Isuma (

Inuktitut syllabics Inuktitut syllabics ( iu, ᖃᓂᐅᔮᖅᐸᐃᑦ, qaniujaaqpait, or , ) is an abugida-type writing system used in Canada by the Inuktitut-speaking Inuit of the territory of Nunavut and the Nunavik and Nunatsiavut regions of Quebec and Labra ...

, ᐃᓱᒪ; Inuktituk for 'to think') is an

artist collective An artist collective is an initiative that is the result of a group of artists working together, usually under their own management, towards shared aims. The aims of an artist collective can include almost anything that is relevant to the need ...

and Canada's first

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

-owned (75%)

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...

, co-founded by

Zacharias Kunuk Zacharias Kunuk ( iu, ᓴᖅᑲᓕᐊᓯ ᑯᓄᒃ, born November 27, 1957) is a Canadian Inuk producer and director most notable for his film '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'', the first Canadian dramatic feature film produced entirely in Inu ...

, Paul Apak Angilirq and

Norman Cohn Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA (12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British academic, historian and writer who spent 14 years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex. Life Cohn was born in London, to ...

Igloolik Igloolik ( Inuktitut syllabics: , ''Iglulik'', ) is an Inuit hamlet in Foxe Basin, Qikiqtaaluk Region in Nunavut, northern Canada. Because its location on Igloolik Island is close to Melville Peninsula, it is often mistakenly thought to be on th ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

in 1990. Known internationally for its award-winning film, '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'', the first feature film ever to be written, directed and acted entirely in the

Inuktitut Inuktitut (; , syllabics ; from , "person" + , "like", "in the manner of"), also Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, is one of the principal Inuit languages of Canada. It is spoken in all areas north of the tree line, including parts of the provinces o ...

language, Isuma was selected to represent Canada at the

2019 Venice Biennale The 58th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2019. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Ralph Rugoff curated its central exhibition, ''May You ...

where they screened the film ''

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk ''One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Zacharias Kunuk and released in 2019.Canada Pavilion. Isuma focuses on bringing people of multiple age ranges, cultural backgrounds, and belief systems together to support and promote Canada's indigenous community through television, the Internet and film. Isuma's mission is to produce independent, community-based media aimed to preserve and enhance

Inuit culture The Inuit are an indigenous people of the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America (parts of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland). The ancestors of the present-day Inuit are culturally related to Iñupiat (northern Alaska), and Yupik (Siberia and ...

and language; to create jobs and economic development in Igloolik and Nunavut; and to tell authentic Inuit stories to Inuit and non-Inuit audiences worldwide. Isuma is connected to

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. Arnait is related to Isuma Productions. History Arnait was foun ...

History

In 1999, the company filmed and produced the supernatural historical thriller '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner''. It was a box-office success around the world, and won the

Caméra d'Or The Caméra d'Or ("''Golden Camera''") is an award of the Cannes Film Festival for the best first feature film presented in one of the Cannes' selections (Official Selection, Directors' Fortnight or International Critics' Week The International ...

for Best First Feature Film at the 2001

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, six

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

s (including Best Picture), and several other international film awards. The film had its Canadian premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

in 2001. The massive critical success of ''Atanarjuat'' led to funding from

Telefilm Canada Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...

, enabling Isuma to begin development on multiple scripts. One of these, ''

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen ''The Journals of Knud Rasmussen'' is a 2006 Canadian-Danish film directed by Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn. The film is about the pressures on traditional Inuit shamanistic beliefs as documented by Knud Rasmussen during his travels across the C ...

'', about the switch from

shamanism Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in Igloolik in the early 1920s, received the offer to open the Toronto International Film Festival in 2006. In 2011, Isuma filed for

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

, citing $750,000 in debts, including $500,000 to Atuqtuarvik Corp. of

Rankin Inlet Rankin Inlet ( iu, Kangiqliniq; Inuktitut syllabics: ᑲᖏᕿᓂᖅ or ''Kangirliniq'', ᑲᖏᖅᖠᓂᖅ, or ''Kangir&iniq'' meaning ''deep bay/inlet'') is an Inuit hamlet on Kudlulik Peninsula in Nunavut, Canada. It is the largest hamlet a ...

. A Montreal-based receiver,

RSM Richter Richter LLP is a Business , Family Office that provides strategic advice on business matters and on families’ financial and personal objectives across generations. With close to 100 years of experience advising at the intersection of family and ...

, put the company’s assets—most notably its film library—up for sale. Since Isuma means "to have a thought", the collaborators of Isuma Productions encourage alternative and multimedia processes designed to make the world at large think not only about the Inuit and their current plight, but about indigenous peoples in general, and the future of the role of community in society. Much of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

’s wealth today was extracted from its Aboriginal citizens, who, by every measure, are now the most destitute populations in these countries. If the Inuit of ''Fast Runner'' ended up in 1922 in church, the Inuit of ''The Journals'' ended up in today’s newspapers stories, living in

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

ghettos scattered across the wealthiest

First World The concept of First World originated during the Cold War and comprised countries that were under the influence of the United States and the rest of NATO and opposed the Soviet Union and/or communism during the Cold War. Since the collapse of ...

nations. Historically, how a country treats its indigenous people is an excellent gauge of its social and political views on humanism in general; what happens to the indigenous peoples of any given country is a sign of what will eventually happen to the dominant culture in time. Even today the law, education, religion and media continue to efface living memories of Aboriginal cultural history. As Norman Cohn says,

Save the seals and Save the bears seems more attractive than Save the people, but unless the rights of humans to live in their habitat are more widely recognized and protected it's a little fatuous to even dream about saving birds and animals.

