“It’s a movie as big as the hills.”

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — Ann Meekitjuk Hanson is probably as qualified as any Nunavummiut to make a documentary film about Inuit.

Besides having acted in a feature film and produced several videos, Hanson has a passion about presenting Inuit to the rest of the world.

Hanson, a longtime Apex resident, is probably best known for her role in White Dawn, a 1973 film based on James Houston’s well-known novel.

Twenty-eight years later, Hanson wants to produce her own film — a documentary on the culture and life of the Inuit.

“When people from the South write about us they tend to say one or two words: it’s isolated, it’s hostile. We don’t think so. We have survived it for generations and generations.”

Hanson’s goal is to tell the real story of Inuit people through Inuit eyes.

“I want it to come from the people. I finally want the people to show the world how we live up here,” Hanson said.

To do that, Hanson will use the power of the big screen. Her dream is to produce an Imax-style film that will be shown in theatres around the world.

Hanson and Nuna Productions, a company she helped create, have already distributed a proposal to some Nunavut leaders, Inuit organizations and private corporations to get financial backing for the multi-million dollar project.

While it seems like only a pipe dream right now, Hanson hopes that in five years Inuit will be watching a film that captures their history, their culture and their struggle to maintain a traditional lifestyle.

“Wow! It’s a big project,” the vivacious Hanson said with a grin. “It’s a movie as big as the hills. That’s the only description I can give at this time.”

While the task of making a film is a little daunting, Hanson herself is no stranger to the production world.

In the early 1980s she wrote, edited and produced educational videos on spousal abuse and alcoholism.

Perhaps her most famous work was in White Dawn, a tragic movie about the clash between Inuit and Qallunaat culture. Hanson, who was then a reporter at The Inuksuk newspaper in Iqaluit, landed the part without ever having any acting experience.

“I like to call myself an ageing actress,” Hanson said laughing.

With this new production, Hanson will leave the acting behind and take on the role of an Inuit cultural advisor.

Born in a camp outside Kimmirut, Hanson spent her early years in a traditional Inuit lifestyle.

To this day the 55-year-old is a strong supporter of Inuit culture.

For many years she was a radio broadcaster at CBC North, where she interviewed elders about everything from cooking country foods to traditional hunting methods.

She’s spent hundreds of hours sifting through documents in the National Archives of Canada looking for diaries and letters written in Inuktitut. Hanson then uses the little treasures she finds to write articles about the Inuit way of life.

“I grew up in a story-telling culture, so it stays with me,” she said.

Hanson, who learned to read Inuktitut from the Bible, tries to use her writings as a way to preserve the culture. She hopes to continue that by writing parts of this documentary film.

“Through oral history from our grandparents the language has survived, the rituals have survived, the clothes has survived. We are now finally able to document it in writing, in recording and in films,” Hanson said.