Timuti

Spring has returned to Inukjuak, an Inuit community in the Eastern Arctic. The river flows with renewed vigour, the tundra is alive with birdsong—and a baby boy has come into the world. They will call him Timuti, a name that recurs across generations of his people, evoking other Timutis, alive and dead, who will nourish his spirit and shape his destiny in the years to come.

In 29 elegant and spacious minutes, artist Jobie Weetaluktuk turns his gaze on his own extended family, honouring the abiding power of ritual through the tender story of a young woman and her unplanned child. A privileged and respectful insider, he observes his people’s early childhood rituals—documenting his newborn nephew’s traditional naming and dressing ceremonies, along with his Christian baptism.

Drawing upon a rich and ancient storytelling tradition, Weetaluktuk sets scenes of domestic intimacy against the vast beauty of the North to relate a story of trepidation and renewal. Making inventive use of animation and archival imagery, he weighs the complex legacy of colonialism while rejoicing in ancestral practices that find vital contemporary expression in the lives of his people.