Angakusajaujuq – The Shaman’s Apprentice
A young shaman must face her first test—a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill. Facing dark spirits and physical challenges, she must trust her mentor’s teachings and learn to control her fear.
“A masterpiece… The first national cinema of the 21st century,” A.O. Scott, NY Times.
ᑕᐅᑐᒃᑕᕗᒃ Tautuktavuk (What We See)
Blurring the line between narrative and non-fiction, Uyarak and her eldest sister Saqpinak, embark on a difficult healing journey after a traumatic event that reminds them of the importance of community, culture, and family.
UPCOMING SCREENINGS
- 08/16
- 07/25
- 07/27
Restless River
Kuujjuaq, Nunavik 1940s. Surprised at the loss of her innocence, the young Inuk Elsa draws courage from her rugged land to become a woman as strong and independent as the restless river that cuts across it. She becomes the very young mother of a child whose remarkable life breaks with the millennial traditions of her ancestors. Navigating the social norms of the colonizers and the reality of her own family situation, the dreariness of a relationship that is not right for her and the rebellion of her teenage son, Elsa’s path follows the winding course of the indomitable river that accompanies her every turn in life.
PRESS MATERIALS
One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk
In April 1961, John Kennedy is America’s new President, the Cold War heats up in Berlin and nuclear bombers are deployed from bases in arctic Canada. In Kapuivik, north Baffin Island, Noah Piugattuk’s nomadic Inuit band live and hunt by dog team as his ancestors did when he was born in 1900. When the white man known as Boss arrives at Piugattuk’s hunting camp, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens up the prospect of momentous change. Boss is an agent of the government, assigned to get Piugattuk to move his band to settlement housing and send his children to school so they can get jobs and make money. But Kapuivik is Piugattuk’s homeland. He takes no part in the Canadian experience; and cannot imagine what his children would do with money.
SGaawaay K’uuna (Edge of The Knife)
Haida Gwaii, 1800’s. At a seasonal fishing camp two families endure conflict between the nobleman Adiits’ii and his best friend Kwa. After Adiits’ii causes the accidental death of Kwa’s son, he flees into the rainforest, descending into madness and transforming into Gaagiixid – “the Wildman.” When the families return in the spring, they discover Adiits’ii has survived the winter. Can he be rescued and returned to his humanity? Meanwhile, Kwa wrestles with his deepest desire – revenge.
Tia and Piujuq
Summer moves slowly for Tia, a 10-year-old Syrian girl who has recently moved to Montreal with her parents, as she struggles to make new friends. When she finds a magic portal that transports her to the arctic tundra, she befriends Piujuq, an Inuk girl of her age, and they immerse themselves in a world of Inuit myth and magic.
Maliglutit (Searchers)
Nunavut, circa 1913. Kuanana returns from a caribou hunt to discover his wife and daughter kidnapped, and the rest of his family slaughtered. His father’s spirit helper, the loon Kallulik, sets him on course to overturn fate and reunite his family
Before Tomorrow
Circa 1840. Two isolated families meet after many years. It is summer; a happy time to celebrate their reunion. Despite the joyful mood, Ningiuq, an old woman of strength and wisdom, cannot stop worrying. Is it the illness of her best friend, Kutuguk, who is preparing to die? Or is it the strange foreign object that Maniq, her favourite grandson, found on the beach?
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
The great shaman, Avva, and his family are living on the land some distance from Iglulik, his home community that lately has taken up the teachings of Christian missionaries. Explorer Knud Rasmussen pays Avva a visit, accompanied by two fellow Danes: trader Peter Freuchen and anthropologist Therkel Mathiassen. Rasmussen hears and records Avva’s life story and that of his wife Orulu. Their son, Natar, impulsively agrees to guide Freuchen and Mathiassen north to Iglulik. After a celebration, Rasmussen leaves to head west while Avva, facing strong headwinds, sets out with his family and guests en route for home. His beautiful daughter, Apak, has troubling dreams about the road ahead.
Atanarjuat The Fast Runner
Igloolik at the dawn of the first millennium, when nomadic Inuit were masters of the frozen arctic. Evil in the form of an unknown shaman divides a small community of Inuit, upsetting its balance and spirit. Twenty years pass. Two brothers emerge from the evil order: Amaqjuaq, the Strong One, and Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner. Atanarjuat wins the hand of the lovely Atuat away from the boastful son of the camp leader, Oki, who vows to get even. Oki ambushes the brothers in their sleep, killing Amaqjuaq, as Atanarjuat miraculously escapes running naked over the spring sea ice. But can he ever escape the cycle of vengeance left behind?
“A masterpiece… The first national cinema of the 21st century,” A.O. Scott, NY Times.
“like Homer with a video camera” Margaret Atwood, Globe and Mail.
UPCOMING SCREENINGS
- 08/16
- 07/25
- 07/27
Uvanga
Anna is nervous when she and her 14 year old son, Tomas, arrive in the small, close-knit community of Igloolik in the Canadian Arctic. Anna had a short-lived affair with Tomas’s Inuk father when she worked in Igloolik, but Tomas was born and raised in his mother’s native city of Montreal and never knew much about his origins. Tomas is bright, strong, and curious about his father’s culture. For his mother and Inuit family, the joy of his homecoming is mixed with memories of a brief and painful chapter in their shared history. Over the course of two weeks that seem to blend into one long day under the midnight sun, Anna and Thomas strive to reconnect with the family they can no longer ignore.