ABOUT
Umiaq Skin Boat is a beautiful and poetic 30-minute film about a group of Inuit elders in Inukjuak, Quebec who decide one summer to build the first traditional seal skin boat their community has seen in over 50 years. Once an essential vessel for travel and for hunting large prey like bowhead whales, the umiaq has been replaced in modern times by canoes powered with outboard motors.
Over the course of working together on the boat, the elders recount astonishing stories of survival while navigating volatile and unforgiving Arctic waters, and of dangers both natural and man-made. Shot against the magnificent backdrop of the northern landscape, Umiaq Skin Boat bears witness to the resilience of the Inuit spirit in changing times.
CREDITS & INFO
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Official Selection, Hot Docs, 2008
Closing Film, First Peoples' Festival 2008
Native American Film + Video Festival, New York, 2009
11th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film Leeds, 2009
XX International Festival of Archaeological Film, Rovereto, Italy, 2009
AAA/Society for Visual Anthropology Film, Video & Multimedia Festival, 2009
Voices From the Waters Film Festival, Bangalore, India, 2009
Global Visions Film Festival, Canada, 2009
Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival, Canada, 2009
Voices From the Waters Film Festival, Vancouver, Canada, 2009
International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec (FIFEQ), Canada, 2010