Unikkausivut: Sharing Our Stories is a 2011 two-volume DVD boxset and website by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), bringing together films by and about the Inuit people of Canada. The collection traces the development of filmmaking in the Canadian North, from the ethnographic films by NFB filmmakers in the 1940s, to contemporary work by Inuit filmmakers Elisapie Isaac and others.[1]
In November 2011, the Government of Nunavut and the NFB jointly announced the launch of the DVD and online collection, which will eventually make more than 100 NFB films by and about Inuit available in Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun and other Inuit languages, as well as English and French. The boxed set is being distributed to over 50 communities across the Canadian North, with Nunavut's department of education supplying Unikkausivut to every school in its territory.[2][3]
The film collection premiered in Ottawa on November 2, 2011, as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, followed by community events across Inuit terrorities in Iqaluit, Nunavut on November 7; Kuujjuaq, Nunavik on November 8; Nain, Nunatsiavut on November 17; and Inuvik, Inuvialuit on November 23.[4][5]
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Unikkausivut was partly inspired by federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq. An Inuit from the Inuvik Region, Northwest Territories, Aglukkaq, had enjoyed watching the NFB’s Netsilik Eskimos series in her youth and felt that it would be worthwhile making these older films about the Canadian North widely available, today. The NFB, which was already working to make its archival films available on new platforms, reviewed its Inuit film archives and determined that it had over 100 works worth rereleasing.[6]
It cost over $1 million and took two years for the NFB to get the first 24 films digitized and ready in all languages; getting all 100+ films versioned for northern communities could cost an additional $2 million.[2] This work involves restoring original film prints where necessary, digitization, remixing sound as well as rights clearances for new digital formats. Each film must also be dubbed in Inuktitut, in the dialect of one of Canada's four Inuit regions—a challenge in itself, since Inuktitut narrations often run longer than their French or English equivalents. The conversion of all these films is expected to be completed by 2015.[6]
Unikkausivut: Sharing Our Stories was created by the NFB in collaboration with the Inuit Relations Secretariat of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and the Government of Nunavut's Department of Education.[7] An advisory committee included Inuit elders such as Peter Irniq.[8][2]