Iqaluit (Jan 08/07) - Nunavut's most acclaimed filmmaker is focusing on one of the darkest marks on the territory's past for his next project.

In High Arctic Exiles, Zacharias Kunuk, the filmmaker behind Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner and the Journals of Knud Rasmussen, hopes to explore the federal government's relocation of nearly 100 Inuit to Grise Fiord and Resolute from Nunavik in the 1950s.

"It's a terrific story," Kunuk said from Iglulik. "It's a human tragedy story."

Kunuk is preparing for a couple of weeks of filming in both communities during the darkness of winter, where he hopes to show viewers how Inuit survived in the area with little shelter, little preparation, and next to no familiarity with the landscape.

"I want to hear it from the people themselves, really see them talking," he said. "Every time I talk to these people they break down.

"It's probably going to be a healing thing for them to talk about it in their own language, and to their own people."

Resolute Mayor Susan Salluviniq said a film about this subject has been a long time coming.

"It's very important, because there were promises made to the people before they got relocated," she said. "Those promises were never carried through."

These included assurances from government representatives that wildlife would be abundant in the High Arctic, and that the move - which was done under the auspices of Northern sovereignty - would be temporary.

One relocated Nunavummiut, Grise Fiord outfitter Larry Audlaluk, spoke at length to News/North in a previous interview about the damage the relocation did to his community.

"There was no shelter provided that was adequate to face the climate," he said. "We had to fend for ourselves literally for two years."

"The government did things that are not right. We know that. The government will not acknowledge it and say, 'We're sorry.'"

Kunuk said he hopes to return to Grise Fiord and Resolute in May, to gain more perspective and footage of life in the area. He plans to bring relocated Nunavummiut John Amagoalik and Martha Flaherty back to the region as well to gain their insight.

He hopes that his efforts will bring this story to a wider audience, both in the North and elsewhere.

"Nobody knows this story, like they don't know where we live," Kunuk said. "Everybody still thinks we are still living in iglus and when we cry, ice cubes fall out of our eyes."