Norman Cohn

Profile

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Norman Cohn (b. 1946, New York) is a video artist and filmmaker, and president and co-founder with Zacharias Kunuk of Kunuk Cohn Productions, co-founder of Isuma Distribution International and IDI's website IsumaTV. A Canadian citizen since 1981, Cohn lived and worked in Igloolik from 1985-2005. In 1990, as one of four founding partners of Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. with Kunuk, elder Pauloosie Qulitalik and the late Paul Apak, Cohn's early video work helped develop Isuma’s signature style of ‘re-lived' cultural drama, combining the authenticity of modern activist video with the ancient art of Inuit storytelling.

Cohn is producer, co-writer and cameraman for the Cannes-winning feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, the Nunavut (Our Land) TV series and most of Isuma’s collective videography through 2005; co-director with Zacharias Kunuk on The Journals of Knud Rasmussen which opened the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2014 non-fiction feature, Ataatama Nunanga (My Father's Land), on the 2012 Baffinland Iron Mine Environmental Assessment Public Hearings. Cohn led creation of IsumaTV's website starting in 2007 and was co-director with Zacharias Kunuk of Digital Indigenous Democracy from 2012-14 using new media to inform and consult Inuit to improve democratic participation in the Baffinland Iron Mine environmental review. Before moving to Igloolik in 1985 Cohn’s solo video exhibition, Norman Cohn: Portraits, opened in 1983 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, Musee des arts contemporain and 49th Parallel Gallery in NY. Cohn's experimental non-fiction feature, Quartet for Deafblind (1986), was selected for Dokumenta 8 in Kassel, Germany. Winner of a 1990 Guggenheim Fellowship to assist his work in Igloolik with Kunuk, Cohn was co-winner with Kunuk of the 1994 Bell Canada Award for Outstanding Achievement in Video Art. Most recently, Kunuk, Cohn and the 30-year ISUMA media art group were selected to represent Canada in the 2019 Venice Biennale, presenting My Father's Land and their newest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, to over 300,000 visitors to the Canada Pavilion in Venice from May through November 2019.

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Activity

  • 23m 4s

    Souriii

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    A trip to Pucalpa in the Peruvian Amazon

    Year of Production: 2009

    Distributor Information:

     

    www.artcirq.org

    Country: Canada

    Region: Nunavut

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 07-02-2008

  • 26m 57s

    All the way to Timbuktu

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    All the way to Timbuktu.

    A documentary of the journey from the Arctic to Timbuktu, for the Festival au Desert. 10 young people, 6 from Igloolik, 2 from Iqaluit and 2 from france, meet in the sahara desert to perform in Bamako and Timbuktu, and give circus workshops to youth on the way.

     

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 03-02-2008

  • 50m 37s

    Artcirq

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    Artcirq tells the story of how a group of young circus performers try to teach young Inuit to use circus to find more meaning in life and reject suicide.… Read more

    uploaded date: 20-12-2007

  • 34m 52s

    Amazonia

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    A youth oriented reflexion through video and interviews about the situation of 2 natives worlds, in 2 opposite geographic context, the Peruvian Amazonia and the Canadian high Arctic. Contrast and similitude...

    Filmmaker: Guillaume Saladin

    Filmmaker Contact:

     

    www.artcirq.org

    Producer's Name: artcirq

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 13-12-2007

  • 2m 44s

    Fibonacci laboratory

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    Artcirq (Igloolik), Les 7 Doigts de la main (Montreal), and Cirko de Mente (Mexico) working together for the first time in october 2007, Monterrey, Mexico.This is just the beginning... Follow "Fibonacci project 2008"

    Filmmaker: Solomon Uyarasuk

    Filmmaker Contact:

     

    www.artcirq.org

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 11-12-2007

  • 45m 7s

    Issaittuq (Waterproof)

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    This is a story about a young Inuk who lost his love. Using alcohol, he is trying to put the reality and the past behind, but the past keeps hunting him. One day he looses control of himself and starts beating a man who's walking on a street beside his house. Because of his violent act his been sentenced to go to an outpost camp for two months, a camp where a hunter is waiting for him.

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 01-12-2007

  • 10m 41s

    Inuusivut

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    This is the first music video clip ever made in Igloolik, with the band "Eskiez", a very nice inspiration for all other musicians in town!! Other music video clips are on the way.

    Filmmaker: Guillaume Saladin and Derek Aqqiaquq

    Filmmaker Contact:

     

    www.artcirq.org

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 01-11-2007

  • 6m 34s

    Maana (Now)

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Our Lands

    A young Inuk, acknowledging the global warming and its impacts on his community, intends to reduce drastically the energy consumption of his village.

    Filmmaker: Félix Pharand D.

