Documentary
Inuit traditional face tattoos have been forbidden for a century, and almost forgotten. Director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, together with long-time friend and activist Aaju Peter, is determined to uncover the mystery and meaning behind this beautiful ancient tradition. Together they embark on an adventure through Arctic communities, speaking with elders and recording the stories of a once popularized female artform. Central to the film is Arnaquq-Baril’s personal debate over whether or not to get tattood herself. With candour and humour, she welcomes us into her world, to experience firsthand the complex emotions that accompany her struggle. Past meets present in this intimate account of one woman’s journey towards self-empowerment and cultural understanding.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
LaDonna Harris: Indian 101
The Call of Fayu Ujmu
Amazônia, a Nova Minamata?
The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau
One Heart: One Spirit
Nowhere Land
Timuti
Our People Will Be Healed
Natsik Hunting
If the Weather Permits
Martha of the North
Highway to the Arctic
Tawai: A Voice from the Forest
The Last Igloo
Qipisa
Our Indians
Tattoos: A Scarred History
These Are My People...
The Hunters
Nanook of the North
SIMILAR MOVIES
LaDonna Harris: Indian 101
IMDB 1 | Mar , 2014
A documentary film about Comanche activist LaDonna Harris, who led an extensive life of Native political and social activism, and is now passing on her traditional cultural and leadership values to a new generation of emerging Indigenous leaders.The Call of Fayu Ujmu
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2002
A 13-year-old Indian boy is found unconscious after being attacked in the jungle by the evil spirit Fayu Ujmu. A shaman attempts to ritually tame the spirit and advises the boy’s father to capture it. This story is based on a Chachi Indian legend; it was shot with indigenous inhabitants of the jungle community of Loma Linda, on the Rio Cayapas.Amazônia, a Nova Minamata?
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2022
The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1974
In this revealing study of Norval Morrisseau, filmed as he works among the lakes and woodlands of his ancestors, we see a remarkable Indigenous artist who emerged from a life of obscurity in the North American bush to become one of Canada's most renowned painters. Morrisseau the man is much like his paintings: vital and passionate, torn between his Ojibway heritage and the influences of the white man's world.One Heart: One Spirit
IMDB 0 | Jul , 2017
An Aboriginal Australian and Native American documentary narrated by award-winning actor Jack Thompson, One Heart-One Spirit tells the story of Kenneth Little Hawk, an elder Micmac/Mohawk performing artist, meeting the oldest surviving culture on the planet: the 40,000 year old Yolngu nation located in northern Australia.Nowhere Land
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2015
Documentary about filmmaker Bonnie Ammaaq's memories of life on Baffin Island, where her family moved for eleven years during her childhood from the hamlet of Igloolik to return to the traditional Inuit way of life.Timuti
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2012
In Inukjuak, an Inuit community in the Eastern Arctic, a baby boy has come into the world and they call him Timuti, a name that recurs across generations of his people, evoking other Timutis, alive and dead, who will nourish his spirit and shape his destiny.Our People Will Be Healed
IMDB 5.7 | Sep , 2017
Legendary documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin provides a glimpse of what action-driven decolonization looks like in Norway House, one of Manitoba's largest First Nation communities.Natsik Hunting
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1975
Mosha Michael made an assured directorial debut with this seven-minute short, a relaxed, narration-free depiction of an Inuk seal hunt. Having participated in a 1974 Super 8 workshop in Frobisher Bay, Michael shot and edited the film himself. His voice can be heard on the appealing guitar-based soundtrack…. Natsik Hunting is believed to be Canada’s first Inuk-directed film. – NFBIf the Weather Permits
IMDB 8 | Jun , 2003
Director Elisapie Issac's documentary is a sort-of letter to her deceased grandfather addressing the question of Inuit culture in the modern world.Martha of the North
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2009
In the mid-1950s, lured by false promises of a better life, Inuit families were displaced by the Canadian government and left to their own devices in the Far North. In this icy desert realm, Martha Flaherty and her family lived through one of Canadian history’s most sombre and little-known episodes.Highway to the Arctic
IMDB 7 | Feb , 2017
Every winter for decades, the Northwest Territories, in the Canadian Far North, changes its face. While the landscape is covered with snow and lakes of a thick layer of ice, blocking land transport, ice roads are converted to frozen expanses as far as the eye can see.Tawai: A Voice from the Forest
IMDB 6.2 | Sep , 2017
Explorer Bruce Parry visits nomadic tribes in Borneo and the Amazon in hope to better understand humanity's changing relationship with the world around us.The Last Igloo
IMDB 7.7 | Jun , 2019
Documentary that follows a lone Inuit as he hunts, fishes and constructs an igloo, a way of life threatened by climate change.Qipisa
IMDB 4 | Feb , 2017
The director goes back to her roots in Pangnirtung, amongst her family and community. It leads her to another journey: to Qipisa, the outpost camp from where they were uprooted.Our Indians
IMDB 5.5 | Jan , 1995
Yndio do Brasil is a collage of hundreds of Brazilian films and films from other countries - features, newsreels and documentaries - that show how the film industry has seen and heard Brazilian indigenous peoples since they were filmed in 1912 for the first time: idealised and prejudiced, religious and militaristic, cruel and magic.Tattoos: A Scarred History
IMDB 0 | Jun , 2009
An exploration of how the once taboo art form has become socially acceptable.These Are My People...
IMDB 0 | Oct , 1969
This documentary short is the first film made by an all-Aboriginal film crew, training under the NFB's Challenge for Change Program. It was shot at Akwesasne (St. Regis Reserve). Two spokesmen explain historical and other aspects of Longhouse religion, culture, and government and reflect on the impact of the white man's arrival on the Indian way of life.The Hunters
IMDB 0 | Apr , 1977
This film joins a hunting-party of inhabitants of the Frobisher Bay Correctional Centre. The stalking, killing and skinning of seal and caribou are featured prominently, with explanations as to the importance of these animals to the Inuit way of life.Nanook of the North
IMDB 7.1 | Jun , 1922
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.