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Elisapie Isaac (1)

Elisapie Isaac

Elisapie Isaac

“As Inuit we’re not frightened to mix things up,” says musician and filmmaker Elisapie Isaac. “We have a very eclectic culture; not one that holds us back but rather a culture in transition.” Isaac was a member of Taima, the musical ensemble that won a 2005 Juno for Best Aboriginal Recording of the Year, and has since pursued a successful solo career in music. Her film credits include If the Weather Permits, a documentary filmed in Kangirsujuaq that explores questions of identity, rupture and change.

  • If the Weather Permits
    If the Weather Permits
    Elisapie Isaac 2003 27 min
    This short documentary studies life in the village of Kangirsujuaq, Nunavik. In this community on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, children’s laughter fills the streets while the old people ponder the passage of time. They are nomads of the wide-open spaces who are trying to get used to the strange feeling of staying put. While the teenagers lap up Southern culture and play golf on the tundra to kill time, the Elders are slowly dying, as their entire culture seems to fade away.

    Elisapie Isaac, a filmmaker born in Nunavik, decides to return to her roots on this breathtaking land. To bridge the growing gap between the young and the old, she speaks to her grandfather, now deceased, and confides in him her hopes and fears. Grappling with isolation, family relationships, resource extraction, land-based knowledges, the influence of Southern culture and the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Inuit ways of life, Elisapie Isaac offers a nuanced portrait of the North.

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