Zacharias Kunuk

Directing

Zacharias Kunuk

Born November 27, 1957 · Kapuivik, Nunavut, Canada (age 68)

Zacharias Kunuk is a Canadian Inuk film writer, director and producer, best known for writing and directing the feature film _Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner_, the first indigenous film with all indigenous cast and entirely in Inuktitut.

Known For

Atanarjuat: The Fast RunnerAtanarjuat: The Fast Runner · 2002
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
★ 6.82002
MovieFantasyDrama
Based on a local legend and set in an unknown era, it deals with universal themes of love, possessiveness, family, jealousy and power. Beautifully shot, and acted by Inuit people, it portrays a time when people fought duels by taking turns to punch each other until one was unconscious, made love on the way to the caribou hunt, ate walrus meat and lit their igloos with seal-oil lamps.
SearchersSearchers · 2016
Searchers
★ 6.82016
MovieActionDrama
Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner) returns with this Arctic epic inspired by the classic John Ford western of the same name, about a vengeful husband who sets off in pursuit of the violent men who kidnapped his wife and destroyed his home.
The Journals of Knud RasmussenThe Journals of Knud Rasmussen · 2006
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
★ 5.32006
MovieHistoryDrama
Based on the journal of Knud Rasmussen's "Great Sled Journey" of 1922 across arctic Canada. The film is shot from the perspective of the Inuit, showing their traditional beliefs and lifestyle. It tells the story of the last great Inuit shaman and his beautiful and headstrong daughter; the shaman must decide whether to accept the Christian religion that is converting the Inuit across Greenland.
UvangaUvanga · 2013
Uvanga
★ 10.02013
MovieDrama
Anna is nervous when she and her son, Tomas, arrive in the small, close-knit community of Igloolik, in the Canadian Arctic.
Before TomorrowBefore Tomorrow · 2008
Before Tomorrow
★ 7.82008
MovieDramaFamily
Two isolated families meet for a summertime celebration. Food is abundant and the future seems bright, but Ningiuq, a wise old woman, sees her world as fragile and moves through it with a pervasive sense of dread. Ningiuq and her grandson Maniq are dropped off on a remote island, where, every year, the family dries the catch and stores it for winter. The task is soon finished. As summer turns to fall, they wait in vain for the others to pick them up.
Going InlandGoing Inland · 1991
Going Inland
1991
MovieDrama
For the Igloolik Inuit, summer is the time of Nunaqpa, 'going inland,' that is, hunting for caribou to get sufficient meat provisions for the cold winter ahead. During a summer in the 1930s, two Igloolik families go hunting, while an old couple awaits their return.
Nipi (Voice)Nipi (Voice) · 1999
Nipi (Voice)
1999
Movie
From the Unikaatuatiit (Story Tellers) Series. A film by Isuma Productions.
Shaman StoriesShaman Stories · 2003
Shaman Stories
2003
Movie
Inuit memories and experiences of shamanism, and oral histories about the last shamans practicing in the region of Igloolik, Nunavut. Interviewees range from young people to elders and politicians, but they all share a belief that things happen, and that shamanism is still a living religion.

Filmography

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ExileExile · 2009
Exile
2009
MovieDocumentary
Zacharias Kunuk tackles the subject of the High Arctic Relocation from an Inuit point of view in the documentary Exile. In 1953, Inuit families were forcibly relocated to the uninhabited and inhospitable high arctic, 1500 kilometres north of their traditional homeland of Nunavik, in northern Québec. The goal of the move was to extend Canadian claims of sovereignty to Ellesmere Island. As a result, Inuit people were forced to endure the pain of families torn apart and many years of hardship. With devastating first-person accounts of survival, the trail of broken promises and shameful practices of the government and the RCMP, this powerful documentary captures the long-standing effects of these events from the perspectives of the people who were forced to endure them.

Director

The National Parks ProjectThe National Parks Project · 2011
The National Parks Project
★ 4.02011
MovieDocumentaryMusic
In an increasingly urban nation, Canada’s national parks are a treasured escape into extraordinary beauty and rugged wilderness. If the Group of Seven were an introduction to the landscape’s majesty, National Parks Project is the next logical chapter. Fifty-two contemporary artists from across the country, whose talents are as diverse as the parks they set out to explore, used their surroundings as a source of inspiration to blend musical and cinematic skills into collaboratively crafted vignettes. Epic in its ambition to celebrate these locales during Parks Canada’s centennial year, this omnibus film resonates with the knowledge that our unprotected land is more vulnerable than ever. Including films by Zacharius Kunuk, Peter Lynch, Sturla Gunnarsson and John Walker, and music by Sarah Harmer, Sam Roberts, Cadence Weapon and The Besnard Lakes, among many others, National Parks Project is a one-of-a-kind documentary experience.

Director