Buy Isuma Titles

Isuma Inuit Classic Collection: 1987-2007

Twenty Years of Filmmaking from an Inuit Point of View

Buy the complete Isuma film collection in an elegant compact boxed set of 32 DVDs representing 20 years of Inuit films by Zacharias Kunuk and Igloolik Isuma Productions. Suitable for schools, universities, libraries, museums and any collectors of Inuit filmmaking, the Isuma Inuit Classic Collection comprises the most complete film library of any indigenous culture in history, telling its own stories by its own members in its own language and point of view.

This DVD collection includes Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, winner of the 2001 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or; The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Opening Night selection of the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival; the 1994-95 classic 13-episode TV series, Nunavut (Our Land); and sixteen short films and documentaries including Kiviaq vs Canada, Kunuk Family Reunion, My First Polar Bear, Shaman Stories and Urban Inuk. Also included is Isuma’s first youth drama, Issaituq (Waterproof), co-produced with Igloolik’s Artcirq Youth Group, and to follow at no extra charge, Isuma’s third feature film, Before Tomorrow, written and directed by the Arnait Inuit Women’s Collective, to be released in spring 2008.

The Complete Isuma Collection at Highest Digital Quality

Suitable for Museums, Film Archives, Media Libraries and other serious collectors

The complete Igloolik film archive also is available at ‘museum-projection quality’ in a single hard drive media player. High-resolution compression presents these films at double the image quality of DVD. The Eureka Media Player connects directly to any video projector or TV monitor, and allows direct HDMI connection to HD projectors or HD-TV. Twenty years of historic video art at the highest possible image-quality enables projecting classic feature films like Atanarjuat The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen in high-definition. The Eureka Media Player includes all 32 films from the boxed set Isuma Inuit Classic Collection: 1987-2007, plus eight additional classic films from Arnait Video Productions, Igloolik's women's video collective.

Purchasers also receive one complementary Isuma Inuit Classic Collection boxed set of DVDs for research and circulation; plus music CD’s, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner Movie Soundtrack and Messages from the Past, traditional Inuit ajaja music by Igloolik Elders recorded in 1991; plus three unique books, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner Companion Book, Isuma Inuit Studies Reader and the 2008 publication of The Journals of Knud Rasmussen: A Sense of Memory and High-definition Inuit Storytelling.

Exploring Inuit Culture Curriculum

5 films, 1 audio CD, Inuit Studies Reader anthology, plus 100 page Curriculum Guide Suitable for teachers Grades 4-6

Bringing Inuit culture into primary schools for the International Polar Year, Exploring Inuit Culture Curriculum (EICC) is a multi-media unit for grades 4-6 about Inuit culture, the Arctic and Canada’s newest territory, Nunavut. Lesson plans aligned to elementary curricula are based on five DVDs and a music CD from the Igloolik Isuma Productions media collection. Following a 100-page curriculum guide written and field-tested by elementary school teachers, teachers and students explore the richness of Inuit culture and unique Canadian Arctic from an Inuit point of view. Download a PDF flyer or Sample Lesson Plan (requires Acrobat reader).

13 x 30 minutes
Suitable for Museums, Galleries, Film Archives, University collections and others

Designed for museum-quality exhibition, reproducing the acclaimed 2002 Documenta 11 video installation in Kassel, Germany, this ground-breaking series is available for purchase, exhibition and installation. Nunavut’s 13 episodes of ‘recreated drama’ bring to life the authentic reality of Inuit living on the land in the 1940s in and around Igloolik, dramatizing the memories of today's Elders before government and settlement life began.

Purchase includes unlimited public performance rights and one complete set of 13 high-quality DVDs, designed for automatic continuous replay. Nunavut (Our Land) episodes can be screened individually or, like Documenta 11, as a 13-screen installation playing continuously at the same time.

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen: A Sense of Memory and High-definition Inuit Storytelling

447 pages, edited by Gillian Robinson

Released February 1, 2008, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen: A Sense of Memory and High-definition Inuit Storytelling is the third book edited by Gillian Robinson and released by Isuma Publishing. Combining features of the previously-released Atanarjuat The Fast Runner Companion Book and the Isuma Inuit Studies Reader, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen: A Sense of Memory and High-definition Inuit Storytelling includes the complete original English and Inuktitut screenplays of the prize-winning film, over 100 startling color and black & white photographs and 25 pieces of writing reflecting on themes of memory, history and Isuma's unique approach to filmmaking as Inuit storytelling.

Contributing writers include essays, fiction and poetry by Lee Maracle, Floyd Favel, Hugh Brody, Alberto Manguel, Alootook Ipillee, Louise Halfe and others, along with extended interviews with The Journals co-directors, Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn, conducted by Joysanne Sidimus. 447 pages, hardcover. Preview writing from the book online at isuma.tv or order from wandav@vtape.org.

Atanarjuat The Fast Runner Companion Book

240 pages, edited by Gillian Robinson

Featuring the illustrated screenplay in Inuktitut and English by Paul Apak Angilirq, Zacharias Kunuk, Norman Cohn, Hervé Paniaq, and Pauloosie Qulitalik; background information on the making of the film, hundreds of film stills and archival photos of Inuit life; as well as cultural notes by recognized Inuit cultural specialist Bernard Saladin d'Anglure (Université de Laval). Co-published with Coach House Books, 240 pgs. Available in hardcover and softcover.

Isuma Inuit Studies Reader

204 pages, edited by Gillian Robinson

An anthology of selections from a wide variety of sources including explorer journals, missionary accounts, Inuit oral histories, commentaries, poems, songs and stories with illustrations and photographs, 204 pages, softcover.

Atanarjuat The Fast Runner Soundtrack

The unique soundtrack CD of Igloolik Isuma Productions' acclaimed first feature film, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, winner of the 2001 Cannes Film Festival Camera d’or and Canada’s Best Picture Genie for 2002. The soundtrack CD features music by Huun-Huur-Tu, Christopher Mad'dene, traditional Inuit ajaja songs and throat singing, and original music by Chris Crilly. Accompanied by a vellum paper booklet with liner notes and images from the film.

Unikkaat Sivunittinnit: Messages from the Past

Recorded in 1991, this CD collection of traditional ajaja songs sung by Elders of Igloolik records twenty-four ‘known’ song-stories of the last Inuit generation born into the ancient lifestyle, and the first to move into the modern world of today. Many of these songs have been sung and passed down orally for hundreds or even thousands of years, but are sung and recorded here in professional digital audio, for the first and last time by individuals who have since passed away.