Support young emerging Inuk Filmmaker

Isaac has been selected as one of the recipients of the Arctic Indigenous Film Fund’s Witness Series pilot project documenting the stories of circumpolar Arctic Indigenous storytellers effort in response to warming temperatures of the arctic and how it affects their culture and communities.

He will create a short film about how climate change affects Inuit and urban Indigenous youth and community members. His selection will allow him to represent Canada, and more specifically from the point of view as a Nunavik Inuk from Kuujjuaq with an urban lived-experience.

This film will officially premiere at Toronto’s esteemed ImagineNATIVE 2023 Film and Media Arts Festival alongside the series of other circumpolar Indigenous filmmakers from Alaska, Greenland, Siberia, and Sápmi, allowing these stories to be showcased at an international level. Isaac will travel to Guovdogeaidnu, Sápmi in the arctic tundra of Northern Norway to participate in training mentored by established Indigenous filmmakers and producers as well as attend The Indigenous Film Conference 2023 - Reconciliation and New Futures.

As this grant is limited to a small amount and as a low-income Inuk affected by poverty, access to all of the basic equipment needed to create high-quality content is out of reach without asking for community assistance. This fundraiser aims to raise money to help cover the cost of equipment, interviews, production, travel and paying extra crew and editors who will help guide him in making this film.

Funds will be used to:

• Purchase a MacBook Pro 15” (M2, 2022) for storing and editing footage for the film

• Paying Inuit knowledge keepers, elders, and interviewees fairly for sharing their traditional knowledge, lived experience and emotional labour

• Hiring Indigenous editors and production assistants to guide and help with the editing process

• Licensing Indigenous artists music for the film

• Travel costs and emergency funds to ensure safety and security during time abroad for training such as travel medical insurance, food and lodging, transportation

• Additional production costs and unforeseen fees

As this is his first endeavour into filmmaking, having the opportunity to be financially secure during this process will alleviate the stress associated with documenting sensitive lived experiences as a young Inuk affected by climate change, poverty and intergenerational trauma, all of which are intimately linked and create barriers to platforming these voices, with the aim of these realities to be documented and told in this film.

Young Inuit and Indigenous people deserve to be uplifted, encouraged and supported in telling their stories. Your support will help allow this young Inuk storyteller towards his dream of creating a first of many films that shed light on the complex, resilient lives of Inuit and other Indigenous people affected by pressing contemporary issues.