Planet in Focus: Nirilaurta: Let Us Eat
- Wed, Oct 21
Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights,. so please be sure to arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating and the screening will start after midnight.
Director: Malaya Qaunirq Chapman Run Time: 52 min. Format: DCP Release Year: 2026 Language: Inuktitut
On the edge of the Arctic Ocean, the community of Taloyoak, Nunavut, is working to feed its families. Soaring grocery prices and the high cost of hunting and travel in the North leave many households facing food insecurity. Nirilaurta tells the story of a community that draws on Inuit culture, land-based knowledge and kinship to nourish their bodies, spirits and one another.
As grocery prices climb across the country, Inuk filmmaker Malaya Qaunirq Chapman turns the camera on this crisis through an Inuit lens, following the Ugyuk family of Taloyoak, a community in Nunavut. Inuit communities face some of the steepest food costs in Canada, and as a result, many households confront serious food insecurity. Nirilaurta: Let Us Eat digs into the particular shape this cost-of-living crisis takes in Inuit territory, where it also makes it harder to harvest country food from the land. Getting out on the land for a hunt requires specialized gear, fuel and equipment – much of which has grown financially out of reach for families.
Chapman offers a tender portrait of a community holding together despite these pressures, following the family through everyday moments at home over shared meals and out on the land hunting and fishing. The film threads archival material alongside its present-day footage, linking Inuit history to contemporary life and pointing toward intergenerational, land-based knowledge as a path back to food sovereignty.
Planet In Focus is proud to present the Ontario premiere of Nirilaurta: Let Us Eat, which had its world premiere at the Présence Autochtone International First Peoples Festival in Montreal, and screened at the Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax. – PLANET IN FOCUS
Preceded by TUKTUIT: CARIBOU (dir. Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre, Canada, 15 min): An experimental documentary created with handmade and manufactured emulsions exploring the close and enduring connections between Inuit, caribou, lichens, and land use. Lichen developers help bring the images to life, while caribou hide is processed into gelatin to make handmade emulsion. Filmed primarily on the land in Nunavut where caribou struggle to maintain their life ways amidst burn events, habitat disruption and changing conditions.
Preceded by GROWING TOGETHER: A JOURNEY IN AGRICULTURE (dir. Preston Sam, Adam Koperqualuk, Canada, 5 min): Preston and Adam work together to deepen and share their know-how about living in a harsh northern climate. In a geodesic dome, they grow food that they offer directly to their community, while teaching the members food self-sufficiency.