Inuvik (Apr 28/06) - Inuvialuit filmmaker Dennis Allen just returned from a trip to Norway, where he showcased one of his latest productions.

In 2005, Allen directed a feature about his father Victor Allen, called "My Father, My Teacher."

Dennis Allen and Annelajla Utsi during one of the reindeer races in Norway this past month. Allen was in Norway filming an episode of Suaangan, and showing his film "My Father, my teacher." -

The film was screened at the Imaginative Film Festival in Toronto, where it was seen by Norway producer Annelajla Utsi.

Utsi invited Allen to Norway so the movie could be seen by people of a different culture.

"Being familiar with the Sami culture, and having worked on a film about reindeer and the Sami connection, I readily agreed," said Allen.

Allen screened his film at the Sami Film Festival From April 10-15 in Tromso, Norway.

Allen said he took part in the experience to collaborate with a Norwegian filmmaker and to illustrate the cultural similarities between the indigenous Sami people of Northern Norway and the Inuvialuit of Canada's Western Arctic.

His trip will be produced as an episode of Suaangan, the television program he produces for the Inuvialuit Communications Society.

Allen said both cultures have much in common when it comes to culinary preferences.

"They are more comfortable sitting in a Lavvos, which is a traditional reindeer hide tent, eating reindeer meat and drinking broth than they are in a high rise apartment eating worldly cuisines," said Allen of the Sami people.

"Similarly, the Inuvialuit of Canada's Western Arctic, generations into being assimilated into Canadian society, prefer to eat frozen fish dipped in whale oil than to eat a porterhouse steak and French fried potatoes."

Allen also realized the close relationship between reindeer and caribou.

"Like Sami, the Inuvialuit like reindeer meat. A major part of our diet is caribou, which is a cousin of the reindeer," said Allen.

"I got my first acting gig on a film about the famous reindeer drive of 1930. I played kind of an Eskimo Tonto to the Sami Lone Ranger."

Comparing the types of clothing was another one of Allen's experiences in Norway which will be documented in the episode he is producing.

"I have various skin clothing which I'll wear and document the similarities in our clothing. I'll try on their clothing and compare it to a caribou skin parka, which I will bring along, as well as wolf skin mittens and caribou skin shoes," explained Allen.

Comparing the diets between the two people is also something to be documented by Allen.

"Inuvialuit depend heavily on caribou for their diet and the Sami depend on reindeer. I'd like to see what parts of the animal they use and how they prepare them."

Allen will produce the episode of Suaangan - which will be aired on APTN in late 2006 - when their broadcast season begins again.

"The video will be a memoir of an Inuvialuk travelling half-way around the world, only to find that though thousands of miles, dozens of borders, and several time zones separate us, that we are one and the same people," said Allen.

The production will serve as a reminder of Inuvialuit heritage, and how others around the world are still living off the land.

"Though we're travelling Mach 3 into the future, if we honour our customs and remain true to our heritage, we'll never morph into genetic dummies with no song to sing of our own."