Living in Qallunajatut

Last summer a camera crew equipped with a Sony DSR-500 DV-CAM followed six Inuit who live in Montreal as they experienced daily life in the city.

It’s all part of the work involved in filming and producing Qallunajatut (Urban Inuk), an Igloolik Isuma co-production with the Montreal-based Kunuk-Cohn Productions, Inc. that tells the story of:

* Pitsiulala Lyta, who came to Montreal 20 years ago as a teenager from Iqaluit. Now a social worker, she does outreach work for the Native Friendship Centre in Montreal. She has no plans to leave the city she fell in love with in her youth. Through Pitsiulala, the film also meets homeless Inuit on the streets of Montreal.
* Jayson Kunnuk from Igloolik, who is also involved in Qallunajatut as a script-writer. Jayson was 12 when his father died of an aneurysm while seal hunting. He witnessed his father’s collapse, and watched him die — something he still grapples with. Jayson carves caribou antlers that his mother sends down from Igloolik, and, thanks to an arts grant from the Canada Council, works on an experimental audio art project exploring Inuit family relations. He also attends the Circus School of Verdun and, according to his biography, is fast becoming an ace unicycle rider.
* Lisa Koperqualuk, Makivik Corporation’s communications officer, who, just this past weekend, won a coveted position as the first Inuk to join an expedition to the Base Camp of Mount Everest. Born in Puvirnituq, Lisa was raised by her grandparents and studied in Ottawa and Montreal. Her grandfather was the well-known and highly-regarded Isa Koperqualuk, a minister in the Anglican Church. A black belt in karate, Lisa, also the mother of two boys, studies with Sharok, a sensei in the Japan Karate Association and teaches at a karate school.
* Jacob Partridge, now in his 50s, left Kuujjuaq with his family in 1995. He moved to the interior of British Columbia, where his wife Sheila comes from, and later to Montreal, where he now works for Air Inuit. Jacob also volunteers at a detention centre in St-Jerôme as a cultural contact for Inuit prisoners.
* Victor Mesher, originally from Kuujjuaq, is the director of finance at Makivik as well as the founder and president of the Association of Montreal Inuit, a non-profit group that organizes monthly community feasts for Inuit at St-Paul’s Anglican Church in Lachine. Through Victor, the film follows the network of hunters, packers, cargo-handlers and community volunteers who transport country food down to Montreal.
* Charlie Adams, Nunavik’s well-known singer and songwriter, who came to Montreal in September 2003 on a medical emergency evacuation, after an assault left him with a concussion. Charlie is followed during the summer of 2004, which ended with a near-fatal accident in the city. The documentary will also show Charlie back in Kuujjuaq, where he is now recuperating.