Kangiqsujuaq - workshop day 1
After a cozy sleep the mentors head to the Arsaniq school by 9am to see if there might be any high school students interested in the filmmaking workshop. (Arsaniq means Northern Lights) It is a short 5 minute walk from the residence and it is pretty windy and surprisingly busy with ATVs and trucks and water trucks and schools buses and folks walking and dogs running all around! The school is the biggest building in the community and has amazing art inside, both by professional artists and by students! We meet Marion - acting principal - and leave a message for Ingrid who works for Youth Fusion. Then we head back to the residence to meet Nigel, who is already there working away! Nigel has a poem/spoken word piece that he wrote and brought as well as a German video that he was interviewed for. We first watch the video, it has Nigel and his cousin in the film and it is quite personal interviews with a randomness to the questions. The Germans definitely brought preconceived notions of the Inuit into their filmmaking. It made the mentors feel a bit uncomfortable, but Nigel handles himself in a classy and generous way. Nigel then performs his spoken word - - a story about his personal challenges in the community and within himself around loss and self worth that is powerful and honest. He then gets right down to the rewrite to add his brother's death to the story. It will be dedicated to him and to friends who have since passed. Nigel is such a positive force in the face of his adversity, a true inspiration. He completes his rewrite and the mentors type it up to send him so he can review it on his flight out of town to attend a job interview! Good luck and safe travels, Nigel, fingers and toes are crossed that you land the job! We shall see you Thursday at 10:30. Nigel also brought imagery and solid plans were made for filming locations for Thursday. A super productive morning. Thank you!
Ingrid pops by to learn about the workshops and we all make a plan to visit the school at recess and lunch tomorrow to see if any high schools students will be interested. Glenn shows her the kaleidoscope community project.
Maina joins us and watches a few films for inspiration. Maina is training to be an Arctic Guide but taking a break before she comes back to complete the program. She plans to work in the Pingualuit National Park when she is done. Maina loves Brooke’s latest film ó:nen í:ke’s and is interested to make a piece with photos and maybe animation!
Leena also arrives to work on her video. Leena and Maina take a look at the pictures that Alex G put on a USB key for us. The images are incredible! And the stories are too! So many stories to tell. Which one?? Leena has a real eye for photography, the mentors go nuts for her closeups and her play with depth of field. She is self taught! Leena downloads some material from her phone and uses a song that her friend Jaiku sings in one of the cabins in Pingualuit Park on one of their excursions as the spine of her film. She then adds gorgeous imagery and delights in the editing program. Each time she learns of a new tool or learns about scale or sound in the program she laughs - perhaps Leena is a born editor!
At lunch we show films to Amy and Adamie and Mark...chatting about potential films....Mark plays some songs on the guitar ....he is considering selecting one as his soundtrack to record!!
After school, (when french class is done), Ned joins us and starts to download images from facebook to use in his film. The mentors also start typing out his MANY stories to see which ones he may want to share. By using images to remember certain stories it is a way to explore connections and direction for his story. Ned shares caribou and polar bear videos where they are running alongside the skidoo! This means he is driving with one hand and filming with the other!!! We also start referring to a map when listening to Ned so we can start to learn the SCALE of his journeys! Sometimes 600 miles!!!
Adamie considers telling a story about his first trip on a plane on his first visit to Quebec! Exciting. He also moves imagery from facebook onto a computer!
Mark borrows a camera to film at his friends house that night to capture his friend finishing up making a harpoon head and harpoon!
Sarah (Leena's pal) comes by (niece of Dorothy Mesher) and tells us the meaning of many of the places in nunavik:
Inukjuak means Giant Person (Inuk means person)
Ku - means river so...
Kuujjuaq means BIG River (Qallunaat* call it Fort Chimo)
Kangiqsujuaq - Big Bay
Aupaluk - Red Land (due to minerals)
Kangiqsalujjuaq - Long River (George River)
Kangirsuk - Small Bay
Quaqtaq - Tape Worm!
Qallunaat* (pronounced HAL-A-NUT) means white person, but direct translation is approximately bushy eyebrow person or eyebrows that meet
Also of note the internet is SLOW but Leena and Ned work right unitl 10 pm collecting imagery, editing their film and their script. GREAT JOB! Such an exciting day!
