Skip to main content
review

Seal hunting, a critical part of Inuit life, has been controversial for a long time. Now, a new generation of Inuit, armed with social media and their own sense of humour and justice, are challenging the anti-sealing groups and bringing their own voices into the conversation. In Angry Inuk, director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril joins her fellow Inuit activists as they challenge outdated perceptions of Inuit and present themselves to the world as a modern people in dire need of a sustainable economy.

"At some point in my childhood, I realized there are some people out there who don't like seal hunting." That's from Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, an Inuk filmmaker whose important documentary Angry Inuk is a dignified response to those who oppose seal hunting but willfully ignore the fact that international bans on seal products severely inhibit the subsistence hunting vital to Arctic communities. Arnaquq-Baril narrates the film with focused, level-headed passion (and occasional wry humour): She simply wishes to confront the well-funded anti-sealing campaigners who, it is strongly suggested, raise money under false pretenses and with loud, celebrity-driven messaging. "How does a culture with an understated anger," the filmmaker asks, "confront a group that is exactly the opposite?" It's a good question – one that her film deftly answers as it simultaneously cuts sharply into the ethics of activism over all.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe