IFFR 2002

Zacharias Kunuk

Zacharias Kunuk focus

Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner

Paul Apak Angilirq

In August 1996, Inuit hunters from across the Arctic gathered to catch the first legal bowhead whale in more than forty years. This film traces the history of the bowhead in the Arctic up to the first legal hunt in 1996.

Bowhead!

Near Igloolik in the 1930s, a summer comes to its end. Three families build a saputi, with which they catch fish swimming upstream for the winter.

Fish Traps

Kunuk drags the viewer along into a world where time fades, past and present flow into one. The construction of a communal igloo, dancing, music-making, telling stories and minor family ups and downs.

Gathering Place

Summer, 1930s: for Igloolik Inuit, this is the time for nunaqpa, the long quest for fattened summer caribou, to catch enough meat for the gruelling winter.

Going Inland

Young Joshua Kunuk is taken on his first polar-bear hunt, to see the hunt itself, the skinning and cutting up of the bear.The boy's grandfather tells stories of his own hunting experiences. A great respect for the beast emerges and a sense of a balance between man and animal.

My First Polar Bear

Episode I: In which Inuaraq teaches his youngest son the traditional way to survive.

Our Land - Episode 1 (Dog Team)

Igloolik, Summer 1946. After the walrus hunt, everyone is happy. There will be enough to eat for a long time.

Our Land - Episode 10 (Qaisut)

Autumn comes early and the weather is getting colder. Lakes are frozen and the sea ice gets thicker every day.

Our Land - Episode 11 (Caribou Hunt)

The tea simmers on the seal lamps, children play on the beds with caribou skins. Grandmother tells stories of the old times.

Our Land - Episode 12 (Harpoon)

Christmas, 1946: with lots of meat and warm shelter against the biting cold, it's a great time for parties and storytelling.

Our Land - Episode 13 (Happy Day)

In which the Inuit share fresh caribou delicacies and tell stories.

Our Land - Episode 2 (Avaja)

In which five families build a stone house to prepare for the coming winter.

Our Land - Episode 3 (Stone House)

Autumn 1945. People talk about the danger of the coming world war.

Our Land - Episode 4 (Ice Blocks)

Igloolik, Autumn 1945. In which Akkitiq wakes up and sees that it's a lovely day for a seal hunt.

Our Land - Episode 5 (Home)

Two dog teams search the Spring ice, men and boys hunt day and night. There are seals everywhere.

Our Land - Episode 6 (Stalking)

Young seals: a spring delicacy, praised for their soft fur and tender meat.

Our Land - Episode 7 (Seal Pups)

Igloolik, Spring 1946. In which Inuaraq throws bones in the river to skewer fish.

Our Land - Episode 8 (Fish Swimming Back and Forth)

Igloolik, Summer 1946. In the distance we hear the sound of the atookatookatook 1/4, the first petrol engine in Igloolik.

Our Land - Episode 9 (Walrus)

Democracy, power and change in Nunavut and Canada: education, religion, sex, lifestyle and economic development.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025