Alethea Arnaquq-Baril
Who is she?
“The source of the story matters. The perspective matters.”
-Alethea Arnaquq-BarilAlethea Aggiuq Arnaquq-Baril is an award-winning Inuk filmmaker based in Iqaluit, NU. After graduating from Sheridan College in Ontario and receiving animation training at the Banff Centre, she now runs a film production company called Unikkaat Studios Inc. based in Iqaluit. “Unikkaat” meaning story, Arnaquq-Baril has produced many successful film projects exploring and documenting the Inuit story. Her films address Inuit cultural practices and issues Inuit people face.
Her latest Film
Her most recent film, “Angry Inuk”, addresses the lack of understanding of the cultural importance of Inuit seal hunting from activists fighting for a band of seal hunt. It asks the question, “How does a culture with understated anger stand up against global campaigns affecting their livelihood run by a group that is the complete opposite?” In her efforts to confront the misrepresentation of Inuit seal hunting, they start campaigns such as the #sealfie which showcase the Inuit pride for their culture rather than anger. She explores how two vastly different cultures can find a way to move forward from colonization and one imposing its culture on the other.
This film was selected for the Audience Choice award at both Hot Docs Festival 2016 and the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival and won the People's Choice Award at TIFF's Canada's Top Ten Film Festival 2017.
impact of her work
In her film "Tunniit", she explores the meaning behind the Inuit tradition of face and body tattoos that were brought to the brinks of extinction by the state through cultural genocide. These tattoos were symbolic of beautifying the adulthood of women as well as holding the belief that a women who receives a tattoo would have a better afterlife. As the process of tattooing was extremely painful, it signified strength and endurance. Although the meanings and designs differed from community to community, tattoos that were an integral part of an Inuit women’s identity. However, as Christian missionaries saw tattoos as a shamanistic practice that contradicted Catholicism and Protestantism and hastened the disappearance of Inuit tattooing. This films examines the loss of traditional knowledge as Arnaquq-Baril aims to rediscover her heritage.
She explains in a interview that this film helped to open a door for young women to reconnect with this part of their culture. By helping de-shaming these tattoos and it made it a little less scary for them to get these tattoos with or without their parents’ permission.