Festival Art Souterrain

Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland, two throat singers from Kangirsuk (Nunavik), co-directed the short film Katatjatuuk Kangirsumi in collaboration with the Wapikoni mobile team. For the past twenty years, the Wapikoni Mobile creative studio has travelled to Indigenous communities, offering workshops and support for First Peoples youth in creating short films and musical works.

The game of katajjaniq is primarily practiced by women and has been passed down through generations. In this performance, two women face each other, typically uttering the same sequence of low-pitched (guttural) and high-pitched (vocal) sounds but in a staggered manner. Through the use of diaphragm, nasal, and tongue modulations, these performances incorporate words, syllables, melodies, and imitations of sounds from both the natural environment (such as water, wind, birds, and mosquitoes) and the domestic environment (including snowmobiles, saws, cooking meat, and dog sleds). The two singers maintain eye contact throughout the game, and the one who laughs first or stops singing—whether from breathlessness or voice failure—loses. Katajjaniq reflects the local colours of each village, with its various styles exhibiting distinct vitality from place to place. Throughout the 20th century, its transmission faced severe disruption due to colonial forces and assimilation policies. However, thanks to community efforts to revive the practice, katajjaniq remains alive today, serving as an important symbol of identity and contributing to group cohesion. Under the Cultural Heritage Act (2011), it was designated as an intangible heritage item in 2014.

The film follows a music video style, dynamically blending images and sound. Moments of silence allow the audience and the singers to catch their breath, creating space for the Nordic air that permeates the atmosphere. For the filming, the two filmmakers wore arnauti, the traditional garment of Inuit women. Their singing transcends the seasons, enhanced by drone sequences captured by Johnny Nassak. The footage captures the landscapes and daily life of Kangirsuk, an Inuit community of just 560 inhabitants located at the estuary of the Arnaud River (Kuuvik) in the Ungava Bay.

Both filmmakers began learning katajjaniq (Nunavimmiut throat singing) as children. While Chamberland developed her skills through her grandmother’s teachings, Kaukai initially learned by watching videos on YouTube. These two contrasting methods—one traditional and one modern—illustrate the diverse practices characterizing today’s katajjaniq.

Selected by the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, Kaukai and Chamberland’s work premiered in Park City (Utah, USA), in 2019, with the two of them, then aged 17 and 18, in attendance. The film was named one of the top 10 Canadian short films of 2019 by the Toronto International Film Festival and has been selected by numerous festivals in Canada, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Great Britain, France, and Italy.

Additional information :
Production company: Wapikoni mobile
Producer : Manon Barbeau
Script: Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland
Co-Directors: Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland in collaboration with the Wapikoni mobile team
Camera: Saviluk Thomassie, Emilie Baillargeon, Clark Ferguson
Drone operator: Johnny Nassak
Filmmaker mentors: Émilie Baillargeon, Clark Ferguson, Virginia Fernandes
Filmmaker-mentor assistant: Olivia Thomassie
Editing: Émilie Baillargeon
Sound recording: Simon Thériault
Original music: Eva Kaukai, Manon Chamberland
Youth speaker: Simon Thériault
Local coordinator: Olivia Thomassie