The Fast Runner: Filming the Legend of Atanarjuat

Chapter Four: Isuma's Motives

chaPteR FouR Isuma’s Motives Understanding the reasons behind a producer’s work is vital to understanding the work itself. Did she create a movie with the goal of making money? Was she trying to advance his own career? Was she trying to make an economic impact in some part of the world? Was she trying to express a set of ideas that she holds dear? Exploring those questions can shed light on the intent behind a movie and the significance that movie might carry. When Kunuk started making videos in 1981, he was drawn by the images and characters he saw when he watched Hollywood westerns and crime dramas. But Kunuk—and Isuma—are compelled by much more than mimicry or a desire to make a big splash at the box office. As Kunuk asks, “Can Inuit bring storytelling into the new millennium? Can we listen to our elders before they all pass away? Can producing community tv in Igloolik make our community, region and country stronger? Is there room in Canadian filmmaking for our way of seeing ourselves?” (Igloolik Isuma Productions 2002, 15). Kunuk is driven by more than just a desire to increase the volume of Inuit voices. Information and stories about the Inuit have been created and disseminated for centuries—almost entirely by nonInuks , who had their own agendas, biases, blind spots, and personal tastes. Some were more serious and professional than others. At the extreme end of the spectrum are movies like Enuk, starring Anthony Quinn as an Inuk (he was a Mexican-American actor best known for his portrayal of Zorba the Greek); the movie also featured Hawaiians playing Inuit characters and igloos built out of Styrofoam blocks. Even such ostensibly ethnographic works as Nanook of the North present flawed and manipulated information. 48 In that movie, for example, Nanook is portrayed as a spear hunter, even though he had owned a rifle for years; director Robert Flaherty was trying to make the Inuit seem more primitive and exotic than they were. Kunuk’s motives for making videos about the Inuit include a desire to correct the misperceptions that thrive in the southern world. But they also include a belief that the best people to talk about the Inuit are the Inuit themselves. Additional motives color his work and his efforts as well, including a desire to express his admiration for the people who made life in the Arctic possible. Appreciation of the Elders Throughout its videos, Isuma emphasizes the importance of respect for elders and ancestors. Qaggiq, Nunaqpa, and Saputi all focus on the value of elders’ insights; Kunuk and Cohn talked with elders at length about how hunting, fishing, igloo building, and other activities were done before Inuit culture collided with European and American approaches and goods. They also learned from elders the ways in which people treated each other, proper forms of address, taboos, and other facets of Inuit culture that shaped everyday behavior. Their mission was to understand the wisdom that the elders possessed and then convey some of that knowledge to the viewers of their videos. Arvik! and Nipi focus even more conspicuously on the value of the elders, shifting from a documentary approach to a more direct way of getting the message across. These videos use clear, straightforward terms to tell viewers that the elders are to be valued for their knowledge, their experience, and their insights. And, of course, The Fast Runner presents elders in a strong and respectful light. At the beginning of the film, Kumaglak, the elder running the camp, is revered, and his word is taken seriously. In proper Inuit fashion, a young person would become an elder through experience, survival, patience, and courage, but Sauri disrupts all that by bringing in the evil shaman who kills Kumaglak. Isuma’s Motives | 49 That act not only removes the camp leader, making way for Sauri’s ascension, it also disrupts the traditional systems of authority. Sauri becomes the leader not through his demonstrated wisdom but through his cruelty and cunning. This disruption paves the way for the misery that follows, including Sauri’s own murder at the hands of his son, Uqi. At the film’s conclusion, after Atanarjuat has opened the way for healing by refusing to continue the feud, Qulitalik and Panikpak are able to drive off the evil shaman and restore the proper leadership role of the elders. It is...