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IQALUIT
Starting in the 1940s, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) sent film crews to the NWT and Nunavut to capture images of Inuit people. Last Monday, Unikkausivut, a collection of 24 films from then to present day, was launched in Iqaluit last Monday at the Astro Theatre in Iqaluit.

Martha Flaherty in a still from the 2008 documentary Martha of the North. - photo courtesy of Evangeline De Pas/www.onf-nfb.gc.ca

Although the film board created more than 100 of films on the Arctic and its people, only the two dozen films were selected from the box set, with more available for free screening from the NFB's website. According to the project's advisory committee, it was important to ensure the collection Unikkausivut encompassed the evolution of Inuit films over the decades.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq was the one to come up with the idea for a collection.

"I remember watching NFB films in my community when I was growing up. They are wonderful films," she said.

Tom Perimutter, Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson for NFB and the Assistant Commissioner Claude Joli-Coeur conducted an inventory of all the films about or by Inuit – now the largest collection of Inuit films in the world.

Joli-Coeur said the two-year project has been a "complicated journey."

"It is so worth it, the launch was fabulous."

The tri-lingual films are all narrated in Inuktitut, but the unique aspect is that they are narrated in the different dialects, in which the films were originally shot.

"We wanted to do a project for the Inuit and for the Inuit," said Joli-Coeur.

The advisory committee was formed of various Inuit organizations to represent each of the four Inuit regions -- Nunavik, Nunavut, Inuvialuit and Nunatsiavut -- as well as a few individuals to serve as Inuit consultants and translators.

Zebedee Nungak, director of the Inuktitut language department at the Avataq Cultural Institute, came up with the name for the collection. Unikkausivut means "sharing our stories."

Inuit translator Martha Flaherty joined up with the project to oversee the development of the Inuktitut version as well as voice-overs and translations.

Flaherty is the subject of a documentary in the new film collection. Martha of the North, made by Marquise Lepage, examines the effects the High Arctic deportation had on her family.

Premier Aariak was present for the launch last Monday in Iqaluit. Aariak said she has not seen some of these films since childhood, as there has been very little access to them until now.

"I find after such a long time, I really see them with more open eyes and more observance for what was captured at that time."

"I think that (these films) will help students because they do not have a lot of of information unilaterally about their culture. Without a visual aspect it can be hard for them to understand."

Plans are in place to host launch screenings for Unikkausivut in Inuit communities in Quebec and Newfoundland, as well Inuvik is scheduled to show the films on Nov. 23. Unikkausivut will be distributed to more than 40 schools and community libraries and to 53 Inuit communities across the country free of charge.

At the same time as the box set was launched, an announcement was made on new project between the National Film Board (NFB) and the Government of Nunavut's Department of Education to version 34 films from the Netsilik and Tuktu Eskimo collections and make them permanently available for youth and schools in Nunavut.

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