    Filmmaker Contact: www.artcirq.org /  www.globaia.org

    Producer's Name: Guillaume Saladin / Artcirq

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 01-11-2007

  • 4m 35s

    Short Skit of Artcirq

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    This video is part of a series of other documentaries around a youth Inuit group, Artcirq, who are trying to express their reality and identity in modern days.

    Filmmaker: Natar Ungalaq

    Filmmaker Contact:

     

    Visit our website www.artcirq.org

    Producer's Name: Natar Ungalaq

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 22-10-2007

  • 35m 59s

    Eskimomo rough edit

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    This rough draft is a preliminary video about the experience of Yamoussa Bangourra, African Dancer, acrobat juggler musician, coming to the high Arctic in the coldest period of the year, January, when the sun is not visible? Meeting the troup of Artcirq,

    Filmmaker: Guillaume Saladin

    Filmmaker Contact:

     

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 28-07-2007

  • 10m 10s

    Artcirq Short Doc

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

    A short documentary by Solomon Uyarasuk about youth who are training to put on a show in Igloolik.

    Produced by Guillaume Saladin.  An Artcirq Produciton. 2007. Visit our website www.artcirq.org

     

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 28-07-2007

  • 8m 48s

    407

    uploaded by: Artcirq

    channel: Artcirq

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

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 21-02-2006

  • ARTCO

    uploaded by: David Ertel

    <?php echo t('ARTCO "Artisans of Today\'s Communities" is a project led by Kingulliit Productions and IsumaTV where Inuit and Cree children use new media tools to explore their past and present realities, practice collective action and create a better future.') ?>

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 22-08-2011

  • Distribution

    uploaded by: John Hodgins

    These urls are direct links to 1080p h264 files for Isuma Productions. They can be copied (right-click and select "Copy Link Location") and pasted and emailed directly to authorized clients. These urls are specially encoded and stop working after 24 hours from the time you loaded this page.… Read more

    uploaded date: 27-01-2010

  • Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change

    uploaded by: Ian Mauro

    About the film

    Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change had its world premiere October 23, 2010, at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto. The complete film also streamed online simultaneously watched by more than 1500 viewers around the world. Following the film, a Q&A with filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Dr.… Read more

    uploaded date: 29-04-2009

  • IsumaTV

    uploaded by: IsumaTV

    This channel showcases Radio and Video interviews with the minds behind IsumaTV, and their reflections about its development.

    IsumaTV is a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organizations. Each user can design their own space, or channel, to reflect their own identity, mandate and audience.

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 10-02-2008

  • Kingulliit

    uploaded by: Stéphane Rituit

    ᑭᖑᓪᓖᑦ ᐅᖄᕗᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓅᓕᓚᐅᕐᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ 1900-ᐄᑦ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᕐᖄᕕᓂᖏᓐᓂ 30-ᓂ. ᐊᑦᓯᔭᐅᒪᔪᕕᓃᑦ `ᑭᖑᕚᖑᓕᕐᑐᑦ` ᓯᕗᓪᓕᐹᐅᓐᓂᕋᒥᒃ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᒐᓴᕐᔪᐊᓂ ᓵᑦᓯᓱᑎᒃ ᐊᑦᔨᐅᖏᑦᑐᒥᒃ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᖑᒻᒥᔪᒥᒃ ᐊᓯᑦᔨᓚᐅᕐᓯᒪᓐᖏᑑᑉ ᖃᐅᔨᒻᒫᕆᔭᐅᑦᓱᓂᓗ ᓴᓂᐊᓐᓂᑦ ᑲᒪᒋᔭᐅᓕᓂᒻᒪᕆᐅᑦᓱᓂ ᐊᒥᓱᒐᓴᕐᔪᐊᓄᑦ ᑭᒍᕚᕇᕐᑎᑐᓄᑦ ᑌᑦᓱᒪᓐᖓᓂᐊᓗᒃ.… Read more

    uploaded date: 04-12-2012

  • Lloyd Lipsett Human Rights

    uploaded by: Lloyd Lipsett

    A channel of commentary and documents by Lloyd Lipsett, human rights lawyer and leader of a 2012-13 Human Rights Impact Assessment of the $6 billion Baffinland Iron Mine proposed development in the middle of north Baffin Island.

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 07-05-2012

  • Our Baffinland Atlas

    uploaded by: Ian Mauro

    ABOUT OUR BAFFINLAND

    The Arctic is warming double the global average, decreasing sea ice, making it easier to access and extract mineral and oil resources from the region, and this cumulative climatic and economic change has significant human and environmental health implications for Inuit and their communities.… Read more

    uploaded date: 12-09-2013

  • The Fast Runner Trilogy

    uploaded by: John Hodgins

    Three unique Inuit films expressing the dramatic history of one of the world’s oldest oral cultures from it’s own point of view.
    “A masterpiece... The first national cinema of the 21st century.” – A.O. Scott, NY Times review of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, 2002.

    … Read more

    uploaded date: 23-10-2009