|
Abstract
|
|
This presentation will introduce Inuit cinema as a sort of “case study” in Aboriginal media practice. It will discuss three key elements, elements that are quite typical of Aboriginal cinema worldwide: (1) the interconnectedness of film, video, and television, (2) a complex relationship with governmental, semi-governmental and community based institutions, and (3) a comparably complex aesthetic that owes much to oral traditions but which also illustrates and tweaks key elements of cinematic form. The discussion will begin with the case of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, and then move on to the videos and films of Zack Kunuk and his group Igloolik Isuma Productions, work that includes Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001) and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006). I will strive to give some comparative perspective by briefly discussing the work of Alanis Obomsawin (an Abenaki filmmaker from Montreal, Quebec), Merata Mita (A Maori filmmaker originally from New Zealand but now a professor at the University of Hawai’i M?noa), and the Ten Canoes / Twelve Canoes projects (work from Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory, the former a 2006 film by Rolf de Heer starring David Gulpilil, and the latter a video project involving people from the area).
Film: Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, Zacharias Kunuk
Jerry White is Associate Professor of Film Studies at the University of Alberta, a member of the education staff of the Telluride Film Festival, and presently Professeur Invité at Université de Lausanne. He is the editor of The Cinema of Canada (Wallflower Press, 2006), co-editor of North of Everything: English Canadian Cinema Since 1980 (University of Alberta Press, 2002) and author of Of This Place and Elsewhere: The Films and Photography of Peter Mettler (Toronto Film Festival / Indiana UP, 2006) and The Radio Eye: Cinema in the North Atlantic (Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2009). He contributes to academic publications, writes for film magazines such as Vertigo (London) and Cinema Scope (Toronto), and has also done work for the French-language service Radio-Canada. He is the former editor of the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies.
download presentation (325kb ppt) |
