Alethea Arnaquq-Baril

Who are they?

Alethea is an Inuit filmaker, director, writer and activist from Iqaluit, Nunavut. She is best known for her film work on Inuit culture and life.

Early life

Alethea was born and raised in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Her mother was an Inuk teacher and her father a CBC radio broadcaster. She started studying maths at University of Waterloo in Ontario, but then transferred to Sheridan to pursue animation where she graduated with a degree in illustration.


Films

  • many incredible films that educate people on Inuit culture

  • Lumaajuuq: The Blind Boy and the Loon (2009)

    • "The animated, short film Lumaajuuq: The Blind Boy and the Loon, is an adaption of a traditional Inuit story about a widowed mother who takes out her sorrow on her only son and treats him cruelly. Once a great hunter, the son is now blind. He later travels to a lake where a loon reveals to him that it was his mother who cursed away his sight. With the loon's help, the young man regains his vision. Overcome with his own rage, the young man seeks revenge and his actions bring him lifelong suffering. The film won best Canadian Short Drama at the imagineNATIVE festival in 2010 as well as the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Aboriginal category at the Yorkton Film Festival."

  • Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos (2010)

      • "The documentary Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos, examines the tradition of face tattooing among Inuit women, now forbidden and nearly forgotten. Arnaquq-Baril embarks on a personal journey, interviewing members of the Inuit community. Meeting resistance from some of her fellow Inuit, she eventually finds a number of elders willing to talk about the tattoos, and learns about the dramatic cultural changes that led to their decline."

  • Inuit High Kick (2010)

      • "Arnaquq-Baril directed Inuit High Kick, a 2:48 documentary of Inuk athlete Johnny Issaluk performing a one-foot high kick in slow motion. The documentary was produced as part of the cultural celebrations for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics."

  • Aviliaq: Entwined (2014)

      • "Arnaquq-Baril released the short film Aviliaq: Entwined in 2014. A drama set in the 1950s Arctic, it tells the story of two Inuit lesbians struggling to stay together after one of them marries. The film addresses the issues of sexuality and family structure in the Inuit culture during a period of colonization."

  • Angry Inuk (2016)

      • "Angry Inuk is a full-length film which examines the important role of seal hunting in Inuit culture and the negative impact that activist organizations trying to stop the seal hunt have had on the lives of the Inuit people. The film premiered at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, where the film received the Vimeo On Demand Audience Award along with the Canadian Documentary Promotion Award. It has since screened at many film festivals. On December 1, 2016, Arnaquq-Baril received the DOC Vanguard Award from the Documentary Organization of Canada. Angry Inuk was also included in the list of "Canada's Top Ten" feature films of 2016, selected by a panel of filmmakers and industry professionals organized by TIFF, where it also won the Audience Choice Award."



Why I chose them as a role model?

I passionate about environmentalism and also interested in the intersection between race and environmentalism. I watched the documentary Angry Inuk by Alethea, and gained a lot of respect for her over the course of the film. It is an amazing doumentary that made me want to learn more about the laws against sealing. The work she does is of immense importance. Watching Angry Inuk was a reminder for me of the ways that society is still in way too many areas getting worse rather than staying the same or getting better.