Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Kivalliq (Oct 25/00) - An Inuit legend is being preserved on film by a native son.

Filmmaker John Houston grew up in the Baffin, and has deep roots throughout the North.

His father, James, was a critically acclaimed author, designer and filmmaker, and his mother, Alma, was the driving force behind the Canadian Arctic producers for more than a decade.

Houston was in the Kivalliq last week with a film crew and a Danish ethnologist - who studies cultures.

The group was helping Houston film Inuit legend Nuliajuk -- the mother of the sea beasts.

Houston says many people have written about the sea woman, but most didn't ask Inuit to help interpret the story and its true meaning.

"Mainly, they wrote it down and then went home and tried to figure out for themselves what it meant," says Houston.

"If Inuit and Qablunaaq can use their expertise together to work on the meaning of the story, then we're going to get further than either group might on their own."

Houston interviewed a number of elders on the subject, and although he received money from Nunavut and the Kivalliq Region to help with his budget, his one regret was still being limited in what he could do.

"I'd love to be able to do more, but we're going to as many places and seeing as many people as time allows."

Houston says Nuliajuk is a documentary film, but will also feature the Two Cup Greenlandic theatre troupe, which will be in Iqaluit to present its piece about the sea woman as well.

"We'll also film that public performance, so the project is a bit of a hybrid.

It's a trip through the imagination in some ways, but there are certainly some hard documentary aspects as well."

The film is the second in a trilogy Houston is making about the Arctic.

The first, Songs in Stone, has been released to critical acclaim.

Once completed, Nuliajuk will be broadcast nationally on Vision TV and several times on APTV.