Baker Lake (Feb 07/05) - Lawrence Owingayak, a teenager, told Nunavut News/North a few months ago that if he could play any character in a movie or a television show there was only one role for him: Super Shamou, the world's first, and, as far anyone knows, the only Inuk superhero.

Super Shamou made it to the comic book pages thanks to artist Nick Burns.

"He's an Inuk Superman," Owingayak said. "He can fly and he saves people."

Super Shamou was in fact a short-lived educational television "experiment" produced by the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation (IBC) in Baker Lake in 1987.

The role of Super Shamou was played by Peter Tapatai. The show was produced by Barney Pattunguyak, now a senior producer at IBC in Baker Lake.

This month, the costumed superhero will once again make a play for more fans, this time at the Saw Gallery in Ottawa which is showing a restored Super Shamou in a show called The Winter Life opening Feb. 3 and running until March 19.

Even the one-issue Super Shamou comic book produced by the government of Canada in Inuktitut, English and French featuring a cartoon version of Tapatai will be on display.

"We kind of like how Barney appropriated Superman. So you have Superman with a receding hairline," said Stefan St-Laurent, co-artistic director of the Saw Gallery and a co-curator of the exhibition and self-described "fan."

"He's totally the opposite of what Superman is supposed to look like. But that's what's so great about him. He's Joe Inuk."

Tapatai is still baffled by the fuss over the character he helped create so many years ago.

"What can I say? Television is a powerful tool," said Tapatai reached by phone at Peter's Expediting Ltd., the company he started in Baker after 15 years at IBC. "I'm just the guy in front of the camera."

Super Shamou can be considered "cheesy," but it was only meant to be an experiment with new technology at the time, and the filmmakers were learning their craft. The simple fact they made the film in the first place is just as amazing as the acts of heroism acted out on the show, said Tapatai, who owns 40 per cent of the Super Shamou copyright (Pattunguyak owns 50 per cent and IBC owns the other 10).

"If the kids believe in something, then that's what's it's all about," said Tapatai.

Tapatai appears as a regular Inuk in the segments, hunting and camping with a friend. But when kids are in trouble he senses it and springs into action, tearing off his jacket to reveal bright red long-johns and a shiny blue cape.

As a nod to his Northern-ness, Super Shamou wears rubber boots as he flies through the air over Baker Lake to kids in need. When Super Shamou saves the mischievous children from sinking boats or the edges of cliffs, he always gives them advice standing in front of them with his hands on his hips before flying away with one outstretched arm.

The kids came up with many ideas for the dramatic scenarios, Pattunguyak said, including the rock climbing episode where a little boy clings dangerously to a high rock, praying for Super Shamou to rescue him.

"The flying sequence wasn't great, but that doesn't bother me," said Tapatai.

Only three episodes of Super Shamou ever aired, but the show has really struck a chord, said Pattunguyak.

"Super Shamou is a household name," said Pattunguyak. "One time I heard older ladies talking after one of the first shows aired. They were talking about whether he was really flying or not," he said laughing.

The production has had its share of critics, dubbed "the worst movie in the world" by an international television show called Maximum X. Pattunguyak laments the lack of money available to produce dramatic shows like Super Shamou these days. He has watched IBC staff in Baker dwindle from nine people to three.

But he is thrilled that people still talk about Super Shamou. It was a fun time in the life of IBC when filmmaking was still so new and exciting, but at the same time old: a way of storytelling, creating images in the mind like any good traditional story, he said.