Canadian Inuk producer and director
Zacharias Kunuk OC ONu (Inuktitut: ᓴᖅᑲᓕᐊᓯ ᑯᓄᒃ, born November 27, 1957) is a Canadian Inuk producer and director most notable for his film Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, the first Canadian dramatic feature film produced entirely in Inuktitut.[1] He is the president and co-founder with Paul Qulitalik, Paul Apak Angilirq, and Norman Cohn (an ex-New Yorker and the only non-Inuit team member), of Igloolik Isuma Productions, Canada's first independent Inuit production company.[2] Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), the first feature film that was entirely in Inuktitut was named as the greatest Canadian film of all time by the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival poll.
Background
Zacharias Kunuk was born in Kapuivik on Baffin Island in Canada. In 1966 he attended school in Igloolik. There he carved and sold soapstone sculptures to afford movie admissions. As his skill improved, he was able to buy cameras and photographed Inuit hunting scenes. When he heard about video cameras in 1981, he purchased a camera and the basic equipment to be able to teach himself how to create his own movies.[3]
Career
His second film, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, is a co-production with Denmark in which he is a co-writer and co-director with Norman Cohn. It premiered on September 7, 2006, as the opening film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2002, Kunuk was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.[4]
He is the son of Enoki Kunuk, a hunter who was lost for 27 days during June 2007 in the Arctic tundra. Zach filmed the rescue and return.[5]
Kunuk is the co-founder of the Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change Project, along with Ian Mauro of the University of Victoria's School of Environmental Studies. The goal of the project is to collect information from Inuit elders for a film about the Inuit perspective on the impact of climate change on Inuit culture and the environment. The project submitted a video to the United Nations for the 2009 COP15 Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change which was presented at Denmark's National Gallery.[6]
As of April 2011, Kunuk is developing a project with Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond about the 18th century conflict between Cree and Inuit, which lasted almost a century.[7]
In March 2019, Kunuk was made a member of the Order of Nunavut, the sole member of the Order's 2018 class.[8]
Filmography
Feature films and television:
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
In July 2017 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, also known as simply the Academy), invited Kunuk to become a member. The Academy, which has almost 7,000 motion picture professionals as members,[10] is known internationally for their annual Academy Awards, the Oscars. In 2017 they invited 774 new members to join.[11]
