Inuit Cinema at the NFB

Project Spotlight: Explore a collection of films made by Inuit for Inuit 

ᓄᓇᐃᑦ ᓴᖅᑭᑎᑦᑎᓂᖅ ᑭᒡᒐᖅᑐᐃᔩᑦ
A figure casts a fishing net into the edge of a blue sea, the sun reflecting off the water’s surface. The fishing net unfurls from a bucket sitting on a rocky shore.

Celebrate Inuit cinema with the National Film Board of Canada’s new digital channel, Inuit Cinema at the NFB. Enjoy this free collection of films made by Inuit for Inuit. Watch four highlights from the channel below and visit NFB.ca to explore the whole collection. 

A figure casts a fishing net into the edge of a blue sea, the sun reflecting off the water’s surface. The fishing net unfurls from a bucket sitting on a rocky shore.
Elisapie Isaac, If the Weather Permits (2003)

For more information on the history of Inuit cinema at the NFB, read French collection curator Marc St-Pierre’s blog on the subject at blog.nfb.ca.

Saqpinaq Carol Kunnuk, Being Prepared (2021).

Credit: This film was originally published on NFB.ca. COURTESY NFB.

 

As the global pandemic reaches into the Arctic Archipelago, Inuk filmmaker Carol Kunnuk documents how unfamiliar new protocols affect her family and community. Her vividly specific soundtrack juxtaposes snippets from local radio broadcasts, issuing health advisories in both Inuktitut and English, with the sweet sounds of children at play. The film is a richly detailed and tender account of disruption and adjustment.

Echo Henoche, Shaman (2017). 

Credit: This film was originally published on NFB.ca. COURTESY NFB.

 

Growing up, Echo Henoche loved hearing her grandfather, renowned Inuk artist Gilbert Hay, recount stories and legends passed down through countless generations. Her favourite story was about the white stone atop Mount Sophie, just across the harbour from her home of Nain, Nunatsiavut, on the North Coast of Labrador. The stone is said to be all that remains of a ferocious polar bear that once terrorized the villagers. Legend has it that with the help of a powerful shaman, the community was able to save a young mother and child from the polar bear’s rampage, turning the beast to stone. 

Now, in an animated film created in collaboration with the National Film Board, Henoche brings this story to life from her own perspective. Although Shaman is the first film by Henoche, who recently graduated from high school, she has been an active artist since she was a child. At 13, when she sold her first drawing of a seal, her grandfather declared she was a professional artist, and she shed tears of pride and joy. Working with mentor animators and filmmakers at the NFB, including Glenn Gear, Asinnajaq, David Seitz and Elise Simard, Henoche learned new skills and techniques that have transformed her illustrations into a beautiful and personal hand-drawn animation style. Henoche says that her experience will inspire her to create more animations for years to come. 

Rosie Bonnie Ammaaq, Nowhere Land (2015).

Credit: This film was originally published on NFB.ca. Also available to stream in Inuktitut on NFB.ca. COURTESY NFB.

 

This 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 Iglulik to live off the land, as had generations of Inuit before them.

Elisapie Isaac, If the Weather Permits (2003).

Credit: This film was originally published on NFB.ca. COURTESY NFB.

 

This short documentary studies life in the village of Kangirsujuaq, Nunavik. In this community on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, children’s laughter fills the streets while the old people ponder the passage of time. They are nomads of the wide-open spaces who are trying to get used to the strange feeling of staying put. While the teenagers lap up Southern culture and play golf on the tundra to kill time, the Elders are slowly dying, as their entire culture seems to fade away.

Elisapie Isaac, a filmmaker born in Nunavik, decides to return to her roots on this breathtaking land. To bridge the growing gap between the young and the old, she speaks to her grandfather, now deceased, and confides in him her hopes and fears. Grappling with isolation, family relationships, resource extraction, land-based knowledges, the influence of Southern culture and the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Inuit ways of life, Elisapie Isaac offers a nuanced portrait of the North.

 

Films on NFB.ca are available to stream for free, depending on your location.

This story is part of the NFB Spotlight. View more content from the Spotlight here.