Filmmakers tight-lipped about movie being shot in Apex and Iqaluit

Members of a 30-person crew shooting scenes for a feature film around Apex and Iqaluit this week are keeping details of their $8-million production close to the proverbial sealskin vest.

The crew is on its third day of an eight-day local shooting schedule for In Alaska, a production by Dutch director Jaap van Heusden, co-written and co-directed by Iqaluit-based filmmaker Vinnie Karetak.

“It’s a co-production between the Netherlands and Canada so we’ve got some Canadians and we’ve got some Dutch folks on the crew,” said line producer Nach Dudsdeemaytha, of Vancouver-based Experimental Forest Films, in an on-set interview with Nunatsiaq News.

The film’s plot centres around a 17-year-old youth from a small Alaskan village who becomes a wanted terrorist after shooting a hole into the trans-Alaska pipeline before escaping to Nunavut, where he reconnects with his Inuk mother’s roots.

Dudsdeemaytha would not discuss many other details of the production, including how and when people will have a chance to see the completed film.

The names of the two actors featured in Friday afternoon’s shoot along the mouth of the Niaqunguk River on Frobisher Bay, next to Simonie Michael Lane in Apex, are also a secret.

He did, however, identify one of the actors as coming from Nunavut and said the settings being shot this week will represent Nunavut in the film.

Karetak, the co-director, was more forthcoming, revealing the identity of a third, uncredited character in the film.

“In my mind, the land is a character in itself,” he said. “Part of the things that we wrote as directors is using the landscape.”

The land was ready for its close-up as shooting began midday Friday amid sunny, -19 C conditions.

“The weather has been co-operating,” Karetak said. “Everything’s going well. It’s been beautiful and sunny for the last three days.”

The production schedule is on time, he said.

“We’re pleased and happy with how open and willing the people here in Iqaluit have been,” he said, apologizing to residents for the crowd of trucks and equipment that descended on Apex at around 11 a.m. on Friday. The road was closed to non-local traffic until 6 p.m.

After the Nunavut scenes are finished next week, shooting will resume in B.C. later this year, Dudsdeemaytha said.

The film is funded by the Netherlands Film Fund and Telefilm Canada, among others.