[Indigenous Film Series] Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny

Weekly Indigenous Film Series

Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny, Mark Sandiford (2006), National Film Board 52 min

This documentary is a tongue-in-cheek investigation into the ways Inuit people have been treated as “exotic” documentary subjects by turning the lens onto the strange behaviours of Qallunaat (the Inuit word for white people). The term refers less to skin colour than to a certain state of mind. The doc explores how the Qallunaat greet each other with inane salutations, repress natural bodily functions, complain about being cold, and want to dominate the world.

The film is a collaboration between filmmaker Mark Sandiford and Inuit writer and satirist Zebedee Nungak, Qallunaat! brings the documentary form to an unexpected place in which oppression, history, and comedy collide.

This film is part of the NFB series: Unikkausivut - Sharing our Stories

McGill's Faculty of Education and The P. Lantz Initiative for Excellence in Education and the Arts present the 2018 season of the Weekly Indigenous Film Series, facilitated by Lori Beavis and supported by McGill's Department of Integrated Studies in Education and the Institute for Human Development and Well-Being (IHDW).