The Polarities and Hybridities of Arctic Cinemas

This chapter foregrounds alternative approaches to Canadian Arctic Cinemas, identifying and examining practices and aesthetics that emphasize the hybridized, situated, and local. The chapter highlights some of the most distinctive aspects of Canadian Arctic filmmaking traditions: the innovative use of technological forms, multiple and varied distribution practices, a continual return to processes of historical re-enactment, variegated documentary film practices, and the rise of Arctic Indigenous filmmaking. In alignment with many contemporary Canadian film historiographies, the chapter emphasizes the central importance of narrowcast, multimedia, documentary, video arts, and expanded cinema to the nation’s work, which is quite distinct from many aspects of American and European cinematic traditions and practices. The Arctic cinematic/moving image traditions and practices considered include participatory and documentary filmmaking, Inuit television, Indigenous filmmaking collectives such as Isuma and Arnait, le cinéma vécu, the re-release of archival works as acts of repatriation, multiscreen and expanded cinemas, and IMAX.