Isuma preps to film Igloolik’s history

SARA MINOGUE

A Canadian book reviewer, in an otherwise glowing review, recently had occasion to scold the Oxford University Press for a glaring omission in its newest reference publication, The Oxford Companion to Canadian History: In 748 pages, the book made no reference to Knud Rasmussen or the Fifth Thule Expedition.

Rasmussen was a Dane, born in Greenland, who led an expedition through Canada’s eastern Arctic from 1921 to 1924, collecting songs, stories and artifacts from the people he met.

This time next year, it’s quite possible that the authors of both books will be consoled by Igloolik Isuma Productions’ newest feature film, which documents the life and times of many members of that famous expedition.

The Journals of Knud Rasmussen will not be a traditional feature film, and will not be a documentary either, and director Zach Kunuk is loath to take credit for bringing it to the big screen.

“The script is all from history. It’s from the journals of Knud Rasmussen, it’s from the elders that we recorded. It’s all there,” Kunuk says.

“Even photographs that Knud Rasmussen took in 1921 and 1922 of the actual people that we’re talking about. We can see their faces, the way they are dressed and what kind of props and sets they have. It’s very different to Atanarjuat.”

The resulting film will be a re-enactment of sorts, in English, Inuktitut and Danish, loosely based on the travels of Rasmussen.

The goal is not to document Rasmussen’s exploration, but rather to preserve on film the particular time that brought the people of Igloolik into contact with the explorers.

Two main characters are Peter Freuchen and Therkel Mathiassen, two members of the expedition who explored the northern part of Baffin Island, including the Igloolik area, during the epic trip, accompanied by Nasaitdlorssuarssuk of Greenland and Mala of the Baffin region.

As Rasmussen made his way to Alaska, the two Danes remained in a station in Repulse Bay, where they planned to return to Greenland — one by dog team and one by ship.

Most of the other characters are people in the area, such as Aua, a revered shaman, whose legends have been passed on for generations, partly thanks to Rasmussen, and who, with his two shaman brothers Ivaluardjuk and Pilakapsi, offered shelter, stories and entertainment to the inquisitive explorers.

There were also a few Qallunaat scenes.

“In 1921 and 1922 there was a trading post in Repulse Bay… and the trader was a man who got kicked off a ship because he was robbing the captain’s liquor cabinet,” Kunuk says, laughing.

The former sailor was living with the people of Repulse Bay when the Hudson’s Bay Company arrived to set up a trading post. They needed a manager, and this man, who was already there and who spoke the local language, was a good choice.

Whaling captain George Comer, a Quebec-born sailor who made several voyages into the Arctic between 1875 and 1919, also makes an appearance.

The opening scene of the film will document one of the strange practices of Arctic visitors in the era — the plastering of Ivaluardjuk inside Captain Comer’s ship.

Photography was rare in 1905, Kunuk says, but that didn’t stop explorers from wanting to bring documents of their voyages home. An accepted method at the time was to cover people’s faces in plaster, in order to capture a mold that could then be used to create a bust, or cast of the face.

“All these faces from 1905 are in New York, but we’ve never seen them. We’ve only seen photographs of them,” Kunuk says.

The film will also document the arrival of Christianity. The first bible came to Igloolik from Pond Inlet in 1921, and was noted by Rasmussen during a visit to Aua’s camp.

Approaching by dog sled, Rasmussen observed that each igloo carried a little white flag, a sign of Christianity.

“As I drove up, men, women and children trooped out and formed up in a line outside Aua’s hut, and as soon as I had reined in my team, the whole party began singing a hymn…” Rasmussen wrote in his journal.

“I could not but recall my first meeting with these people a year ago, at Cape Elizabeth. Then they had come leaping and capering round me in an outburst of unrestrained natural feeling; now all was ceremonial and solemn to an almost painful degree.”

Collecting artifacts and documents to produce the story was a long process, and it continues. As part of the project, some Danish texts have been translated into English for the first time. Other materials have been hard to find.

“Rasmussen collected 20,000 artifacts during the trip, so where are they?” Kunuk asks.

Kunuk and his production team in Igloolik are now in the process of translating the script into Inuktitut.

By January, a cast of 30 to 35 people, including 6 or 7 main characters, will be assembled, including some Greenlanders. Next, costumes and props will be made or found, and shooting for the Nunavut-Canada-Denmark production will begin in March.

“When I started watching movies I used to believe that they really did happen. It never even crossed my mind that there’s a whole bunch of people behind the camera. But now we know.”