Filmmakers look outside territory for Nunavut landscapes

DENISE RIDEOUT

Igloolik Isuma Productions’ famed feature film Atanarjuat has thrust Nunavut into the international limelight. But Isuma’s next film might just make Quebec, Alberta or the Yukon the next famous place.

That’s because making movies in Nunavut is too expensive a battle for the production company.

The territory has the snow, ice and the pristine Arctic landscape the filmmakers want to capture — but it doesn’t offer any tax credits or rebates to make it affordable to shoot in Nunavut.

“It’s no accident why nobody wants to make films in Nunavut. You can’t afford it,” said Norman Cohn, Isuma’s co-founder and director of photography.

Cohn said Isuma is now toying with the idea of shooting its next Inuit film outside the territory. “If you have to pretend a northern Quebec town is a Nunavut community because that’s the only way you can make your film, then that’s what people will do,” said Cohn, who was in New York last week to attend a showing of Atanarjuat.

Almost every jurisdiction in Canada — except Nunavut — nurtures its film industry by providing incentives, such as tax credits and rebates, to attract local and outside film companies.

The credit gives film companies a percentage of their budget back after they’ve completed a project. And in turn, it means local people get hired and money is injected into the economy.

The Yukon is currently marketing itself as the next hot film spot in Canada. With an ad in Playback, a newspaper for the Canadian film industry, the territorial government is trying to entice movie producers to film there.

“It was a big stark ad that said 30 per cent labour rebate, 50 per cent travel rebate and it said ‘There are more reasons to make films in the Yukon besides the good scenery,’” Cohn said.

It took Isuma three years of proposal writing to secure enough money to shoot and produce Atanarjuat, a $2-million project. Cohn said despite spending almost $1 million to hire people from Igloolik, the company received nothing in return.

“Next time, there’s no way we can do it like that in Nunavut, unless Nunavut is competitive,” Cohn said.

Isuma is gearing up to shoot its next film in 2003, and Cohn figures he’ll be scouting for funding in the fall. “We’ll look to make the budget. If we can’t get the budget, well you know Nunavut is not the only place with snow and ice,” he said.

Isuma is frustrated the Nunavut government still hasn’t created any incentives despite strong calls from the territory’s filmmakers to do so. The frustration is so intense that neither Cohn or Atanarjuat’s director, Zach Kunuk, attended the Nunavut film symposium, held two weeks ago in Iqaluit.

Cohn doesn’t believe the GN is even serious about developing a film industry. He said instead of putting money into filmmaking, the government used money leftover in its budget at the end of March to hold its second film symposium in as many years.

“That’s an embarrassing situation for them to put people in, to ask people to give up their time and come and have the same meeting every year just because they have a little bit of leftover money.”