URL Tarriaksuk Artist-run Video Centre in Igloolik, NWT, (Soon to be Nunavut) Canada http://www.isuma.ca Email: [log in to unmask] Igloolik Isuma Productions and Tarriaksuk Video Centre Tel: 867-934-8809 Fax: 867-934-8700 Please visit the website for more information and to help support their work in any way you can. Tarriaksuk Video Centre in Igloolik, Northwest Territories, is Canada's first artist-run media centre located in a remote Inuit community. Traditional culture and language are still very much alive in Igloolik, even as Inuit adapt to the growing influence of southern technology and lifestyle. The main challenge of the next generation is to preserve a distinct language and culture while integrating the community into modern Canadian and worldwide society. In this context the mandate of Tarriaksuk Video Centre is to meet an important need no other Canadian electronic media organization is currently addressing: To encourage and support creation of indigenous, community-based, Inuit-style artistic media productions that serve the overall objectives of Inuit self-representation and cultural / linguistic preservation. While this mandate reflects an artistic objective - promoting artistic media practices that reflect Inuit values rather than southern models - it cannot be separated from wider political objectives. Inuit are among the world's most caricatured and misrepresented people, through images produced by foreigners who for the most part don't speak the language or understand the culture. Tarriaksuk Video Centre hopes to balance destructive stereotypes by encouraging Inuit-style media production, using modern technologies of self-expression and self-representation for the benefit of Inuit communities. Our mandate is expressed through the following objectives and activities: - to make professional-quality video production equipment available in Igloolik to artists and other community members at low cost; - to offer training and support services to Inuit wanting to learn media production skills; - to assist both new and experienced producers in development, financing, production and distribution of media productions; - to encourage media production by groups with special concerns, such as Igloolik's Arnait Ikajurtigiit (Women's Video Workshop); - to provide an alternative, grass roots, artist-based model for Inuit media production, distinct from the southern film/TV model promoted by mainstream organizations. - to create an Inuit-style media organization controlled by Inuit and operating by Inuit values: community-based, non-hierarchical, consensual and collectively respectful of local needs. Following this mandate Tarriaksuk Video Centre is organized and operated by an Inuit way of doing things. This requires leadership and decision-making by consensus, with an open membership policy which invites the widest possible community support. For Inuit there is no necessary separation between art and daily life: everyone in the community recognizes the practical importance of recording and expressing Inuit values through art-making. These values are centered on respect for the knowledge and experience of Elders. Tarriaksuk Video Centre has several Elders involved in our activities who insure that our mandate meets the overall needs of the community and culture. Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. was founded in 1988 by former employees of Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, seeking more independence, opportunity and Inuit control over Inuktitut television. Isuma's mission is to create skilled jobs and sustainable economic development for Inuit in Igloolik and Nunavut by producing independent professional media products from an Inuit point of view. Our programs are designed to preserve, enhance and represent Inuit culture to Inuit and non-Inuit audiences worldwide, with the highest artistic qualities of production and entertainment in our own language and style. By doing this we hope to advance Inuit objectives in several areas at the same time: culture, language, contemporary art, economic development and politics, to enable Inuit to gain more control over our land and future, and over the ways Inuit are represented in worldwide media. = = = = = = = = = 'We the elders of Igloolik together support Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. for their idea in making video in Inuktitut that will go on TV. We believe these video programs are for our future generation. They will also be used for education to Inuit and to the outside world. We want our culture to be understood correctly and these programs to be told and made by Inuit.' Rosey Iqalijuk, Martha Nashook, Mary Qutiq, Mark Ijjangiaq, Noah Piugatuk, Rachel Uyarasuk, George Aggiaq (translated from the Inuktitut) = = = = = = :-) :-) Message Ends; Signature File Begins (-: (-: CAUTIONS, Disclaimers & NOTE TO EDITORS :- Because of the nature of email please check ALL sources & subjects. Original material (c) copyright 1998 G.A.Lessard & may be quoted, resent, reproduced, stored or forwarded provided the copyright notice is attached. Forwarded or mined material is the property of the original copyright owners. Some material is provided to a limited and defined audience without permission from the copyright owner, only for purposes of criticism, comment, background information and research under relevant provisions of some copyright laws. These materials may not be distributed for other purposes without permission of the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. George Lessard, Media Activist Community Communication Arts, Training, Management & Mentoring http://members.tripod.com/~media002/ This message may be archived @ MediaMentor list searchable public archive http://www.findmail.com/list/mediamentor/ For a free subscription to MediaMentor send a blank message to [log in to unmask] To Unsubscribe: e-mail to [log in to unmask] It doesn't bother me and I suggest that if it bothers you - that's why God (or Bill Gates) gave us a delete key. (David NL Day) - 30 - ---- Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite