Iglulik (Mar 27/06) - What could have been a simple week of professional improvement for Arviat drama teacher Gord Billard instead became “something special.” All it took was a chance plane ride to Iglulik.

Every second year, Northern teachers are allowed to choose a project that helps enhance their classroom-teaching abilities. Billard decided this year he’d like to go to Iglulik to learn about filmmaking in the North from Isuma Productions Inc.

In the short term, Billard wanted to create a few teaching units on filmmaking to deliver in the classroom. His long-term goal was to explore the possibility of a film or student exchange between Arviat and Iglulik.

Billard envisioned sending a number of his drama students to Iglulik, and receiving students back who work on various media projects with Isuma.

Before heading to Iglulik, Billard became aware of an audio artist from Paris, France, who had travelled to Arviat to record the sounds of snow. The project intrigued Billard, so he met up with the artist, Vivienne (Vivi) Spitieri, and accompanied her on a trip to record the snow.

Once Spitieri heard of Billard’s trip to Iglulik, she expressed an interest to go.

The Department of Education in Arviat was developing curriculum modules on media literacy and filmmaking at the time and, when staff members heard of Billard’s plans, decided it would also like to be involved.

“Believe it or not, Education actually had a charter going up to Iglulik the same day I was planning to leave, so it seemed like all these pieces were just falling in place all at once.

“I suddenly realized this was going to blossom into something special.”

Education department employee Shirley Tagalik stepped up to offer Billard a seat on the Iglulik charter, and indicated there was room for Spitieri to go along if she wanted to continue her sound work in a different community. The department also sent the media centre’s Michael Angidlik along with a camera to film Billard’s trip.

More good news came Billard’s way when he was asked to take three students - Patrick Pingoshat, Albert Napoyok and Evano Aggark Jr. - along to document the creative process in Iglulik and learn from the experience.

“It turned out to be an incredibly exciting and highly-informative trip,” says Billard.

“We managed to conduct about 20 interviews in three days with Isuma, the Inuit Broadcasting Corp. (IBC), Artcirque and Attagutaaluk high school.”

While Billard’s team had to leave on the charter back to Arviat this past Friday, Billard was able to remain in Iglulik during the weekend.

The extra Saturday and Sunday shows allowed him to see the first public screenings of Isuma’s new feature film, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen.

Billard said as much as he enjoyed the screenings, it wasn’t the same without the rest of the team members present.

“We did an excellent interview with Zach Kunuk (Atanarjuat) this past Thursday morning, as well as Snow Walker actress Annabella Piugattuk, who is currently working as a production assistant with the IBC in Iglulik.”