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Since its release in 2001, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Canada's first Aboriginal-language feature film, has earned its Nunavut-based producers, Igloolik Isuma Productions, global acclaim and several awards, including the Caméra d'Or for best new feature film at the Cannes Film Festival and five Genies, including best film.

In the spring of 2007, Arnait Video Productions, a women's collective that has received support from Igloolik Isuma Productions, will unveil its first feature film, Before Tomorrow. Like Atanarjuat, it is shot entirely in Inuktitut.

Based on the novel For morgendagen, by Danish writer Jørn Riel, the film tells the story of an Inuit community wiped out by an unknown disease following contact with European settlers, and of a woman who demonstrates that human dignity is at the core of life as she and her grandson face the ultimate challenge of survival.

The production has been a monumental task. Isuma raised $3.5 million for the film (more than Atanarjuat's $1.5 million  budget), while Arnait Video has undertaken a gruelling shooting schedule through 2006 in the raw landscape of Puvirnituq in northern Quebec.

In Before Tomorrow, Madeline Ivalu and her grandson, Paul-Dylan Ivalu, play the lead characters. Ivalu also co-directs the film with Marie-Hélène Cousineau, a Montreal videographer who moved to Igloolik and helped form the collective (originally called the Women's Video Workshop of Igloolik) in 1991; she currently serves as its co-ordinator.

Ivalu, who also co-wrote the screenplay, has been associated with Arnait Video from the beginning. She was the cultural adviser and interviewer on the video archive projects, Women/Health/Body and Itivimiut, and filled the multiple roles of storyteller, musician, actor and writer for Qulliq, Ataguttaluk Starvation, Piujuq and Angutautuq - short works that linked songs to the words and re-enactments of traditional activities.

While all of these works celebrate the cultural specificity of women in Igloolik, Arnait's goal is to give them universal appeal. So, while Before Tomorrow pays tribute to the hardships women of the North endured in the past, its timeless message of overcoming adversity is just as relevant to women today, regardless of their location.

Arnait Video's strength lies in an approach that values and reflects the cultural values and authentic traditions of its community. The women work as a team, writing the scripts, making the costumes and shaping the performances of the actors.

In 2005, the collective was one of 15 Canadian Aboriginal arts organizations selected by the Aboriginal Capacity Building Initiative - a program jointly funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canada Council's Aboriginal Arts Secretariat.

The Capacity Building Initiative provides support for networking, collaboration, forums, workshops and mentoring; its Flying Eagle program also enables organizations to hire outside consultants or experts.

Through difficult social and financial conditions, the women of Arnait Video Productions have demonstrated their own initiative and determination to document their lives and heritage. "Our stories are useful and unforgettable," says Susan Avingaq, a writer, actor and musician. "Women can do anything they want."

Arnait Video Productions is proving that.

- Christopher Guly