Nyla Innuksuk | |
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| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Film director |
Nyla Innuksuk is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, and virtual reality content creator. [1] She is the CEO of Mixtape VR. [2]
Nyla Innuksuk | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Film director |
Nyla Innuksuk is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, and virtual reality content creator. [1] She is the CEO of Mixtape VR. [2]
Innuksuk was born in Igloolik and spent her childhood growing up in Iqaluit. [3] [4] She attended Ryerson University, where she received a degree in film production in 2009. [3]
Innuksuk has mainly worked on short documentary and fiction films focusing on Inuit and Indigenous peoples' stories. [3] Her films are portraits of communities and community members in the Arctic, with a strong commitment to including community members in production phases of a film. [3] Her films often also have a focus on the youth in Inuit communities, and the social problems they face. [5] [6]
Innuksuk has also won Canada's Pitch This competition by Telefilm Canada for her project titled Qalupalik. [4] She was director resident at the Canadian Film Centre. [7]
Co-written and co-produced by Innuksuk, [8] Kajutaijuq premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival [8] and was selected as one of the Canada's Top Ten Short Films from 2014. [9] Set in the Arctic wilderness, the fiction film follows a hunter, played by Johnny Issaluk, [8] who uses traditional skills to survive. [8] The film is also included in Reel Canada's Indigenous Programme for Canadian National Film Day. [10]
Innuksuk was the writer and director for Breaths, a short documentary made for the Governor General's Performing Arts Award recipient, Susan Aglukark. [11] [12]
Innuksuk is the writer, director and producer for the Arctic set sci-fi adventure Slash/Back about a group of 14-year old Inuit girls who fight an alien invasion in Nunavut. The film is the first feature movie ever shot in Pangnirtung, Nunavut and is produced by Nyla Innusuk's Mixtape VR, Daniel Bekerman ( The Witch, Falling ) Scythia Films, Christopher Yurkovich & Alex Ordanis of Stellar Citizens and Stacey Aglok MacDonald ( The Grizzlies ) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril of Red Marrow Media and Ethan Lazar (The Witch). The script was written by Nyla Innuksuk and Ryan Cavan.
The film stars Iqaluit, Nunavut locals Tasiana Shirley, Alexis Vincent-Wolfe, Nalajoss Ellsworth, Chelsea Prusky, and Frankie Vincent-Wolfe.
Innuksuk and a crew of 50 people shot on Baffin Island in the summer of 2019.
Sierra/Affinity represents the film for International Sales.
The film was presented at the Frontières Co-Pro Market in Montréal in 2018, then went on to Helsinki for Frontières Finance and Packaging Forum in 2019 before presenting at the Frontières Platform at the Marché du Film in Cannes in 2019. [13] [14]
Since April 2015, Innuksuk has been a co-owner at the non-for-profit startup, Pinnguaq. With Innuksuk joining the Pinnguaq team, they created the department called Pinnguaq Productions. This division specializes in virtual reality and 360 degree filmmaking. [3] Projects have included capturing the Pope's 2015 visit to Ecuador and the creation of an interactive trailer for Bang Bang Baby a Toronto International Film Festival film. [3]
Innuksuk has worked with a variety of musical artists such as Tanya Tagaq and A Tribe Called Red. [15] The project with A Tribe Called Red, called DocX: A Tribe Called Red: Indian City 360°, is an immersive virtual reality that allows the listener to be the DJ and mix their own track. [3] [16] Innuksuk left Pinnguaq in March 2017.
In partnership with Toronto International Film Festival, imagineNATIVE, and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures, Pinnguaq Productions created the 2167 project. [17] Using virtual reality, this project asks artists to imagine what a future Canada may look like 150 years in the future. [17]
Innuksuk wrote a short story centering on the Marvel Comics superhero Snowguard for the comic Marvel Voices: Heritage #1. [18]
| Year | Title | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Stories from Our Land 1.5: Innigruti: The Thing That Sings! (short) | Director/Writer |
| 2015 | Kajutaijuq (short) | Co-Writer/Co-Producer |
| 2015 | Stories from Our Land Vol. 2: Finding Home (short) | Director/Writer |
| 2016 | Breaths (short) | Director/Writer |
| 2021 | Slash/Back (Feature) | Director/Writer |
Iqaluit is the capital of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, its largest community, and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the large bay on the coast on which the city is situated. The northernmost city in Canada, its traditional Inuktitut name was restored in 1987.
