Saqpinaq Carol Kunnuk is an Inuk actress and filmmaker from Canada, [1] noted for her work with both Arnait Video Productions and Isuma Studios. [2]
She had acting roles in the films The Journals of Knud Rasmussen , Waterproof (Issaittuq), and Uvanga , [1] and was interviewed in the 2015 documentary film Igloolik, a Real Tale.
As a filmmaker, she was an assistant director on Knud Rasmussen and Before Tomorrow [3] before releasing her debut documentary film, Queen of the Quest, in 2010.
In 2017, she and Zacharias Kunuk co-directed the mid-length documentary film Bowhead Whale Hunting with My Ancestors, [4] which won the award for Best Indigenous Language Production at the 2017 ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival. [5] In 2019, she directed the short documentary film Ataguttaaluk: A Life to Live For. [6]
In November 2021, her short documentary film Being Prepared, which centred on how her home community of Igloolik coped with the COVID-19 pandemic, was broadcast by Uvagut TV. [7]
Tautuktavuk (What We See) , a film co-directed by and co-starring Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk, premiered in the Discovery program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, [8] and won the Amplify Voices Award for Best First Film. [9]
Igloolik is an Inuit hamlet in Foxe Basin, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, northern Canada. Because its location on Igloolik Island is close to Melville Peninsula, it is often mistakenly thought to be on the peninsula. The name "Igloolik" means "there is a house here". It derives from iglu meaning house or building, and refers to the sod houses that were originally in the area, not to snow igloos. In Inuktitut the residents are called Iglulingmiut.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner is a 2001 Canadian epic film directed by Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and produced by his company Isuma Igloolik Productions. It was the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in the Inuktitut language.
Zacharias Kunuk is a Canadian Inuk producer and director most notable for his film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, the first Canadian dramatic feature film produced entirely in Inuktitut. He is the president and co-founder with Paul Qulitalik, Paul Apak Angilirq, and Norman Cohn, of Igloolik Isuma Productions, Canada's first independent Inuit production company. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), the first feature film that was entirely in Inuktitut was named as the greatest Canadian film of all time by the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival poll.
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is a 2006 Canadian-Danish film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn. The film is about the pressures on traditional Inuit shamanistic beliefs as documented by Knud Rasmussen during his travels across the Canadian Arctic in the 1920s.
Isuma is an artist collective and Canada's first Inuit-owned (75%) production company, co-founded by Zacharias Kunuk, Paul Apak Angilirq and Norman Cohn in Igloolik, Nunavut in 1990. Known internationally for its award-winning film, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in the Inuktitut language, Isuma was selected to represent Canada at the 2019 Venice Biennale where they screened the film One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, the first presentation of art by Inuit in the Canada Pavilion.
Norman Cohn is a U.S.-born Canadian film director, producer, cinematographer and editor best known for his work on films Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen.
The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest Indigenous film and media arts festival, held annually in Toronto. The festival focuses on the film, video, radio, and new media work of Indigenous, Aboriginal and First Peoples from around the world. The festival includes screenings, parties, panel discussions, and cultural events.
Madeline Piujuq Ivalu is a Canadian Inuk filmmaker and actor from Igloolik, Nunavut. One of the cofounders of Arnait Video Productions, a women's video and filmmaking collective in Nunavut, she co-directed, co-wrote and starred in Arnait's first feature film production, Before Tomorrow . She costarred in the film with her real-life grandson, Paul-Dylan Ivalu. Her codirector of the film was Marie-Hélène Cousineau, and both women cowrote the film with Susan Avingaq.
Arnait Video Productions is a women's filmmaking collective that aims to value the voices of Inuit women in debates of interest to all Canadians. Arnait is related to Isuma Productions.
Marie-Hélène Cousineau is a Canadian film director and producer. Originally from Quebec, she moved to Igloolik, Northwest Territories in 1990, where she became a co-founder of the filmmaking collective Arnait Video Productions.
Uvanga is a Canadian drama film, released in 2013. Written and directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu, it was the second narrative feature film released by Arnait Video Productions.
Atuat Akkitirq (1935–2022) was a Canadian filmmaker, actress and costume designer. A partner in the filmmaking collective Arnait Video Productions, she was a shortlisted Genie Award nominee for Best Costume Design at the 22nd Genie Awards in 2002 for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, and won the award at the 30th Genie Awards in 2010 for Before Tomorrow .
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril is an Inuk filmmaker, known for her work on Inuit life and culture. She is the owner of Unikkaat Studios, a production company in Iqaluit, which produces Inuktitut films. She was awarded the Canadian Meritorious Service Cross, in 2017 in recognition of her work as an activist and filmmaker. She currently works part-time at the Qanak Collective, a social project which supports Inuit empowerment initiatives.
Searchers is a 2016 Inuktitut-language Canadian drama film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Natar Ungalaaq, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Based in part on the 1956 John Ford film The Searchers, the film is set in Northern Canada in 1913. It centres on Kuanana, a man who returns from hunting to discover that much of his family has been killed and his wife and daughter have been kidnapped.
Angry Inuk is a 2016 Canadian Inuit-themed feature-length documentary film written and directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril that defends the Inuit seal hunt, as the hunt is a vital means for Inuit to sustain themselves. Subjects in Angry Inuk include Arnaquq-Baril herself as well as Aaju Peter, an Inuit seal hunt advocate, lawyer and seal fur clothing designer who depends on the sealskins for her livelihood. Partially shot in the filmmaker's home community of Iqaluit, as well as Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, where seal hunting is essential for survival, the film follows Peter and other Inuit to Europe in an effort to have the EU Ban on Seal Products overturned. The film also criticizes NGOs such as Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare for ignoring the needs of vulnerable northern communities who depend on hunting for their livelihoods by drawing a false distinction between subsistence-driven Inuit hunters and profit-driven commercial hunters.
Lucy Tulugarjuk is an Inuit actress, throat singer, and director. She is executive director for the Nunavut Independent Television Network.
Nyla Innuksuk is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, and virtual reality content creator. She is the CEO of Mixtape VR.
Susan Avingaq is an Inuk Canadian film director, producer, screenwriter, and actress. A founding partner in Arnait Video Productions, a women's filmmaking collective based in Igloolik, Nunavut, she is most noted for her work on the film Before Tomorrow , for which she received Genie Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction/Production Design and Best Original Song ("Pamani") at the 30th Genie Awards in 2010.
Rosie Bonnie Ammaq is a director and actress from Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada. Her film Nowhere Land won the award for Best Short Documentary at the ImagineNative Film Festival.
Tautuktavuk (What We See) is a Canadian drama film directed by Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk, released in 2023. The film centres on Saqpinak (Kunnuk) and Uyarak (Tulugarjuk), two Inuit sisters whose lives have significantly diverged as Uyarak lives in Montreal while Saqpinak has remained in Igloolik, Nunavut, who are reconnecting through regular video chats during the COVID-19 pandemic.