThis short documentary is a portrait of Inuit hunter and artist Lypa Pitsiulak, who decided to return to the land several years ago. His goal was to rediscover his culture, teach his family survival skills in the harsh Arctic environment, and pull himself and his family away from the negative influences of white culture. The film portrays his lifestyle, his love for his family, and some of the sources of his artistic inspiration. It also highlights his beautiful prints and sculptures, with their fantastic interweaving of figures from the animal, spirit and human worlds.
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Martha of the NorthMarquise Lepage 2008 1 h 23 minIn the mid-1950s, lured by false promises of a better life, Inuit families were displaced by the Canadian government and left to their own devices in the Far North. In this icy desert realm, Martha Flaherty and her family lived through one of Canadian history’s most sombre and little-known episodes.
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Martha of the North (Short Version)Marquise Lepage 2008 47 minMartha was only 5 when she and her parents were lured away from their Inuit village. Along with a handful of other families, they were moved to Canada’s most northerly island, Ellesmere, to ensure Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. They were told that game would be plentiful and life would be easy. Instead, they discovered that the islands of the Arctic are among the least hospitable to human life in the world. For years, they endured hunger and extreme cold. Deprived of the right to an education and a childhood, Martha had to help her family survive. Yet she proved as resilient as the other people from her community who appear in the film. Martha of the North is the story of a journey and a childhood spent in a new and unwelcoming land.
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Nowhere Land (Inuktitut Version)2015 14 minThis short documentary serves as a quiet elegy for a way of life, which exists now only in the memories of those who experienced it. Bonnie Ammaaq and her family remember it vividly. When Bonnie was a little girl, her parents packed up their essentials, bundled her and her younger brother onto a long, fur-lined sled and left the government-manufactured community of Igloolik to live off the land, as had generations of Inuit before them.
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Nowhere LandRosie Bonnie Ammaaq 2015 14 minThis short documentary serves as a quiet elegy for a way of life, which exists now only in the memories of those who experienced it. Bonnie Ammaaq and her family remember it vividly. When Bonnie was a little girl, her parents packed up their essentials, bundled her and her younger brother onto a long, fur-lined sled and left the government-manufactured community of Igloolik to live off the land, as had generations of Inuit before them.
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People of the RockClarke Daprato 1961 13 minThis film follows an Inuit family's journey to the North Rankin nickel mine. How the hunters became bulldozer and machine operators is explained.
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The Wings of Johnny MayMarc Fafard 2013 1 h 23 minThis feature documentary shines a spotlight on Johnny May, the first Inuit bush pilot in Nunavik—and a legend among his people. During the 34,000 hours of flight time he’s logged, May has lived through extraordinary adventures and has had a unique view of the transformation of the Arctic from his perch in the sky. He has watched as the Inuit went from nomadic life to a sedentary existence, and as climate change has melted the permafrost. But one thing remains constant: May’s deep love for his wife Louisa. Since his earliest days in the air, his plane has sported the same Inuktitut message for her: "Pengo Pally", which means “I miss you.” The Wings of Johnny May is an airborne documentary that highlights a unique culture through the eyes of an exceptional man.
