Nyla Innuksuk

Nyla Innuksuk is a Canadian film director, writer, and producer, and virtual reality content creator.[1] She is the CEO of Mixtape VR.[2]

Nyla Innuksuk
Born
Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada
NationalityCanadian
OccupationFilm director

Early life

Innuksuk was born in Igloolik and spent her childhood growing up in Iqaluit.[3][4] She attended Ryerson University, where she received a degree in film production in 2009.[3]

Film work

Innuksuk has mainly worked on short documentary and fiction films focusing on Inuit and Indigenous peoples' stories.[3] Her films are portraits of communities and community members in the Arctic, with a strong commitment to including community members in production phases of a film.[3] Her films often also have a focus on the youth in Inuit communities, and the social problems they face.[5][6]

Innuksuk has also won Canada's Pitch This competition by Telefilm Canada for her project titled Qalupalik.[4] She was director resident at the Canadian Film Centre.[7]

Kajutaijuq (2015)

Co-written and co-produced by Innuksuk,[8] Kajutaijuq premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival[8] and was selected as one of the Canada's Top Ten Short Films from 2014.[9] Set in the Arctic wilderness, the fiction film follows a hunter, played by Johnny Issaluk,[8] who uses traditional skills to survive.[8] The film is also included in Reel Canada's Indigenous Programme for Canadian National Film Day.[10]

Breaths (2016)

Innuksuk was the writer and director for Breaths, a short documentary made for the Governor General's Performing Arts Award recipient, Susan Aglukark.[11][12]

Slash/Back (2021)

Innuksuk is the writer, director and producer for the upcoming Arctic set sci-fi adventure Slash/Back about a group of 14-year old Inuit girls who fight an alien invasion in Nunavut. The film is the first feature movie ever shot in Pangnirtung, Nunavut and is produced by Nyla Innusuk's Mixtape VR, Daniel Bekerman (The Witch, Falling) Scythia Films, Christopher Yurkovich & Alex Ordanis of Stellar Citizens and Stacey Aglok MacDonald (The Grizzlies) and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril of Red Marrow Media and Ethan Lazar (The Witch). The script was written by Nyla Innuksuk and Ryan Cavan.

The film stars Iqaluit, Nunavut locals Tasiana Shirley, Alexis Vincent-Wolfe, Nalajoss Ellsworth, Chelsea Prusky, and Frankie Vincent-Wolfe.

Innuksuk and a crew of 50 people shot on Baffin Island in the summer of 2019.

Sierra/Affinity represents the film for International Sales.

The film was presented at the Frontières Co-Pro Market in Montréal in 2018, then went on to Helsinki for Frontières Finance and Packaging Forum in 2019 before presenting at the Frontières Platform at the Marché du Film in Cannes in 2019.

[13] [14]

Virtual reality work

Pinnguaq Productions

Since April 2015, Innuksuk has been a co-owner at the non-for-profit startup, Pinnguaq. With Innuksuk joining the Pinnguaq team, they created the department called Pinnguaq Productions. This division specializes in virtual reality and 360 degree filmmaking.[3] Projects have included capturing the Pope's 2015 visit to Ecuador and the creation of an interactive trailer for Bang Bang Baby a Toronto International Film Festival film.[3]

Innuksuk has worked with a variety of musical artists such as Tanya Tagaq and A Tribe Called Red.[15] The project with A Tribe Called Red, called DocX: A Tribe Called Red: Indian City 360°, is an immersive virtual reality that allows the listener to be the DJ and mix their own track.[3][16] Innuksuk left Pinnguaq in March 2017.

2167

In partnership with Toronto International Film Festival, imagineNATIVE, and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures, Pinnguaq Productions created the 2167 project.[17] Using virtual reality, this project asks artists to imagine what a future Canada may look like 150 years in the future.[17]

Filmography
Year Title Contribution
2012 Stories from Our Land 1.5: Innigruti: The Thing That Sings! (short) Director/Writer
2015 Kajutaijuq (short) Co-Writer/Co-Producer
2015 Stories from Our Land Vol. 2: Finding Home (short) Director/Writer
2016 Breaths (short) Director/Writer
2021 Slash/Back (Feature) Director/Writer

References
  1. Paul, Jonathan. "TIFF '16: VR ignites the festival circuit". Realscreen. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  2. "#HowIMadeIt: Nyla Innuksuk, Virtual Reality Producer". Flare magazine. 18 September 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  3. "How an Inuit Filmmaker Is Using Virtual Reality to Tell Her Culture's Stories". Vice.com. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
  4. "Because it's 2016: the Canadian film industry's gender gap". Now (newspaper).
  5. "What happens when indigenous artists repurpose Hollywood's old tricks". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2017-04-09.
  6. "Ford Foundation partner to present creative doc lab focused on VR storytelling". Ford Foundation. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
  7. "Nyla Innuksuk". Canadian Film Centre. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  8. "Nunavut filmmakers take horror short, Kajutaijuq, to TIFF". CBC News. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
  9. "Canada's Top Ten Festival announces the best of 2014". Flickering Myth. 2014-12-02. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
  10. "Indigenous Filmmakers Highlighted For NCFD 15". National Canadian Film Day. 24 March 2017. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  11. "On April 19, National Canadian Film Day 150 brings films to Nunavut capital". Nunatsiaq News. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  12. "Award Recipients - Governor General's Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA)". GGPAA. Retrieved 2017-04-09.
  13. https://screenanarchy.com/2019/05/slashback-sierraaffinity-boards-canadian-indigenous-female-led-genre-flick.html
  14. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/alien-invasion-movie-slash-back-pangnirtung-nunavut-1.5223403
  15. "DOC CONFERENCE Documentary Meets Virtual Reality". www.tiff.net. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
  16. Slingerland, Calum. "A Tribe Called Red "Indian City (ft. Black Bear)". Exclaim!. Retrieved 10 February 2018.
  17. "2167: Indigenous artists to use virtual reality to imagine Canada's future". CBC.ca. Retrieved 2017-04-03.
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