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CANADIAN CHANGE MAKERS: NUNAVUT / NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
The Canadian Change Makers program showcases “change makers” who are driven by the genuine goal of making the world a better place in some way.
Click here for more of the Change Makers Program.
See our film guide here!
K’I TAH AMONGST THE BIRCH
2022 | Canada | 11 mins
Director: Melaw Nakehk’o
VIEWING REGION: Canada & USA
Filmmaker/activist Melaw Nakehk’o has spent the pandemic with her family at a remote land camp in the Northwest Territories, “getting wood, listening to the wind, staying warm and dry, and watching the sun move across the sky.” In documenting camp life—activities like making fish leather and scraping moose hide—she anchors the COVID experience in a specific time and place.
EVER DEADLY
VIEWING REGION: On-site only
Ever Deadly is an immersive, visceral music and cinema experience featuring Tanya Tagaq, avant-garde Inuit throat singer, and created in collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Chelsea McMullan. This documentary explores Tagaq’s transformation of sound with an eye to colonial fallout, natural freedom and Canadian history. We witness Tagaq’s intimate relationship with the Nuna— the Land — a living, breathing organism present in all forms of her improvised performances. Ever Deadly weaves concert footage with stunning sequences filmed on location in Nunavut, seamlessly bridging landscapes, stories and songs with pain, anger and triumph, all through the expressions of one of the most innovative musical performers of our time.
2022 | Canada | 90 mins
Filmmakers
Tanya Tagaq, Director
From Nunavut, Tanya Tagaq is an improvisational singer, avant-garde composer and author. A member of the Order of Canada, a Polaris Music Prize and JUNO Award winner and recipient of multiple honorary doctorates, Tagaq is an original disruptor, a world-changing figure at the forefront of seismic social, political and environmental change. In its many forms, Tagaq’s art challenges static ideas of genre and culture, and contends with themes of Indigenous Rights, colonialism, environmentalism, racism and violence against women and girls, in particular MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls)
Chelsea McMullan , Director
Chelsea McMullan (they/their) is one of Canada’s leading filmmakers. They make documentary, experimental narrative, and hybrid films that explore the work of leading international artists. Chelsea’s next feature, Ever Deadly, created in collaboration with Tanya Tagaq, captures Tanya’s incandescent and unforgettable artistic voice through the frame of a live concert performance shot in a single take. Chelsea’s previous features, including My Prairie Home, a musical documentary about the pioneering transgender musician Rae Spoon. Their new documentary series Swan Song follows the National Ballet of Canada as it rebuilds from the COVID-19 crisis to mount one of the most ambitious productions in its history.