Andrea Markey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (June 06/05) - Five weeks of filming recently wrapped up in Iqaluit for the "Qallunologists" in the film The Big Hellos - a name directly translated from the word Qallunaat (white people).

"Qallunaat" comes from the big "hellos" RCMP and Hudson's Bay Company guys would say in their booming voices.

Qallunologists take measurements of a Qallunaat and use them to make sweeping generalizations about his culture in the film The Big Hellos, which pokes fun at the previous work of southern anthropologists.

The purpose of the film is to reverse the traditional role of white southerners observing Inuit, said director Mark Sandiford, from his home in Prince Edward Island.

"Not that long ago, physical anthropologists took head measurements to make generalizations about a whole group of people," he said. "The film is really a critique of anthropology and those broad generalizations."

A scene in The Big Hellos shows Qallunologists with measuring devices such as protractors ready to work on white southerners, he said.

Role reversals such as these and observations from many years of southern explorers in the North provide lots of material to work with, said Jeff Tabvahtah, part actor/part idea generator for the film, in Iqaluit.

As an Inuit training and development officer with the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Tabvahtah saw great humour in the formation of the Department of White Man's Affairs.

In the film, southerners in the North were given queue numbers and shamans were sent to other parts of the world to convert them to Inuit ways, he said.

Tabvahtah developed a short skit for the film, playing on the different way Inuktitut and English speakers answer questions.

To the question, "So you aren't angry?" Tabvahtah and his friends always noticed how Qallunaat would answer, "no," while Inuktitut speakers would answer questions like that in the affirmative.

"When we went to school or down south, we had to get used to the Qallunaat way of speaking," he said.

"I hope when the film goes on air, people don't take it too seriously or mistake it for reverse racism," Tabvahtah said.

"We are really just looking at southern culture through different eyes."

Sandiford used those different eyes in developing his script, also.

"I would say, 'this is what I'm thinking of doing, now you tell me what you think,'" he said.

And film participants, including Zebedee Nungark, Lena Ellsworth, Kayak Ellsworth, and Tabvahtah, did just that.

"I think the film would be a lot more critical of Qallunaat culture if not for them," he said.

"Not wanting to interfere in the adventure, but feeling an obligation to make sure the Qallunaat didn't get into trouble, Inuit would watch from afar. They would intervene at the last minute if needed and say, 'I guess you would like a cup of tea now,' to make them not feel foolish."

Still in the beginning of the editing phase of the project, the content of the film may change by the time it is finished but the focus will not, Sandiford said.

Although there are many humorous moments in the film, the purpose is serious, he said.

The film will air on CTV during the winter and on APTN six months after that. The National Film Board will release a DVD version in both Inuktitut and English.