Arnait Video Productions
Arnait Video Productions (Women's Video Workshop of Igloolik) is a women's filmmaking collective that aims to value the voices of Inuit women in debates of interest to all Canadians.{{cite web|url=http://www.isuma.tv/arnaitvideo/arnait-history|title=Arnait History {{pipe}} IsumaTV|publisher=isuma.tv|accessdate=2014-07-25}} Arnait is related to Isuma Productions.{{vague|date=January 2015}}
History
Arnait was founded in 1991 by Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu, Susan Avingaq, Mary Kunuk Iyyiraq and Atuat Akkitirq.{{cite web|url=http://www.arnaitvideo.ca/our-team.html|title=Our Team - Arnait Video Productions|publisher=arnaitvideo.ca|accessdate=2014-07-25}} It was originally named Arnait Ikajurtigiit (Inuktitut: Women helping each other), and focuses on documenting women's experience and community in Nunavut.{{cite book|last1=Stern|first1=Pamela R.|title=Historical dictionary of the Inuit|date=2013|publisher=The Scarecrow Press|location=Lanham |isbn=9780810879126|page=33|edition=Second}}
Susan Avingaq describes Arnait as: "a women's video workshop [that] can help people communicate with each other. That can be useful. It can make them understand. A long time ago, just with words and language, people believed stories and legends, they saw pictures in their imagination. Our stories are useful and unforgettable".{{cite book|author1=Pamela Wilson|author2=Michelle Stewart|title=Global Indigenous Media: Cultures, Poetics, and Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8pzHPos4U0C&pg=PA75|date=6 August 2008|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-8869-3|page=75}}
Productions
As with Isuma, Arnait's work spans interviews, short ethnographic videos on traditional activities, television series, feature documentaries and narrative feature films.{{cite web|url=http://www.arnaitvideo.ca/projects.html|title=Projects - Arnait Video Productions|publisher=arnaitvideo.ca|accessdate=2014-07-25}} Their first narrative feature Before Tomorrow (Le Jour avant le lendemain) was adapted by Danish writer Jørn Riel from the novel For morgendagen. It premiered in Igloolik in 2008 in front of the community involved in its making. It received nine Canadian Genie Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costumes, Sound, Original Song, and four Jutra Awards: Best Picture, Director, Costumes, Music.{{cite web|url=http://www.isuma.tv/beforetomorrow|title=Before Tomorrow {{pipe}} IsumaTV|publisher=isuma.tv|accessdate=2014-07-25}}
Uvanga premiered at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in September 2013, toured internationally to film festivals including the Berlinale, and had a theatrical release in Canada in summer 2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.canada-berlin2014.ca/producers.php?id=3361 |title=Marie-Hélène Cousineau – Arnait Video Productions – Producers – Telefilm Canada |author=Telefilm Canada |publisher=canada-berlin2014.ca |accessdate=2014-07-25 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810231547/http://www.canada-berlin2014.ca/producers.php?id=3361 |archive-date=2014-08-10 }}
In 2014, Arnait started production on Sol, a documentary prompted by the supposed suicide of 26-year-old musician Solomon Uyarasuk in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police jail cell.{{cite web|url=http://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2014/04/24/nunavut-filmmakers-turn-the-lens-on-suicide/|title=Eye on the Arctic » Nunavut filmmakers turn the lens on suicide|publisher=rcinet.ca|accessdate=2014-07-25}}{{cite web |title=Nunavut coroner to hold inquest into Igloolik man’s jail cell death |url=http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavut_coroner_to_hold_inquest_into_igloolik_mans_jail_cell_death/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070419/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674nunavut_coroner_to_hold_inquest_into_igloolik_mans_jail_cell_death/ |archive-date=2016-03-04 |accessdate=2014-07-25 |publisher=nunatsiaqonline.ca}} The film subsequently won the Grand Prize for Best Canadian Feature at the RIDM Montreal International Documentary Festival{{cite web |url=http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/news/latest-news/1513/prize-winners-of-the-17th-edition |title=Award Winners of the 17th Edition |publisher=RIDM — Montreal International Documentary Festival |date=2014-11-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150115004350/http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en/news/latest-news/1513/prize-winners-of-the-17th-edition |archive-date=2015-01-15}} and was included in the list of Canada's Top Ten feature films of 2014, selected by a panel of filmmakers and industry professionals organized by TIFF.{{cite press release |title=TIFF Tips Its Toque to the Best in Canadian Filmmaking: Cronenberg, Dolan, and Gunnarson Among Directors Recognized |date=1 December 2014 |url=http://media.tiff.net.s3.amazonaws.com/content/pdf/14th_Annual_Canadas_Top_Ten_Film_Festival_2014.pdf |publisher=TIFF }}{{cite news |newspaper=Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2014/12/01/tiffs_top_ten_film_festival_spotlight_on_canadian_film.html |date=1 December 2014 |accessdate=21 December 2014 |author=Linda Barnard |title=TIFF's Top Ten Film Festival: Spotlight on Canadian film }}
=Short works=
- Ningiura (Grandmother)
- Qulliq
- Attagutaaluk Starvation
- Piujuq
- Angutautaq
=Features=
- Anaana (Mother)
- Unakuluk (Dear Little One)
- Before Tomorrow (Le Jour avant le lendemain), 2008
- Uvanga, 2013
- Sol, 2014
- Tia and Piujuq, 2018
- Restless River, 2019
References
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Category:Film production companies of Canada
Category:Indigenous film and television production companies in Canada
Category:Indigenous broadcasting in Canada
Category:Organizations based in Nunavut
Category:Women's film organizations