Inuit drama completes Fast Runner trilogy
BEFORE TOMORROW (Marie-Hélène Cousineau & Madeline Piujuq Ivalu, 2008)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
December 2-15
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
www.isuma.tv/fastrunnertrilogy
The Fast Runner Trilogy concludes with Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu’s BEFORE TOMORROW, following Zacharias Kunuk’s ATANARJUAT THE FAST RUNNER (2001) and Kunuk and Norman Cohn’s THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN (2006). The series, produced by Arnait Video Productions (Women’s Video Workshop of Igloolik), examines the history of the Inuit culture and people in Canada. In BEFORE TOMORROW, Piujuq Ivalu stars as Ningiuq, a community elder who shares a close bond with her twelve-year-old grandson, Maniq (played by her real-life grandson, Paul-Dylan Ivalu). After Kukik (Tumasie Sivuarapik) tells stories about his first contact with white people – including how the strangers traded sewing needles for sex – the group separates into two factions, with one responsible for drying that season’s catch. Maniq chooses to go with his grandmother to help her with the drying, but when they return, what they find sets them off on a harrowing journey, a nightmare that Ningiuq prays will end soon. Based on the Danish novel FØR MORGENDAGEN by Jørn Riel, BEFORE TOMORROW, set in 1840, is gorgeously photographed by Cohn and Félix Lajeunesse, filled with breathtaking vistas, but the simple narrative is too often obvious and heavy-handed (including the sappy music by Kate and Anna McGarrigle), although the film’s slow, meditative pace is welcoming and involving. A film festival favorite around the world, BEFORE TOMORROW will screen at Film Forum for two weeks, then will be available as a pay-what-you-can Video on Demand download beginning February 1; THE FAST RUNNER can be downloaded now, with THE JOURNALS OF KNUD RASMUSSEN scheduled for January 1.