Angry Inuk

{{Short description|Canadian documentary film about Inuit seal hunting (2016)}} {{Infobox film | name = Angry Inuk | image = Angry Inuk poster.jpg | alt = | caption = | director = Alethea Arnaquq-Baril

| producer = Alethea Arnaquq-Baril

| editing = Sophie Farkas Bolla

| studio =  | distributor =  | released = {{Film date|2016|05|02|Hot Docs}} | runtime = 85 minutes | country = Canada | language = Inuktitut | budget = | gross = }} '''''Angry Inuk''''' is a 2016 Canadian Inuit-themed feature-length documentary film written and directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril that defends the Inuit seal hunt, as the hunt is a vital means for Inuit to sustain themselves. Subjects in ''Angry Inuk'' include Arnaquq-Baril herself as well as Aaju Peter, an Inuit seal hunt advocate, lawyer and seal fur clothing designer who depends on the sealskins for her livelihood.

Partially shot in the filmmaker's home community of Iqaluit, as well as Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, where seal hunting is essential for survival, the film follows Peter and other Inuit to Europe in an effort to have the EU Ban on Seal Products overturned. The film also criticizes non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare for ignoring the needs of vulnerable northern communities who depend on hunting for their livelihoods by drawing a false distinction between subsistence-driven Inuit hunters and profit-driven commercial hunters.<ref name=Mullen>{{cite news|last1=Mullen|first1=Patrick|title=Review: 'Angry Inuk'|access-date=9 September 2016|url=http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/review-angry-inuk|work=Point of View|publisher=Documentary Organization of Canada|date=11 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://nowtoronto.com/movies/hot-docs-2016/angry-inuk/|title=Angry Inuk|last=Cole|first=Susan G.|author-link=Susan G. Cole|date=29 April 2016|work=Now Magazine|access-date=9 September 2016}}</ref>

==Development== ''Angry Inuk'' was co-produced by Arnaquq-Baril and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in association with EyeSteelFilm.<ref name="Winton">{{cite news|last1=Winton|first1=Ezra|title=CURATING THE NORTH: DOCUMENTARY SCREENING ETHICS AND INUIT REPRESENTATION IN (FESTIVAL) CINEMA (Interview)|url=http://artthreat.net/2015/12/alethea-arnaquq-baril/|access-date=9 September 2016|work=Art Threat|date=17 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161017010349/http://artthreat.net/2015/12/alethea-arnaquq-baril/|archive-date=17 October 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Release and reception== ''Angry Inuk'' premiered May 2, 2016 at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, where the film received the Vimeo On Demand Audience Award along with the Canadian Documentary Promotion Award.<ref name=Mullen/><ref name="cbcaward">{{cite news|title='Angry Inuk' wins audience award and $25K prize at Hot Docs festival|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/angry-inuk-hot-docs-award-1.3574182|access-date=9 September 2016|work=CBC News|date=10 May 2016}}</ref> In October 2016, the film received the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary Award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/inuit-arctic-films-big-winners-at-imaginenative-1.3819179|title=Inuit, Arctic films big winners at 2016 imagineNATIVE festival|newspaper=CBC News|access-date=2016-12-09}}</ref> The following month, it received both the Women Inmates' Prize and the Magnus Isacsson Award at the Montreal International Documentary Festival.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://povmagazine.com/blog/view/ridm-announces-award-winners|title=RIDM Announces Award Winners|last=Mullen|first=Pat|date=2016-11-20|website=Point of View Magazine|publisher=Documentary Organization of Canada|access-date=2016-12-09}}</ref> On December 7, 2016, ''Angry Inuk'' was named in the Toronto International Film Festival's annual Canada's Top 10 list,<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tiff-canada-top-10-films-2016-1.3884421|title='Telling stories that show Canadians who we are:' TIFF unveils top 10 Canadian films of 2016|newspaper=CBC News|access-date=2016-12-08}}</ref> and took home the People's Choice Award at the TIFF Canada's Top Ten Festival.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/movies/2017/01/23/angry-inuk-documentary-crowned-audience-favourite-at-tiffs-canadas-top-ten-film-festival.html|title='Angry Inuk' documentary crowned audience favourite at TIFF's Canada's Top Ten Film Festival {{!}} Toronto Star|website=thestar.com|date=23 January 2017 |access-date=2017-02-08}}</ref>

While Arnaquq-Baril has stated that the anti-sealing movement has forced Inuit to turn to the mining and the natural gas industry to support themselves, with dire consequences for the Arctic environment, supporters of the EU ban on seal products have countered that such a ban does not block Inuit from seal hunting to sustain themselves and supply market demand.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-may-4-2016-1.3565645/angry-inuk-argues-anti-seal-hunt-campaign-hurts-canadian-inuit-life-1.3565719|title='Angry Inuk' argues anti-seal hunt campaign hurts Canadian Inuit life|last=Tremonti|first=Anna Maria|author-link=Anna Maria Tremonti|date=4 May 2016|work=The Current|publisher=CBC Radio|access-date=9 September 2016}}</ref> However, the film argues that even with the exemption for Inuit, the ban drives down demand and prices so greatly that hunters can no longer financially support themselves or their communities.<ref>{{cite web |last=Cabana|first=Ysh|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dishing-the-dirt-on-the-anti-seal-hunt-campaign-review_b_59e8eccbe4b032f98fa30c2d |title=Dishing the dirt on the anti-seal hunt campaign: Review of "Angry Inuk" (2016) |work=HuffPost |date=20 October 2017 |access-date=11 November 2017 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also== *''My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers'', a 2005 NFB documentary about the Newfoundland seal hunt

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{Official website|https://www.nfb.ca/film/angry_inuk/}} *{{IMDb title|5709536}} *[https://www.ctvnews.ca/video/?clipId=860597/ Interview with the filmmaker], ''Canada AM'', CTV News

Category:2016 films Category:Canadian documentary films Category:Indigenous peoples of North America and the environment Category:Documentary films about Inuit in Canada Category:National Film Board of Canada documentaries Category:EyeSteelFilm films Category:Documentary films about the Arctic Category:Films about seal hunting Category:Qikiqtaaluk Region Category:Films about hunter-gatherers Category:Works about Nunavut Category:2016 Canadian films Category:Inuktitut-language films