Experience Indigenous films from the circumpolar North, Outdoors in a theatre made of snow!

WHAT TO EXPECT
+ Free & donations are welcome
+ Films shown outdoors (Approx. 1 hour)
+ Post-screening DJ & VJ performances
+ Hot Drinks
+ Warming Stations

* This event takes place outdoors on the Friday & Saturday, so please remember to dress appropriately for the weather! Sunday's programming will take place indoors at Beandigen Cafe.

ABOUT
The word Unikkaatuarniq is an Inuktitut word that means "Storytelling". Storytelling is an ancient form of magic, with the power to connect the past with the present, teach lessons, impart values, heal, to explain the world and connect us to the universe through language and mythology. The stories, films, and music in this program, come from Indigenous peoples from the circumpolar north — such as the the Inuit of Canada and Greenland, or the Sami of northern Scandinavia — peoples that have thrived in the Arctic regions of the world for thousands of years, enduring the changing seasons of dark and light, of colonialism, and of climate change. Although these cultures live thousands of kilometres away from each other, they share a common history of resilience in their language, culture and magic through storytelling.

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SNOWSCREEN PROGRAM (1h 10m)

Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice
Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit) • Canada • 2022 • 20 mins

A young shaman must face her first test—a trip underground to visit
Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community
member has become ill. Facing dark spirits and physical challenges,
she must trust her mentor's teachings and learn to control her fear.
Arctic Song

Germaine Arnattaujuq, Neil Christopher & Louise Flaherty • 2021 • 6 min
Arctic Song is a short film of Inuit creation stories expressed
through song and animation, based on the original artwork of Inuit
artist, storyteller and co-director Germaine Arnattaujuq (Arnaktauyok).

Shaman

Echo Henoche • 2017 • 5 min • Animation
This animated short tells the story of a ferocious polar bear turned
to stone by an Inuk shaman. The tale is based on emerging filmmaker
Echo Henoche's favourite legend, as told to her by her grandfather in
her home community of Nain, Nunatsiavut, on Labrador's North Coast.
Hand-drawn and painted by Henoche in a style all her own, Shaman is
the first collaboration between the Labrador artist and the NFB.

Lumaajuuq

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril • 2010 • 7 min • Animation
This animated short by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril tells a tragic and
twisted story about the dangers of revenge. A cruel mother mistreats
her son, feeding him dog meat and forcing him to sleep in the cold. A
loon, who tells the boy that his mother blinded him, helps the child
regain his eyesight. Then the boy seeks revenge, releasing his
mother's lifeline as she harpoons a whale and watching her drown.
Based on a portion of the epic Inuit legend "The Blind Boy"

Three Thousand

Asinnajaq • 2017 • 14 min • Animation
In this short film, Inuk artist Asinnajaq plunges us into a sublime
imaginary universe—14 minutes of luminescent, archive-inspired cinema
that recast the present, past and future of her people in a radiant
new light. Diving into the NFB’s vast archive, she parses the
complicated cinematic representation of the Inuit, harvesting fleeting
truths and fortuitous accidents from a range of sources—newsreels,
propaganda, ethnographic docs, and work by Indigenous artists.

Inkwo - For When the Starving Return

Amanda Strong • 2024 • 18 min • Animation
In a future haunted by monstrous beings, Dove—a gender-shifting
warrior—must harness ancestral medicine (Inkwo) to defend their
community and restore balance to a fractured world.

BEANDIGEN PROGRAM

25th Anniversary Screening of Atanarjuat with a Twist!

Live-Scored by DJ's Bagowji and Seiiizi

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

2000 ‧ Documentary/Drama ‧ 161 min • 25th Anniversary
Evil in the form of an unknown shaman divides a small community of nomadic Inuit, upsetting its balance and spirit. Twenty years pass. Two brothers emerge to challenge the evil order: Amaqjuaq, the Strong One, and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner. Atanarjuat wins the hand of the lovely Atuat away from the boastful son of the camp leader, Oki, who vows to get even. Oki ambushes the brothers in their sleep, killing Amaqjuaq, as Atanarjuat miraculously escapes running naked over the spring sea ice. But can he ever escape the cycle of vengeance left behind?

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MIIGWECH
This event takes place on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Nation, and is being held in partnership with the City of Ottawa, Lansdowne Park, Winterlude, Beandigen Cafe, Tungasuvvingat Inuit, DARC, Gallery 101, and the NFB. A big thank you to our funders and partners.