WINNIPEG, MB — The University of Winnipeg’s office of Indigenous Affairs and the Prairie Climate Centre are pleased to host a free public screening of the film Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change on March 6, at Eckhardt Gramatté Hall from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. The co-directors of the film, Zacharias Kunuk and Ian Mauro, will be in attendance to introduce the film and answer audience questions.
“Inuit are on the front lines of climate change, we’re seeing it, we’re living with it, and our knowledge and experience helps everyone better appreciated that we’re collectively living through a period of tremendous change,” said Kunuk.
Qapirangajuq is the world’s first Inuktitut-language film on climate change. It takes viewers on the land with elders and hunters to explore the social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic.
The film has won awards, been screened at numerous film festivals and academic conferences including the United Nations, Berlin International Film Festival, Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, ImagineNative as well as on television. It has been hailed as “groundbreaking” by the Globe and Mail and other media.
“Zacharias is a remarkable filmmaker, it’s an honour to have been able to work with him over the years, and I’m exciting that we’re finally able to co-present the film at the University of Winnipeg and discuss some of the pressing issues facing the Arctic and world as a whole,” said Mauro.
Zacharias Kunuk is the acclaimed Inuk director behind Atanarjuat the Fast Runner — which is considered the most important Canadian film ever made — as well as numerous other documentary and feature projects, including his recently released film Maliglutit, which is playing at Cinematheque during his visit.
Ian Mauro is a professor, researcher and filmmaker at UWinnipeg and a director of the Prairie Climate Centre. He has developed numerous climate change films across Canada, including a new SSHRC funded and prairie-focused project called Climate, Cinema and Cartography.
Kunuk and Mauro’s collaboration was recently featured in a Canadian Art article called “Ganging Up: A cross-Canada survey of leading collaborative practices,” which highlighted their efforts to link Indigenous knowledge and science in dialogue with communities.
Watch the trailer for Qapirangajuq below:
