Maliglutit (Searchers)
Livestream Q&A with the Director: Wednesday, March 30 at 7:30pm EST
(2016, Zacharias Kunuk, Canada, 94 min, in Inuktitut w/ English subtitles)
Guests: Zacharias Kunuk (filmmaker)
Introduced by: Daniel Pope, UMass Amherst and Nefeli Forni Zervoudaki, UMass Amherst
Maliglutit (Searchers), a contemporary epic directed by Inuk auteur Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner) tells the story of a vengeful husband who sets off in pursuit of the violent men who kidnapped his wife and destroyed his home. Inspired by the classic John Ford western The Searchers (1957), this tale of retribution set in the Canadian arctic features an all-Inuit cast and Kunuk’s trademark cinematography, which transforms the unforgiving tundra into a dreamlike landscape.
Note: Barry Spence regrets that, due to illness, he is not able to join this conversation. Rather than a video introduction at the start of Maliglutit (Searchers), our Introducers, Daniel Pope and Nefeli Forni will introduce Zacharias Kunuk and the film at the beginning of our Livestream event on Wednesday evening with the director.
Watch and Participate
Introduction by Daniel Pope and Nefeli Forni Zervoudaki
Film Screening
Available through the festival platform Sparq starting March 26
Introduction by Daniel Pope and Nefeli Forni Zervoudaki
Live Conversation and Q&A with Filmmaker
via Facebook or YouTube
(Wed, March 30 at 7:30pm EST)
All events are free and open to the public.
Access Sparq with your Gmail and Apple ID, or UMass Amherst email address.
About the Filmmaker
Zacharias Kunuk
“Zacharias Kunuk, OC, ON is a filmmaker, sculptor and visual artist who lives in Iglulik (Igloolik), NU. Kunuk has redefined filmmaking in Canada and has been at the forefront of innovative use of broadcast technology in the North. He is perhaps best known for his debut feature film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) from 2001, the first Canadian feature film produced entirely in Inuktitut. It won six Genie Awards and was ranked the No. 1 Canadian film of all time in a 2015 poll conducted by the Toronto International Film Festival. He is the co-founder of Isuma Productions, the first independent Inuit-led film production company in Canada.” (Inuit Art Foundation)
About the Introducer and Moderator
Daniel Pope
With a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, Daniel Pope teaches courses in international cinemas, genre studies, screenwriting, film theory and criticism, and new media such as the videographic essay and the film podcast. His research explores photography and realism and figural approaches to nonfiction narrative. He has worked with the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival since 2011. Pope is a Fulbright Scholar who has published in Studies in East European Cinema and Searching for Sebald (2007).
Nefeli Forni Zervoudaki
Nefeli Forni Zervoudaki is a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a Graduate Certificate in Film Studies. She received an Associate’s Degree (University of ORT, Uruguay) and a BA in Audiovisual Communication (University of Vic, Spain) with a focus on film and gender studies. She began an MA in Women, Gender, and Citizenship Studies (Interuniversitary, Spain). Her main interests are migration studies and representations of gender and sexuality, the effects of film on society, and the interaction between literature and film.