Nunavut filmmakers plea for recognition, support

DENISE RIDEOUT

IQALUIT — The special screening in Iqaluit this week of Atanarjuat, a film produced by an Igloolik-based company, put Nunavut’s movie industry in the spotlight this week.

But many of the territory’s filmmakers and producers say they’re usually struggling to prove that filmmaking is even an industry in Nunavut.

“We are an invisible minority,” John Houston, a renowned filmmaker, said at a film symposium in Iqaluit last weekend.

In filmmaking circles there’s little doubt the industry exists. The problem, they say, is that neither the Nunavut government nor the Inuit organizations recognize the importance of nurturing Nunavut’s filmmakers.

More than 100 employees

People in the film business estimate that Nunavut’s film industry employs more than 100 people at any given time. Isuma, Inuit Communications Systems Ltd. and Triad are three of the territory’s largest production companies, and there’s also a handful of small, independent companies.

One of the earliest movies filmed in Nunavut was James Houston’s White Dawn, and since then The Map of the Human Heart, Atanarjuat and numerous other films have made in Nunavut.

Norman Cohn says the films are a vehicle through which Inuit can tell stories in their own language. Cohn, Atanarjuat’s director of photography, says people should recognize the cultural significance of Nunavut films.

“Making those films would be profitable culturally, even if you only break even economically,” Cohn said.

“It’s not just an industry. It’s a cultural industry, and Nunavut needs that,” he told the delegates, who included independent filmmakers, broadcasters, arts-council members and representatives from the Nunavut government.

Cohn says Nunavut should be more supportive of an industry that creates jobs, promotes Inuit culture and attracts tourists to the area.

And he warns that without incentives, such as travel rebates or tax credits, few producers will come to Nunavut to make movies.

Tax credit system?

Nunavut is one of the only jurisdictions in Canada that doesn’t offer tax credits for film or television productions.

The credit is attractive to film companies because they get a percentage of their budget back after they’ve completed their project. For local jurisdictions, it means local people get hired and money is injected into the economy.

In Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, tax credits have boosted the local film industries.

The Yukon, facing a dying film industry, introduced a $15,000 travel rebate and a 35 per cent labour rebate to entice producers to film there. Mark Hill, the Yukon’s film commissioner, said since introducing those incentives they’ve been getting two or three film proposals a month.

Norman Cohn said a tax credit could have helped Isuma with its production costs for Atanarjuat.

He said it took Isuma three years of sending out proposals before it secured enough money for the $2-million project.

Cohn said he’d never want to go through that again. He said he’s angry that after spending close to $1 million employing people in Igloolik, there’s no tax credit available to his company.

“No one will ever do it again unless we put some policies in place,” he said.

But if filmmakers were looking for the Nunavut government to immediately agree to a tax credit, they were sorely disappointed.

Geoff Hughes, a tax analyst with the GN’s finance department, said governments tend to see tax credits as just another way of spending government money.

“They’re looked at fairly critically,” Hughes told the symposium.

Still, government officials agreed that some sort of film policy is needed.

“We have language, art and culture up here. In order to get that out to the rest of the world we need money. That takes work from both government and industry,” said Peter Ittinuar, assistant deputy minister of Sustainable Development.

While no concrete policy was developed at the meeting, both government officials and film industry representatives agreed that Nunavut should hold a film festival sometime next year. They say the festival would put a face on the film industry in Nunavut.