Nunavut
Award-winning Inuk director Zacharias Kunuk’s latest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, has been selected for Canada’s Top 10 Films of 2019 by the Toronto International Film Festival.
The announcement was made by Isuma Distribution International in Montreal on Dec. 11.
After premiering at the 58th Venice Biennale and the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk opened the ImagineNATIVE Arts and Media Festival and was named Best Canadian Film by the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival, stated a news release.
Shot on location in north Baffin Island, the film stars Apayata Kotierk (Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen), Kim Bodnia (Killing Eve, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen), and Benjamin Kunuk (Maliglutit / Searchers)
Set in Kapuivik, Nunavut, the film dramatizes an actual encounter with Igloolik elder Noah Piugattuk’s nomadic Inuit band in 1961. When the white government agent known as Boss arrives in camp, what appears as a chance meeting soon opens up the prospect of momentous change.
Major recognition
Rankin Inlet
The Canadian not-for profit organization Darkspark was awarded with the prestigious Intercultural Innovation Award by the United Nations Alliance of Civilization and BMW in Madrid, Spain, on Dec. 10.
The award recognizes Darkspark as a global leader in promoting intercultural understanding.
Darkspark is one of ten selected organizations recognized worldwide for the award, following a competitive selection process with over 1,200 applications received from 128 countries, stated a news release.
The Intercultural Innovation Award supports Darkspark extending its unique accomplishment and method with The Four Directions Project to other racialized youth and communities world-wide.
The Four Directions Project, a cross-cultural Canadian colonial history project – of which students at Maani Ulujuk Ilinniarvik in Rankin Inlet are a part of – that elevates the voices and perspectives of Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth through music and digital story-telling, contributes to an important cross-cultural conversation across Canada, inspiring audiences to listen, learn, understand and actively invest in recovery and reconciliation.
Scholarship open
Kivalliq/Nunavut
The Inuit Art Foundation (IAF) announced on Dec. 9 that applications to the Watt Scholarship are now open.
The IAF has provided support to Canadian Inuit pursuing post-secondary education for more than two decades, having donated to Indspire’s Building Brighter Futures: Bursaries, Scholarships, and Awards program to facilitate the Watt Scholarship, which the IAF has offered for almost 25 years.
Established in 1995, the Watt Scholarship is awarded annually to two Canadian Inuit currently enrolled in a post-secondary institution with a demonstrated interest in art, history and culture.
Each scholarship provides $2,500 to assist, support and encourage Inuit in their pursuit of post-secondary studies in Inuit art and culture.
Applications to the Watt Scholarship are open until Feb. 1.