Principals

Jane Kokan has embarked on several self-funded trips to the Canadian Arctic in the past three years. She filmed all of the material on HD as well as taking high quality stills. The editor of the project is the highly skilled Justin Smallbridge.

Current State

At present, the edited materials includes:

• Footage of the Canadian Forces annual Arctic sovereignty exercises including the vital contribution of the Canadian Rangers
• A day in the life of Canada’s biggest icebreaker navigating the Northwest Passage
• Poignant tales from the Inuit people.

Footage currently being edited include:

• An exclusive interview with Paul Amagoalik who was born aboard the C.D. Howe in 1953, that was used to relocate Inuit from Northern Quebec to their new home in the High Arctic

Use of Funds

History is part of the story. A dark period in Canada’s history is the story of the Arctic exiles. In 1953, several Inuit families from Inukjuak, Northern Quebec were transported to Grise Fiord on the southern tip of Ellesmere Island and to Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island, Nunavut. The family groups were promised better living and hunting opportunities in the High Arctic. Some almost died of starvation and did not know how to immediately react to their new environment.

Funds are needed to film in Nunavut in the spring of 2013, to learn about the everyday challenges of living up North through the Inuit perspective. Jane wants to spend a month or two living with a Inuit family, and documenting “a day in the life of.”

Jane also plans to film further sovereignty exercises up in the Canadian Arctic in 2013.

In addition to Canada, she would also like to film in the other Arctic circumpolar states such as Russia, Alaska (U.S.), Denmark (Greenland), Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Filming in the Arctic is very expensive, which is why the important stories are often not covered properly. Jane is a one-woman band, that doesn’t take up a lot of space, and more importantly, she is extremely passionate about the subject material.