Kugaaruk puppet play left twisting in the wind

SEAN McKIBBON

IQALUIT — A project by Kugaaruk elders to film a movie using marionettes may be left hanging another year if they don’t find about $100,000 by the end of February.

“It’s really frustrating,” said Marla Limousin, Kugaaruk’s economic development officer, from her office in British Columbia.

She and the SAO for the hamlet of Kugaaruk, Quinn Taggart, worked out a rough estimate of how much it could cost to film a marionette play about the legendary Inuit hero Kiviuq, and came up with a figure of about $100,000.

Last year their plans for the production were put on hold when the U.S. government seized some of their marionettes when they were sent south for repairs. Made out of seal fur, the puppets violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which prohibits seal fur and other products from entering the U.S.

After much diplomatic wrangling and news stories on both sides of the Canada U.S. border, the puppets were returned.

Now that the puppets are back in Kugaaruk, the hamlet wants to get on with their original plan of staging and filming a puppet play.

They have the puppets. They have a PBS film crew interested in their project because of the publicity the U.S. customs seizure generated.

What they need now, said Limousin, is financial backing. But the one group Limousin and Taggart thought would be sure to support them, the Nunavut Government’s department of Culture, Language, Elders, and Youth, so far has not responded to their requests for help.

Limousin said the hamlet submitted a proposal to the department during the budget consultation tour, and seemed to evoke a great deal of excitement with the department’s minister, Donald Havioyak.

But so far there has been no response.

“It’s really frustrating. It doesn’t seem to reflect the priorities of the community,” said Limousin.

She said that because television production schedules are planned about six months in advance, and optimum filming season would be in the summer, the project will probably have to be put off another year.

But she hasn’t given up yet. Limousin made a request for funding from the federal government’s millennium fund, and from the National Film Board.

So far, Limousin has had only one response acknowledging her millennium fund application.

Havioyak did not respond to requests for an interview.