Inuuvunga: I am Inuk I am Alive

Through an initiative of the National Film Board of Canada in collaboration with the Kativik School Board , eight students were selected to document this pivotal year of their lives. To teach them the essentials of filmmaking , the NFB dispatched independent filmmakers Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin. The result of their collaboration is Inuuvunga, a vibrant and utterly contemporary view of life in Canada’s North.

Fearless and fragile , the students use their new film skills to address a broad range of issues, from the widening communication gap with their elders to the loss of their peers to suicide. Throughout, they portray the co-existence of southern and northern cultures: Kids listen to hip-hop music and engage in traditional fox trapping. A schoolroom floor is the scene of the gutting of a freshly killed seal.

Seamless and startling, Inuuvunga paints a rich and diverse portrait of coming of age in an Inuit town. It dispels the myths of northern isolation and desolation , and reveals instead a place where hope and strength overcome adversity.