NFB Collection
The Hunters (Asivaqtiin)
197713 min 17 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Mosha Michael
Production: Peter Raymont
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada for the Canadian Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.
Released in 1977, this beautifully paced short was photographed, directed, edited and narrated by Mosha Michael — one of Canada’s first Inuk filmmakers. Michael offers a first-hand account of a three-week Arctic hunting excursion, a rehabilitative trip undertaken by young offenders from Baffin Correctional Centre, Ikajurtauvik (Inuktitut for a place where help is received) and their families. Dropping anchor at various points throughout Frobisher Bay, they fish for cod, hunt for seal and caribou, and renew family and community ties. Shooting on a Super 8 camera and providing his own narration, Michael crafts an engaging document of Inuk life in the 1970s. An original score features music and songs in Inuktitut by Kowmageak Arngnakolak and Michael himself.
This film contains scenes of animal slaughter.
Availability
Other versions
Subject categories
- Fishing and Hunting Industries > Arctic HuntingCaribou HuntHuntingInuitSeal and Walrus Hunt
- Indigenous Peoples in Canada (Inuit) > HuntingNorthwest Territories, Nunavut and YukonTraditional way of life
- Animals > Hunting and TrappingIndigenous Concerns
- Social Studies > Comparative CivilizationsLawSocial Policies and Programs
- History and Citizenship Education > First Occupants (to 1500)
- Justice System & Indigenous People > Customary Law, Traditional Justice & Alternative Sentencing
- Nature & Ecological Knowledge > Fishing & Harvesting Hunting & Harvesting
- Indigenous Peoples: Canada > Inuit & Arctic Peoples (in Canada)
Credits
- director
- Mosha Michael
- photography
- Mosha Michael
- editing
- Mosha Michael
- narrator
- Mosha Michael
- producer
- Peter Raymont
- sound editing
- John Knight
- re-recording
- Frank Griffiths
- music
- Kowmageak Arngnakolak
- Mosha Michael