Inuit Documentary Film Screenings
Join the Lyman Allyn for an afternoon featuring four films by Director John Houston, which explore the lives, history, and culture of Inuit people. The free public event is being presented in conjunction with our current exhibition Northern Lights: Inuit Prints, Drawings, & Carvings, 1950-1990.
Date: Saturday, March 29
Time: 1 – 5 pm
Cost: Free
Film Schedule
- 1 pm – Songs in Stone: An Arctic Journey Home (Part 1 of The Arctic Trilogy)
- 2 pm – Nuliajuk: Mother of the Sea Beasts (Part 2 of The Arctic Trilogy)
- 3 pm – Diet of Souls (Part 3 of The Arctic Trilogy)
- 4 pm – Atautsikut / Leaving None Behind
About the Films
- Songs in Stone: An Arctic Journey Home (Forty-five Minutes, 16mm, 1999)
- A deathbed wish brings together an extended, cross-cultural family. Songs in Stone explores Inuit art pioneers James and Alma Houston, the Inuit of Cape Dorset, and their very special collaboration that launched Inuit art onto the world stage. Shot in the community of Cape Dorset, on Baffin Island, the film launched an Arctic trilogy. It was also the birth of drumsong communications.
- Nuliajuk: Mother of the Sea Beasts (50 Minutes, Super 16mm, 2002)
- This story holds the key to a mystery – a look into the Inuit soul – a quest for the female deity known to many as Sedna, alive in countless Inuit artworks, yet rarely mentioned. Continuing the trilogy, John probes the relevance of Nuliajuk’s ancient message – not only for Inuit but for us all – with the last elders who remember Her. And Inuit elders are the heroes here, breaking the long silence imposed on them by missionaries to share a hidden side of their spirituality.
- Diet of Souls (Forty-eight Minutes, Super 16mm, 2003)
- John’s capper to the trilogy; a look inside the mind of the Inuit hunter. “The great peril of our existence lies in the fact that our diet consists entirely of souls.” So an Inuit shaman summarized the moral danger of being human… Director John Houston’s third Arctic journey was sparked by a paradox: “Can animals be spiritual equals and one’s daily bread?”
- Atautsikut / Leaving None Behind (Sixty Minutes, 4K, 2019)
- Inuit and Cree of Nunavik (Northern Québec) recount how they escaped the economic oppression of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Overcoming tremendous challenges, in 1959 they founded a co-operative; then other communities followed suit. Today, the federation they created contributes as part of Nunavik’s co-operative movement, with accumulated assets exceeding half a billion dollars! Drawing on their traditional values, Inuit and Cree teach us something of real value today: how to put social development at the heart of everything – including a successful business! Building prosperity, yet “leaving none behind.”
About the Director
John Houston’s life is a story of the Arctic and Nova Scotia. He owes his storytelling to the Inuit among whom he was raised while his parents James and Alma Houston developed what the world now knows as Inuit art. After graduating from Yale University John became art advisor to the Inuit community of Pangnirtung, regaining his childhood fluency in Inuktitut. He is also fluent in French. His first six films are all winners of international and domestic awards. He now also produces with indigenous partners.
The Lyman Allyn Art Museum is grateful for the support of John Houston and McIntyre Media for providing screening rights for this program.
Learn more about John Houston
- Gallery Website: https://www.houston-north-gallery.ns.ca
- “Atautsikut” Website: https://leavingnonebehind.com
- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQO9G6cdq96ByCJwQ_DKo_g/
- Buy the films on DVD: https://houstonproductions.square.site
- Stream (rent) the films: https://vimeopro.com/johnhoustonfilms/vod/
- Educational Distributor: https://www.mcintyre.ca
Image: Mattusi Iyaituk of Ivujivik and John Houston, filmed in 2017. (Photo: John Houston)