Baffin Island, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq mi) with a population density of 0.03/km²; the population was 13,039 according to the 2021 Canadian census; and it is located at 68°N70°W. It also contains the city of Iqaluit, which is the capital of Nunavut.
Pangnirtung is an Inuit hamlet, in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of the Canadian territory of Nunavut, located on Baffin Island. The community is located about 45 km (28 mi) south of the Arctic Circle, and about 2,700 km (1,700 mi) from the North Pole. Pangnirtung is situated on a coastal plain at the coast of Pangnirtung Fjord, a fjord which eventually merges with Cumberland Sound. As of January 2022, the mayor is Lynn Mike.
The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region or the Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name for Baffin Island. Although the Qikiqtaaluk Region is the most commonly used name in official contexts, several notable public organizations, including Statistics Canada prior to the 2021 Canadian census, use the older term Baffin Region.
Kenn Harper is a Canadian writer, historian and former businessman. He is the author of Give Me My Father's Body, an account of Greenland Inuk Minik Wallace, had a regular column on Arctic history in Nunatsiaq News and is a former landlord.
Simeonie Keenainak is an Inuit accordionist and retired RCMP officer from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada. He is also a photographer, teacher and hunter. He has performed at the Pangnirtung Music Festival and was featured in regional and national media for his musicianship and cultural community efforts.
Nunavut is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, which provided this territory to the Inuit for independent government. The boundaries had been drawn in 1993. The creation of Nunavut resulted in the first major change to Canada's political map in half a century since the province of Newfoundland was admitted in 1949.
The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) is a television production company based in Nunavut with programming targeted at the Inuit population of Nunavut. Almost all of its programs are broadcast in Inuktitut. Some are also in English. IBC shows centre on Inuit culture. The company has five production centers in Nunavut, all staffed by Inuit. Founded in the early 1980s, the IBC was the first indigenous-language television network in North America.
Pat Angnakak is a Canadian politician, who was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in the 2013 election and reelected in 2017. She represented the electoral district of Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu until 2021; she resigned her seat in the legislature in August 2021 in order to run as a Liberal Party of Canada candidate in the 2021 Canadian federal election, but was defeated by Lori Idlout of the New Democratic Party.
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.
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.
The Jerry Cans are a band from Iqaluit, Nunavut who combine traditional Inuit throat singing with folk music and country rock. Their music is largely written in Inuktitut, the indigenous language of the Inuit, with lyrics which "reflect the challenges and beauty of life in the Far North". Their 2016 album, Inuusiq/Life, was released on Aakuluk Music, Nunavut's first record label, which the band's members established in 2016 "to support Inuit and Indigenous musicians".
Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory or Laakkuluk, is a Kalaaleq performance artist, spoken word poet, actor, storyteller and writer based in Iqaluit, Nunavut. She is known for performing uaajeerneq, a Greenlandic mask dance that involves storytelling and centers three elements: fear, humour and sexuality. Bathory describes uaajeerneq as both a political and cultural act and an idiosyncratic art form.
Johnny Nurraq Seotaituq Issaluk is an Inuk actor, athlete, and cultural educator from Nunavut. He is best known for his roles in AMC's The Terror, the film Indian Horse, and in the BBC program The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan. In May 2019 he was named Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Explorer-in-Residence.
Kajutaijuq: The Spirit That Comes is a Canadian short film, directed by Scott Brachmayer and released in 2014. The film stars Johnny Issaluk as an Inuk man who is threatened when he encounters a malevolent spirit while hunting.
Colleen Aasiva Nakashuk, better known by her stage name Aasiva, is an Inuit Canadian singer and songwriter. Her style of indie folk music features the ukulele, Inuktitut lyrics, and Inuit throat singing.
Victoria Kakuktinniq is a Canadian Inuk fashion designer from Nunavut. Under her label Victoria's Arctic Fashion, Kakuktinniq hand-stitches clothing such as parkas, kamiit, and other accessories. Her work has been described as a major influence in contemporary Inuit fashion. Kakuktinniq has described her work as a means of preserving Inuit traditional skills of sewing and clothing production, which has historically been a significant aspect of Inuit culture. In particular, she advocates for handmade fur garments as sustainable fashion.
Slash/Back is a 2022 Canadian Inuit science fiction film directed by Nyla Innuksuk in her feature debut from a screenplay by Innuksuk and Ryan Cavan. It premiered at the 2022 South by Southwest Festival in Texas.
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