Zacharias Kunuk on his film Atanarjuat
In 2001, Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk won the Camera d’or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival. The Inuktitut-language film took six Genie Awards in the same year, including best picture, best director (Zacharias Kunuk), best screenplay (the late Paul Apak Angilirq) and best editing (Kunuk, Norman Cohn and Marie-Christine Sarda). Margaret Atwood called the film a "knockout." An English critic said: "If Homer had been given a video camera, this is what he would have done." Atanarjuat received support from the Canada Council’s media arts program and Millennium Arts Fund.
Z. Kunuk: Atanarjuat is an old story passed down from generation to generation. When I first heard it I was maybe 4 or 5 ... a poor old man is cast out from the camp and he’s dreaming that he would have sons that would make them rich and wealthy - more food on the table, more oil for the seal oil lamps so their house is warm, and new clothes from the animals they’re catching. The son Atanarjuat was the Fast Runner and the son Amaqjuaq the Strong One. And … there was this beautiful young lady who was promised to Oki. But Oki became jealous of Atanarjuat and challenged him to a duel … that Atanarjuat wins with help from a good spirit.… And from that day Oki wanted to see him dead, and one spring day he crashed their tent and started harpooning it from outside. And Atanarjuat escapes and runs naked on the ice. Everybody knew that story….
Q. How did you become interested in filmmaking?
Z. Kunuk: In 1966 they were showing 16mm films here in Igloolik. And us kids we could go to the children’s matinee, which cost a quarter ... And I [became] interested in still photography. I was experimenting with different types of cameras, 35mm cameras, and I was documenting Easter games, events or hunting events. And then in 1980 I … bought myself a video camera…. And in ’83 … Paul Apak … hired me to work with him at [the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation]. I learned my technical skills from Paul…. In my eight years there I was cameraman, editor, soundman, everything [and] at the end station manager. [Later] we started this independent company [Igloolik Isuma Productions] and now we’re doing great.
Q. What’s the nature of your collaboration with your partner and Atanarjuat’s photographer Norm Cohn? How would you compare your styles?
Z. Kunuk: Well I met Norman in 1985 and … I saw his videos and I liked them very much. His camera style is just like my camera style. When I’m shooting, the floor belongs to me. Whether I’m in church or … in a meeting, at a dance, the floor is my floor, I can move anywhere I want to. Probably I would jump right into the middle of the dance and videotape it from the inside and he does that too. My friends would set their lights and tripods and shoot the whole dance from one spot and work with the zoom. I didn’t like that.… what’s wrong with a shaky camera? It looks more real … more alive.
Q. What impact has the Canada Council for the Arts had on arts activities in Igloolik?
Z. Kunuk: Yeah, a lot of people get involved when we’re doing a project. They understand Canada Council. You’re the only department who seems to understand our language…. Probably this whole town knows about Canada Council….
Q. Many of your productions have a documentary quality, which I think is a tribute to the way you work with actors.
Z. Kunuk: Well, here in Igloolik … we’re working with families and documenting them. We would tell them what we want to do and they would create their own lines…. We’ve been working with these people for a long time and we’ve been training them so they are professionals, professional actors…. In the Inuit way you learn by watching…. The bottom line is that we’re trying to show our culture the way it was, since it’s been misunderstood a lot.…
Q. What’s your next project?
Z. Kunuk: My next project is the early contact with the south … when they started trading. It’s when the missionaries came and are preaching the gospel of … God, Jesus and what was going through their heads…. I want to recreate the misunderstanding … and go after true stories.… This summer we’re into research. And I would like to get people involved…. That’s the story I want to try to film next.
Zacharias Kunuk was interviewed by Ian Reid, then Acting Co-ordinator of the Aboriginal Arts Secretariat at the Canada Council, in June 2001.