The Experimental Eskimos

The Experimental Eskimos (2009)

May 9th, 20091h 10min

Documentary
60%

Overview

In the early 1960s the Canadian government conducted an experiment in social engineering. Three young Inuit boys were separated from their families in the Arctic and were sent to Ottawa, the nation's capital, to live with white families and to be educated in white schools. The consequences the experiment would have on the boys, their identity and culture was brushed aside. The bureaucrats did not anticipate the outcome. The three grow up to be political activists and leaders - often at odds with the government that brought them south. They establish aboriginal rights in Canada and are instrumental in the creation of Nunavut, the world's largest self-governed aboriginal territory. But it all comes at a tremendous personal cost. Peter Ittinuar, Zebedee Nungak, and Eric Tagoona recount their stories, achievements and challenges in this film about an attempt at assimilation, empowerment, and the triumph of the human spirit.


Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!

Trailer

Similar Movies

People Unite!

People Unite!


Released on: 2022-03-05
Documentary

In the face of AAPI violence, an intergenerational coalition of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Pe...

Nanook of the North

Nanook of the North


Released on: 1922-06-11
Documentary, Drama

This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northe...

Puno sí es el Perú

Puno sí es el Perú


Released on: 2024-01-09
Documentary

On January 9, 2023, in Puno, at the height of peaceful protests against the government of Dina Bolua...

If the Weather Permits

If the Weather Permits


Released on: 2003-06-10
Documentary

Director Elisapie Issac's documentary is a sort-of letter to her deceased grandfather addressing the...

Martha of the North

Martha of the North


Released on: 2009-01-23
Documentary

In the mid-1950s, lured by false promises of a better life, Inuit families were displaced by the Can...

Highway to the Arctic

Highway to the Arctic


Released on: 2017-02-21
Documentary

Every winter for decades, the Northwest Territories, in the Canadian Far North, changes its face. Wh...

Taking Alcatraz

Taking Alcatraz


Released on: 2015-11-01
Documentary

A documentary account by award-winning filmmaker John Ferry of the events that led up to the 1969 Na...

Natsik Hunting

Natsik Hunting


Released on: 1975-01-01
Documentary

Mosha Michael made an assured directorial debut with this seven-minute short, a relaxed, narration-f...

Timuti

Timuti


Released on: 2012-01-01
Documentary

In Inukjuak, an Inuit community in the Eastern Arctic, a baby boy has come into the world and they c...

As Long as the Rivers Run

As Long as the Rivers Run


Released on: 1971-01-01
Documentary

Examines the violence and civil disobedience leading up to the hallmark decision in U.S. v. Washingt...

The Hunters

The Hunters


Released on: 1977-04-20
Documentary

This film joins a hunting-party of inhabitants of the Frobisher Bay Correctional Centre. The stalkin...

Xondaros - Guarani Resistance

Xondaros - Guarani Resistance


Released on: 2023-06-08
Documentary, Drama

The 6 Guarani villages of Jaraguá, in São Paulo, fight for land rights, for human rights and for the...

Twice Colonized

Twice Colonized


Released on: 2023-03-30
Documentary

Renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter has long fought for the rights of her people. When her son suddenly...

Kamik

Kamik


Released on: 1989-12-31
Documentary

A portrait of Ulayok Kaviok, one of the last of a generation of Inuit, born and bred on the land. Ul...

Invasion

Invasion


Released on: 2020-05-01
Documentary

In this era of “reconciliation”, Indigenous land is still being taken at gunpoint. Unist’ot’en Camp,...

No Loitering

No Loitering


Released on: 2002-03-17
Documentary

An intimate portrait of teenagers trying to understand their world and their possibilities. The film...

Handcrafted Hopedale

Handcrafted Hopedale


Released on: 2015-10-01
Documentary

If you want to find world-class artisans, the small northern Labrador community of Hopedale offers y...

Three Thousand

Three Thousand


Released on: 2017-10-22
Animation, Documentary

Inuit artist Asinnajaq plunges us into a sublime imaginary universe—14 minutes of luminescent, archi...

Nalujuk Night

Nalujuk Night


Released on: 2021-11-12
Documentary

Nalujuk Night is an up close look at an exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, Labrador Inuit tradi...

The Last Igloo

The Last Igloo


Released on: 2019-06-14
Documentary

Documentary that follows a lone Inuit as he hunts, fishes and constructs an igloo, a way of life thr...