The Cinematheque

Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman’s Apprentice
Canada 2021
Zacharias Kunuk
21 min. DCP

Famed Inuk director Zacharias Kunuk’s stop-motion short is a mesmerizing wonder. Winner of Best Canadian Short at TIFF and Best Animated Short at the Canadian Screen Awards, this meticulously crafted, gorgeously told supernatural tale follows a young shaman in training as she travels to the underworld to visit Kannaaluk, ​“The One Below,” who holds the key to why a community member has taken ill. Jonathan Frantz, DP and producer on Kunuk’s last two features, co-wrote the film. The music is by Inuk singer Beatrice Deer. In Inuktitut with English subtitles.

followed by

Angakkuiit
(Shaman Stories)
Canada 2003
Zacharias Kunuk, Paulossie Qulitalik
52 min. BluRay

After the groundbreaking success of Atanarjuat, Zacharias Kunuk made a series of community-focused mid-length documentaries, including this captivating profile on Inuit shamanism, co-directed with Paulossie Qulitalik. (Kunuk would later return to the subject in his stop-motion stunner Angakusajaujuq, also playing in this program.) The film blends footage of Igloolik life with stories, told by on-camera interviewees, of shamanism and the spirit world around us. In Inuktitut with English subtitles.