Zacharias Kunuk ( iu, ᓴᖅᑲᓕᐊᓯ ᑯᓄᒃ, born November 27, 1957) is a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
Inuk
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, and ...
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''D ...
most notable for his film '' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'', the first Canadian dramatic feature film produced entirely in
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 ...
. He is the president and co-founder with Paul Qulitalik, Paul Apak Angilirq, and the only non-Inuit, ex-New Yorker team member,
Norman Cohn
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn British Academy, FBA (12 January 1915 – 31 July 2007) was a British Academia, academic, historian and writer who spent 14 years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.
Life
C ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
poll.
Background
Zacharias Kunuk was born in
Kapuivik
Kapuiviit (Inuktitut syllabics: ''ᑲᐳᐃᕖᑦ'') formerly Jens Munk Island, for Dano-Norwegian explorer Jens Munk, is one of the Canadian arctic islands in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is an uninhabited Baffin Island offshore ...
on
Baffin Island
Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...
in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. In 1966 he attended school in
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 ...
. There he carved and sold
soapstone
Soapstone (also known as steatite or soaprock) is a talc-schist, which is a type of metamorphic rock. It is composed largely of the magnesium rich mineral talc. It is produced by dynamothermal metamorphism and metasomatism, which occur in the zo ...
sculptures to afford movie admissions. As his skill improved, he was able to buy cameras and photographed Inuit hunting scenes. When he heard about video cameras in 1981, he purchased a camera and the basic equipment to be able to teach himself how to create his own movies."Zacharias Kunuk." ''Famous, Should Be Famous, and Infamous Canadians.'' (retrieved 29 Jan 2011)
Career
His second film, ''
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 ...
'', is a co-production with
Denmark
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, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
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, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
in which he is a co-writer and co-director with Norman Cohn. It premiered on September 7, 2006, as the opening film 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 2002, Kunuk was made an Officer of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
."Carleton Stories" ''Zacharias Kunuk Shares Intimate Picture of the North.'' (retrieved 27 Feb 2017)
He is the son of Enoki Kunuk, a hunter who was lost for 27 days during June 2007 in the
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...
tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless moun ...
.
Kunuk is the co-founder of the Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change Project, along with Ian Mauro of the
University of Victoria
The University of Victoria (UVic or Victoria) is a public research university located in the municipalities of Oak Bay and Saanich, British Columbia, Canada. The university traces its roots to Victoria College, the first post-secondary instit ...
's School of Environmental Studies. The goal of the project is to collect information from Inuit elders for a film about the Inuit perspective on the impact of
climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
on
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 ...
Cree
The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
filmmaker
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond (born January 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. He has sold more than 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has had ten No. 1 singles on the Hot 100 and Adul ...
about the 18th century conflict between Cree and Inuit, which lasted almost a century.
In March 2019, Kunuk was made a member of the
Order of Nunavut
The Order of Nunavut (french: Ordre du Nunavut, iu, ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒥ ᐃᓕᓴᖅᓯᔾᔪᑦ ᐅᔭᒥᒃ, italic=no, translit=Nunavumni Ilisaqsijjutujamik, ikt, Nangariyauyunut Nunavunmi) is a civilian Award, honour for merit in the Provinces an ...
, the sole member of the Order's 2018 class.
Filmography
Feature films and television:
*''Nunavut: Our Land'' (1995) — director and writer of television series
*'' Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner'' (2001) — director, producer, writer and editor
*''Kunuk Family Reunion'' (2004) — director and producer of television documentary
*''Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through Canadian Cinematic Psyche'' (2004) — appeared in television documentary
*''
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 ...
'' (2006) — director, producer and art director
*''
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) — executive producer
*''Tungijuq'' (2009) — executive producer of short
*''Home'' (2011) — director and writer of short
*'' Sirmilik'' (2011) — director of documentary
*'' Searchers'' (2016)
*''
Edge of the Knife
''Edge of the Knife'' ( hai, SG̲aawaay Ḵ'uuna, ) is a 2018 Canadian drama film co-directed by Gwaai Edenshaw and Helen Haig-Brown. It is the first feature film spoken only in the Haida language. Set in 19th-century Haida Gwaii, it tells the c ...
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...
(AMPAS, also known as simply the Academy), invited Kunuk to become a member. The Academy, which has almost 7,000 motion picture professionals as members, is known internationally for their annual Academy Awards, the Oscars. In 2017 they invited 774 new members to join.
Awards
Books
* ''Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice'' (2021)
See also
*
Notable Aboriginal people of Canada
Over the course of centuries, many Indigenous Canadians have played a critical role in shaping the history of Canada. From art and music, to law and government, to sports and war; Indigenous customs and culture have had a strong influences on ...