Isuma aims to increase awareness and focus about and for indigenous peoples of all cultures, not just

Northern Canada Northern Canada, colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three Provinces_and_territories_of_Canada#Territories, territor ...

, through encouraging multimedia approaches. Their goal is to ensure that these rights are not compartmentalized, but rather include the awareness of

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

in a larger cultural and holistic context: through exploration of spirituality, globalization, environmentalism, cinema, world media, and Native awareness.

Reception

In the 1990s, films were shown locally and then broadcast across the Arctic on Television Northern Canada (TVNC), and Aboriginal People's Television Network (APT), which began in 1999 and broadcast the series as part of its original programming shown across all parts of Canada. Eventually, the individual films, as well as the Nunavut series, achieved worldwide recognition and acclaim, winning awards in Canada, France, Peru, the United States, Spain, Taiwan, and Japan. In January 2021, Isuma released Uvugat TV, Canada's first national Inuktut television channel, and is currently available across Canada. The collective platform for Isuma currently carries over 6000 videos in more than 80 different languages, on 800+ user-controlled channels, representing cultures and media organizations from Canada, U.S.A., Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and all over Latin America. Users register and open their own platforms and upload their own content. This way, Isuma notes, people can use their media to recover language and traditional indigenous strengths and transform them into contemporary strengths. As Canada's first Inuit independent production company, Isuma's mission claims to create a distinctive Inuit style of community-based filmmaking that preserves and enhances Inuit culture, creates needed employment, and offers a uniquely Inuit point of view to the global media audience. Isuma's goal is to delight other Inuit, and to connect with a global media audience. Isuma's videos, films, and Internet projects demonstrate how a community can appropriate communication tools to serve their own cultural, aesthetic, and linguistic purposes of Inuit culture. These audiovisual representations also enable Canadians to connect more directly with the images and their Inuit creators, and to establish a distinct and authentic Inuit voice within a global media discourse.

Importance of visual sovereignty in Igloolik Isuma film

Narratives in Inuit culture are largely communicated through visual and oral tradition. For this reason, many attempts to translate these Inuit stories into written language that are not done by indigenous peoples are not always a proper portrayal of indigenous people. These translations outside of indigenous cultures can often become misinterpreted, incorrect, or blinded by stereotypes created by colonialism. Ideas of visual sovereignty (a way of reimagining Native-centered articulations of self-representation and autonomy that engage the powerful ideologies of mass media), however, express Indigenous filmmakers and artists' use of editing technologies that permit filmmakers to stage performances of oral narrative and Indigenous notions of time and space that are not possible through print alone. Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. was created by Inuit to produce and distribute independent Inuit-language films and media art from an Inuit point of view, featuring local actors recreating Inuit life in the Igloolik region. Indigenous writer Michelle H. Raheja wrote that, when “Inuit performed for the camera, reviewed and criticized their performance and were able to offer suggestions for additional scenes in the film-a way of making films that, when tried today, is thought to be "innovative and original �� The films have had a lasting positive impact on Inuit communities, most likely because of the depth of their participation in its creation.” Because Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. has embraced “contemporary media technologies to help them tell their own stories on their own terms, it has enabled them to control their images and narratives and engage in the creative production of on-screen representations of their lives, histories, and storytelling traditions.” Isuma has also amplified Indigenous Arctic voices in their knowledge of climate change and its future impact on their land through films. Isuma has allowed many Inuit ideas to take form through many films, short videos, and documentaries that lay claim to their own perspectives and viewpoints.

Television

Isuma launched IsumaTV, an online platform, in 2008. A multimedia website and online portal for Inuit and Indigenous culture, it is dedicated to Indigenous filmmakers and is a free service. The site hosts films that put forth an aboriginal view and is intended to help Native communities around the world become connected. In 2021, Isuma launched

Uvagut TV Uvagut TV (translates to Our TV) is a Canadian licence-exempted Category B specialty television channel owned by Nunavut Independent Television Network. It is Canada's first television channel devoted exclusively to Inuktitut language programmin ...

, a cable television channel distributed throughout Nunavut and the Northwest Territories."New Uvagut TV to feature all programming made in Inuktut language"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', January 14, 2021.

Production

IsumaTV reportedly hosts over 7800 indigenous community videos in 70 languages. These videos cover several topics from an Inuit perspective, such as Arctic Issues, Indigenous Languages, and Global Community. * Stories of Our Elders (28 episode web series now televised by APTN)

Films

* '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'' (2000) * ''

'' (2006) * ''

Before Tomorrow ''Before Tomorrow'' (french: Le jour avant le lendemain) is a Canadian drama film, released in 2008. Directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu, the film is an adaptation of the novel ''Før Morgendagen'' by Denmark, Danish writer Jø ...

(Le Jour avant le lendemain)'' (2008) * ''Exile'' (in production) * ''

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk ''One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk'' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Zacharias Kunuk and released in 2019.Kiviaq vs. Canada'' (2006) *''Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (2011)'' * '' Kivitoo: What They Thought of Us'' (2018)

References

{{reflistIsuma (Inuktitut syllabics, ᐃᓱᒪ; Inuktitut for "to think") -Isuma; also meaning,'The thought of the mind'

External links

Isuma.caIsuma.tv
Inuit organizations Film production companies of Canada Inuit film Indigenous film and television production companies in Canada Organizations based in Nunavut Indigenous organizations in Nunavut Companies that have filed for bankruptcy in Canada Canadian contemporary artists Canadian artist groups and collectives