qathet film society presents
3 Ears Indigenous Film Festival
Tautuktavuk (What We See)
Tautuktavuk (What We See)
Monday September 29 – 7 pm
Directed by: Carol Kunnuk &Lucy Tulugarjuk
Starring: Carol Kunnuk, Benjamin Kunuk, Mark Taqqaugaq
Genre: Drama
Not Rated – 1 hour 22 min
Released: 2023
Inuk filmmakers Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk’s Tautuktavuk (What We See) is a film about female friendship and how women talk about and around trauma. At a time when the world was in the middle of the global pandemic, the world had to make do with the new normal. Everyday activities, from transactions and interactions, shifted online thanks to the acceleration of digitalization. This also allowed for families physically apart from one another to reconnect through regular video chats. More importantly, however, the movie examines the difficult journey toward healing that they need to embark on. Along the way, they would be reminded of the importance of family and community, especially at a time of enforced isolation.
The film is semi-autobiographical in nature. The co-directors play sisters Saqpinak (Carol Kunnuk) and Uyaruk (Lucy Tulugarjuk) who frequently communicate over Zoom. Uyaruk has moved to Montreal, Saqpinak has stayed in Igloolik, an isolated hamlet on an island in Nunavut. As one sister integrates into Canadian culture, one stays with her roots, leading to some tense drama between the two. They have differing ideas of life and family, but are unsure of how to address the changing world as the pandemic rages on.
Themes of loss linger heavily on the film. Loss of family and loss of innocence are the most apparent, but loss of culture is one of the more interesting facets of this. Saqpinak picks up the language, cooks over an open stove, and lives in a major city with a family. When her sister comes to visit, it is a culture shock, as her use of the language is more limited. When she gets her traditional Inuit tattoos as a milestone of her people, she refuses to have a white tattooist do the work, believing the ritual sacred. She wants to preserve whatever she has left to remind herself what the world may be losing.
Kunnuk and Tulugarjuk’s storytelling approach in this film is impressive, to say the least. Employing an observational filmmaking style gives the film a somewhat documentary feel. Even the video chat scenes feel authentic, complete with choppy audio and lagging, borderline-pixelated video that betray an unstable internet connection.
The results, obviously, are more effective: by default, the audiences’ perception blurs the line between fiction and autobiography. Suddenly, the sisters’ discussion about trauma, sexual violence, and abuse carry a sense of urgency. It’s a smart filmmaking choice, the credit to which going to the directors. And with both filmmakers acting their hearts out, at certain points in the film I stopped seeing actors and began seeing actual sisters talking about their everyday lives.
Films like Tautuktavuk can certainly empower Inuit and Indigenous communities in telling their own stories. Films like this are required viewing to also get an understanding of the social challenges of living in these communities and what resources still need to be made available to them. Driven with a fine eye for the cadence of daily life and a sincere effort to explore domestic spaces, often through the seemingly limited perspective of a webcam, Tautuktavuk (What We See) is a smartly feminist tale of shared resilience. This is a film of quiet power about the sense of community that unites us no matter how far we may be physically apart
Eye-opening, patient, and urgent, Tautuktavuk is an evocative tale of healing from—and overcoming—trauma at a time of lockdowns and enforced isolations.