Giant Bear

Directors Daniel Gies, Neil Christopher
Year 2019
Run Time 12min
Genre Animation, Drama
A stunning animation of an Inuit legend in which a hunter battles his greatest foe, a giant bear. Content Note: Graphic animated violence.

Directors

Daniel Gies, Neil Christopher

Writers

Neil Christopher, Jose Angutinngurniq (Inuk)

Genres

Animation, Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

Inuktitut

Kajutaijuq: The Spirit That Comes

Director Scott Brachmayer
Year 2014
Run Time 15min
Genre Drama, Thriller
Part Inuit legend, part thriller, an Arctic hunter tries to live by the traditional skills his grandfather taught him — but they are difficult for a modern man to apply, and the price of failure is high.

Director

Scott Brachmayer

Writer

Scott Brachmayer

Cast

Johnny Issaluk

Producer

Nyla Innuksuk (Inuk)

Genres

Drama, Thriller

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Environment, Family Relationships, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

Inuktitut

We all know about the terrible “brutality” of the Arctic seal hunt — or do we? Turns out there are other sides to this story: it's the story of families that need to be fed, the story of a hunting practice that began centuries ago and the story of a tradition that is central to the economy and food security of Inuit communities in the Canadian Arctic. Angry Inuk contains a story that’s over 4,000 years old.

The seal hunt is not exactly a laughing matter, but humour and technical savvy go a long way to debunk certain claims. Wryly tackling both misinformation and aggressive appeals to emotion, Inuk filmmaker Arnaquq-Baril equips herself and her community with the powers of social media — and yes, #sealfies — to reframe a controversial topic as a cultural issue in this 2016 Audience Award–winning Hot Docs hit.

Angry Inuk delivers important information about an issue we tend to think we know everything about, and delivers a powerful emotional punch.”
—Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine

Director

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk)

Arnaquq-Baril is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened at festivals like Hot Docs, imagineNATIVE, TIFF and many others. She directed the short Aviliaq: Entwined, which was part of the anthology The Embargo Project, which she also produced. She directed the award-winning feature documentary Angry Inuk, and produced the features The Grizzlies, and Slash/Back, and the documentary Twice Colonized. She also co-created the hit CBC, APTN and Netflix comedy North of North.

 

Writer

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk)

Producers

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk), Bonnie Thompson

Genre

Documentary

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Environment, ESL, Female Filmmaker, History, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics, Strong Female Leads

Original Languages

English, Inuktitut

Based on an ancient Inuit legend, Atanarjuat is an epic tale of love, betrayal and revenge. The beautiful Atuat (Ivalu) has been promised to the short-fused Oki (Arnatsiaq), the son of the tribe’s leader. However, she loves the good-natured Atanarjuat (Ungalaaq), a fast runner and excellent hunter. When Atanarjuat is forced to battle the jealous Oki for Atuat’s hand, the events that follow determine not only his fate, but that of his people. Atanarjuat won 20 awards, including eight Genies and the Caméra d’Or at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

“I am not surprised that The Fast Runner has been a box office hit in its opening engagements. It is unlike anything most audiences will have ever seen, and yet it tells a universal story.”
— Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Director

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)

In 2015, Atanarjuat was selected as TIFF’s number one Canadian film of all time. Kunuk has directed shorts such as Exile and Home and features such as Maliglutit, which was nominated for two CSAs. He recently directed the series Hunting With My Ancestors and executive produced SGaawaay K'uuna (Edge of the Knife). His latest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, premiered at TIFF 2019. Most recently, he directed the short The Shaman’s Apprentice, which won the CSA for Best Animated Short among other awards at festivals worldwide.

Writer

Paul Apak Angilirq (Inuk)

Cast

Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq (Inuk), Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk), Natar Ungalaaq (Inuk), Sylvia Ivalu (Inuk)

Producers

Paul Apak Angilirq (Inuk), Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk), Germaine Ying Gee Wong

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Classics, Family Relationships, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

Inuktitut

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen

Director Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)
Year 2006
Run Time 112min
Genre Drama
An epic tragedy set around Igloolik in the 1920s, as the last great Inuit shaman, Avva, and his headstrong daughter, Apak, struggle to survive encroaching colonial influence. Based on the journals of a Danish explorer who witnessed their story.

Director

Zacharias Kunuk (Inuk)

In 2015, Atanarjuat was selected as TIFF’s number one Canadian film of all time. Kunuk has directed shorts such as Exile and Home and features such as Maliglutit, which was nominated for two CSAs. He recently directed the series Hunting With My Ancestors and executive produced SGaawaay K'uuna (Edge of the Knife). His latest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, premiered at TIFF 2019. Most recently, he directed the short The Shaman’s Apprentice, which won the CSA for Best Animated Short among other awards at festivals worldwide.

Writers

Pauloosie Qulitalik (Inuk), Louis Uttak (Inuk), Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk), Herve Paniaq (Inuk)

Genre

Drama

Interests

BIPOC Stories, History, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Languages

English, Inuktitut, Other Language

Uvanga

Directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)
Year 2013
Run Time 86min
Genre Drama
A Montreal woman and her 14-year-old son travel to the Arctic community of Igloolik to experience his late father’s Inuit family and culture. The joy of homecoming is mixed with painful memories.

Directors

Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)

Writer

Marie-Hélène Cousineau

Cast

Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq (Inuk), Marianne Farley

Producers

Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)

Genre

Drama

Interests

Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Languages

English, Inuktitut

Experimental Eskimos

Director Barry Greenwald
Year 2009
Run Time 70min
Genre Documentary
In the early 1960s, the Canadian government separated three Inuit boys from their families and sent them to Ottawa to be educated in “white” schools.

Director

Barry Greenwald

Cast

Eric Tagoona, Zebedee Nungak, Peter Ittinuar

Producer

Peter Raymont

Genre

Documentary

Interests

Arts and Culture, BIPOC Stories, Discrimination, History, Social Justice & Politics

Original Languages

English, Inuktitut

Before Tomorrow

Directors Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)
Year 2009
Run Time 93min
Genre Drama
Set in 1840, as white settlers begin encroaching on Inuit territory, Before Tomorrow is a visually stunning tale of an Inuk woman and her grandson. Ningiuq (director Madeline Piujuq Ivalu) is an elder who, along with her best friend Kutuujuk (Qulitalik), gather with their families each summer to share food, visit and tell stories. This particular summer however, Kutuujuk is sick and Ningiuq is worried about their future.

The two women and Ningiuq’s grandson Maniq (Paul-Dylan Ivalu) are dropped off on a remote island to dry and store fish for winter. However, as summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up, and Ningiuq worries that her worst fears about the impending advance of white Europeans are coming true.

Directors

Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)

Writers

Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Susan Avingaq (Inuk)

Cast

Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk), Paul-Dylan Ivalu (Inuk)

Producer

Stéphane Rituit

Genre

Drama

Interests

Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Literary Adaptation

Original Language

Inuktitut

Aviliaq (Entwined)

Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk)
Year 2014
Run Time 15min
Genre Drama, Romance
In the 1950s, two Inuit women attempt to protect their relationship when pressure from their community forces them to marry men.

Director

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk)

Arnaquq-Baril is an award-winning Inuk filmmaker whose work has screened on CBC, APTN, and at festivals like Hot Docs, imagineNATIVE, TIFF and many others. Her credits include the award-winning doc Angry Inuk, Aviliaq, Inuit High Kick, Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos and The Embargo Project. She also produced the award winning film The Grizzlies, the 2022 film Slash/Back, and co-founded the Inuit production company Red Marrow Media. She is currently producing the documentary Twice Colonized.

Writer

Dallas Varcoe

Cast

Miali Buscemi, Malaya Qaunirq Chapman

Producers

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk), Miriam Levin-Gold, Anne-Marie Stuart

Genres

Drama, Romance

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Female Filmmaker, Indigenous Filmmaker, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

Inuktitut

Tia and Piujuq

Director Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)
Year 2018
Run Time 80min
Genre Drama, Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Tia (Bshara) is a 10-year-old refugee from Syria, living in Montreal and struggling to make friends and feel comfortable in her new environment. While her parents are preoccupied with her mother’s pregnancy and the challenges of everyday life in a new place, Tia is left mostly to her own devices. 

Everything changes when she discovers a magical portal that transports her to Igloolik, a community in the Arctic Circle. There she meets Piujuq (Tulugarjuk), an Inuk girl who she quickly forms a deep bond with in spite of their cultural differences. Through their friendship, the stories of Piujuq’s grandmother, and their wanderings across the striking northern landscape, the girls are immersed in Inuit myth and magic. 

A heartwarming magical-realist fable about friendship and discovery, Tia and Piujuq is a delightful adventure for all ages. 

Director

Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk)

Tulugarjuk is an actor, throat singer, writer and director who has starred in Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, L’iceberg, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen and Maïna, among other films. Tia and Piujuq was her directorial debut. She wrote, directed and starred in What We See, which won the Amplify Voices Award at TIFF 2023.  

Writers

Lucy Tulugarjuk (Inuk), Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Samuel Cohn-Cousineau

Cast

Tia Bshara, Nuvvija Tulugarjuk (Inuk), Madeline Piujuq Ivalu (Inuk)

Genres

Drama, Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Female Filmmaker, Global Experiences, Indigenous Filmmaker, Newcomer Stories, Strong Female Leads

Original Languages

English, French, Inuktitut, Other Language