NUNAVUT
The National Film Board (NFB) has launched a new program that any community can access to screen films for residents.

Natar Ungalaaq in a scene from the 2001 movie Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner by Iglulik filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk. The film is part of the National Film Board's Aabiziingwashi/ Awake collection of more than 250 indigenous Canadian films available for free community screenings. - photo courtesy of Marie-Helene Cousineau Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril's documentary Angry Inuk is part the National Film Board's Aabiziingwashi/Wide Awake collection. - photo courtesy of Alethea Arnaquq-Baril/NFB

The Aabiziingwashi/Wide Awake collection brings together the almost 300 films by First Nations, Inuit and Metis directors and produced by the NFB since 1968.

"What we're doing with Aabiziingwashi - which is an Anishinaabe word - in our context and times, where a lot of people thanks to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are really reflecting on the history of settler/indigenous relations, is bringing together these titles to shine a light on them and make them available and accessible to people," said executive director of programming and production Michelle van Beusekom.

The NFB has a dedicated website - nfb.ca/wideawake - where people can check out the titles available.

"People can go there and can see if a screening has already been scheduled for their community. If not, there's an e-mail address, and they can write and get in contact with one of my colleagues. We'll say, 'OK, you're from Iglulik and you're interested in organizing a screening.' Then they can figure what are the titles that would be most interesting that the person would like to show, and work with them to organize the screening," said van Beusekom.

Keeping in mind Nunavut's slow internet, the NFB would find a different way to ensure the films get to the community, whether by shipping a DVD or sending a file to a local server.

"We thought it would be a really good time to help people organize screenings right across the country. We see these films as tools that can help bridge understanding gaps, that tell a different history, that tell history from a different perspective and can help fill in those gaps that most Canadians have in terms of their education and understanding about indigenous histories and perspectives and realities," she said.

"And for indigenous audiences - there are stories coming from so many different groups from across the country. So there's something for everyone to learn and see that is fresh and vibrant and just a really different look at ourselves as Canadians."

A movie night could show a sampling of made-in-Nunavut films, such as the recent documentary Angry Inuk by Iqaluit's Alethea Arnaquq-Baril or the 2001 film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner by Iglulik's Zacharias Kunuk.

She also suggested three films by Mosha Michael: The Hunters (Asivaqtiin), Natsik Hunting and Whale Hunting (Qilaluganiatut).

"(He) directed three films with the NFB in the 1970s - he is often described as Canada's first Inuk filmmaker," she said.

"And in the past few years we've worked with a number of young Nunavut-based filmmakers, and they all directed short documentaries as part of a collective called Stories From Our Land. Those titles are available, as well."

The available films make "quite an incredible body of work, and it's really from coast to coast to coast," van Beusekom said.

Though this is a 2017 effort, she says the NFB wants to continue to work with communities to make sure these films are available and that people are able to screen them.

"We're planning for the next three years to put a lot of emphasis on bringing these films right across the country," she said.

The screening program is offered at no cost to the community.

"The key is really to go to that website. I just looked at it now and it doesn't have any screenings listed for Nunavut. But they're constantly adding new screenings."

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