Inuktitut

Rooted in tradition, adoption is a reality which all Inuit families have experienced. In Inuit culture, adopting a child from a relative, friend or acquaintance is extremely common. Marie-Hélène Cousineau, the adoptive mother of Alexandre Apak, lived in Igloolik, a small island southwest of Baffin Island in the Arctic, for many years.

Rose Ukkumaluk, an Igloolik elder, relates the tale of Attagutaaluk, a woman who survived a starvation and lived to become an honoured resident of Igloolik.

Filmmaker: Arnait Ikkagurtigitt Collective

Filmmaker Contact: Visit our website www.arnaitvideo.ca or www.isuma.ca

Producer's Name: Arnait Ikkagurtigitt Collective

Women of the Video Collective reenact a traditional women's activity: the use of the qulliq.

The qulliq is the seal oil lamp and stove of the old days, the only source of light and warmth. The women tell the story in words and songs as they install the qulliq in their igloo.

Filmmaker: Arnait Ikkagurtigitt Collective

This video is a portrait of two women from Igloolik: Madeline Ivalu (Piujuq) and Susan Avingaq (Angutautuq). Piujuq translates as "pretty face" and Angutautuk as "strong young man". It contains images of both women from the past six years, engaging in community events. They perform many traditional songs.… Read more

An experimental documentary about the relationships between director Marie-Hélène Cousineau and the women of Arnait Video Productions. The film is a self-portrait and an exploration of the distances travelled in life across land and time, through cultures and with personal growth and courage.

Filmmaker: Marie-Hélène Cousineau

A documentary from Arnait Video Productions (Women's Video Collective of Igloolik). Abandoned by her father, a White RCMP officer, Vivi Kunuk was adopted by the Inuk family of her mother who raised her as a boy. This is but one remarkable chapter in her life.

This second Isuma-Artcirq co-production by Igloolik youth is a story about a young Inuk who lost his love. Using alcohol to put reality and the past behind, the past keeps hunting him. When he loses control and beats up a man on the street he is sentenced to two months in an outpost camp, where a hunter is waiting for him. 

Nunaqpa is the second Isuma recreated fiction, filmed with actors in 1990 recreating a Summer caribou hunt in the 1930's. For Igloolik Inuit, it is the time of Nunaqpa, 'going inland,' the long walk in search of summer-fat caribou to catch enough meat for the hard winter ahead. Two families leave for the hunt, while the old couple and grandmother wait by the shore for their return.

A group of Nunavut elders travel to five museums in North America to see and identify artifacts, tools and clothing collected from their Inuit ancestors.

Inuit Piqutingit (What Belongs to Inuit), Igloolik Isuma Productions, Kivalliq Inuit Association 2009, Producers Bernadette Dean, Katarina Soukup, Zacharias Kunuk. English and Inuktut w/Eng s-t.

407, Artcirq, Igloolik Isuma, NITV productions 2006, Producer Guillaume Saladin, Director Bruce Haulli. Inuktut w/English s-t.

Funny, fascinating, behind the scenes view by Greenland filmmaker Kenneth Rasmussen.

Qallunajatut (Urban Inuk) follows the lives of three Inuit in Montreal over the course of one hot and humid summer.Only two generations ago Inuit lived in small, nomadic hunting camps scattered across the vast Arctic landscape.… Read more

In June 2003, Cannes prize-winner Zacharias Kunuk's family gathered at their traditional home camp site of Siuraajuk, to share stories and honor the ancestors who came before them: a wedding; a burial; messages from the past.

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Inuit memories and experiences of shamanism, and oral histories about the last shamans practicing in the region of Igloolik, Nunavut. Interviewees range from young people to elders and politicians, but they all share a belief that things happen, and that shamanism is still a living religion.