Film premieres at Toronto festival Oct. 17

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

A new documentary film detailing an 18th century “war” between Inuit and Cree in what is now Quebec is set to have its first screening at the imagineNATIVE film and media arts festival in Toronto.

The world première of Inuit Cree Reconciliation will take place Oct. 17 at the international festival, which showcases indigenous artists from Canada and abroad.

Inuit Cree Reconciliation is the product of Igloolik’s Zacharias Kunuk, who teamed up with Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond in 2010 to research the events and historical impacts of a 1770s conflict between Inuit and Cree in northern Quebec.

In the film, Kunuk and Diamond follow both groups to a remote site along the Nastapoka River where their ancestors once clashed, to film a celebration held there to mark 200 years of peace.

Kunuk and Diamond interviewed Inuit and Cree elders in the twin communities of Kuujjuaraapik and Whapmagoostui to illustrate the modern complexities of two peoples living side by side.

The 44-minute long documentary is in both Cree and Inuktitut, with English subtitles.

You can watch a clip from the film here.