INUK FILMPRODUCER/CARVER ZACHARIAS KUNUK BORN
Born in Kapuivik, in the Canadian Arctic, Kunuk’s youth involved summers hunting with his family and winters going to school in Igloolik. Kunuk, in 1982, joined the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation in Igloolik and, by 1991, was senior producer and station manager, as well as an independent producer. In 1991, he helped found Igloolik Isuma Productions to preserve Inuit culture. Kunuk’s first feature film, Atanarjuat/The Fast Runner (2001), won Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival and Genie awards in Canada for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2002, Kunuk was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Since then, he directed and produced Journals of Knud Rasmussen, Before Tomorrow, and Tungijuq, which won Best Short Drama at the 2009 imagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival. Recently Kunuk co-directed Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change, documenting the experience of Inuit hunting communities at the front line of environmental changes in the 21st century.
Source: “Zacharias Kunuk (Inuit),” 2011 Native American Film & Video Festival (Brochure). Retrieved 7/21/2019, https://americanindian.si.edu/nafvf/filmmakers_kunuk.aspx Photo: The Governor General of Canada, undated. Order of Canada Ribbon. Source: https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/canadian-honours/order-canada#:~:text=The%20Order%20of%20Canada%20is,been%20invested%20into%20the%20Order. [Cropped]. Permissive use pursuant to: https://www.gg.ca/en/the-office/terms-and-conditions
