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KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER
Clyde River-based media company, Piksuk Media, is about to release its newest project featuring Nunavut's premiere dogsled race.

Seventeen teams took place in the 2010 Nunavut Quest. Pictured are: front row from left, Olayuq Barnabas, Sam Omik, David Iqaqrialu, Joey Aqiaruq, Andy Attagutaluktuk, Joelie Sanguya, Moses Ujukuluk, Lee Innuarak. Back row from left are Joelie Qaunaq, Esa Palituq, Denise Malaki, Natalino Piungatuq, Jake Gearheard, Raygeelee Piungituq, Niko Innuarak. Jake Awa is absent from the photo. - photo courtesy of Piksuk Media

Nunavut Quest: Race across Baffin, is a six-episode television series, an interactive website and a video game.

The television series will air on Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) starting Feb. 29 in English. The Inuktitut version will not air until the fall.

The idea to film the Nunavut Quest came from one of the directors, Joelie Sanguya.

A musher himself, with more than a decade of experience, he was encouraged to take up the tradition by his mother, who wanted him to have something to share with his grandson. Sanguya has participated in the Nunavut Quest for a few years and during the 2010 race, which the series is based on, his mother and grandson travelled with him as members of his support team.

The Nunavut Quest route changes every year. In 2012 it took place in the Qiqiktani region of the territory, between Clyde River and Pond Inlet. It is this land that Sanguya's mother grew up on, and the race was a chance for her to see it again.

Filming of the race was done by a crew of four to five members according to Charlotte Dewolff, producer of the series.

"It was the experience of a lifetime .. 2010 was a great year for filming, the landscape is spectacular, rugged but beautiful," she said. "There was one major misadventure, which was not good for the racers or organizers, but for the film crew, hey, you couldn't ask for anything better."

Co-director Ole Gjerstad, described one night while everyone was camped on the sea ice. The ice started shifting and pulling away from shore. "I was torn between filming and getting the hell off the ice!" he laughed, "Thankfully we were able to do both."

The show will feature the action and drama of the race, cut with interviews and stories from the mushers.

In order to film the journey, each of the 17 mushers had to agree to be filmed. If any of the film crew stepped out of line, or impeded the race, it was Sanguya who payed the penalty, by having time added to his race.

Dewolff said some of the mushers wore a camera on their heads, so viewers could get a sense of what the Quest is like.

With most of the crew being Nunavummiut, Dewolff said they accomplished much of the post production in Clyde River, at the Ilisaqsivik Family Resource Centre's media facility.

"It helps sustain the facility and employs community members," said Dewolff. "We look upon Nunavut Quest as a community project."

Gjerstad echoed this, "A big part of (Piksuk Media's) mandate, you could say, is to train people and keep as much of our work as possible in the North."

The video game component, which is set to be available for download on March 15, was developed by Prince Edward Island designers Telos Entertainment. In the game, players can choose the dogs for their team -- down to various characteristics -- the equipment they want to pack and the style of qamutiik. The game is based on the route of the Nunavut Quest and players are able to race for the win.

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