The Fan Hitch Volume 4, Number 2, February 2002

Newsletter of the Inuit Sled Dog

Table of Contents

Editorial
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Featured Inuit Dog Owner: Ove Nygaard
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An Amazing Lead Dog: The Story of Tatra
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A Mystic Reunion
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Katan, the Greenland Pup
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Oregon Dune Musher's Mail Run
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High Arctic Mushing: Part II
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Bibliography: Inuit Sled Dog Research
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Video Review: Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner
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Book Review: To a Lonely Land I Know
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IMHO: Visibility


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Editor's/Publisher's Statement
              Editor: Sue Hamilton
              Webmaster: Mark Hamilton
The Fan Hitch Website and Publications of the Inuit Sled Dog– the quarterly Journal (retired in 2018) and PostScript – are dedicated to the aboriginal landrace traditional Inuit Sled Dog as well as related Inuit culture and traditions. 

PostScript is published intermittently as material becomes available. Online access is free at: https://thefanhitch.org  PostScript welcomes your letters, stories, comments and The editorial staff reserves the right to edit submissions used for publication.

Contents of The Fan Hitch Website and its publications  are protected by international copyright laws. No photo, drawing or text may be reproduced in any form without written consent. Webmasters please note: written consent is necessary before linking this site to yours! Please forward requests to Sue Hamilton, 55 Town Line Rd., Harwinton, Connecticut  06791, USA or mail@thefanhitch.org

Video review....

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner

reviewed by Sue Hamilton

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner, is Canada's first full length (161 minutes) feature movie written, produced, directed and acted entirely by the Inuit of Igloolik Isuma Productions of Iglulik, Nunavut. The story is an ancient legend Iglulik elders have kept alive "to teach young Inuit the danger of setting personal desire above the needs of the group." It is a tale of "love, jealousy, murder and revenge... life-threatening struggle between human and supernatural characters" set in a time centuries before metal and guns, when the Inuit lived a nomadic existence.

While there are scenes of dogs kept and working in traditional ways, this is not why Atanarjuat is a must see, must own video. Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner,is a visual feast of natural beauty, fine acting and offers many vignettes of the details of every day life. With an unusual style of filming, it affords viewers a rare opportunity to experience and appreciate "a more authentic view of Inuit culture and oral tradition from the inside and through Inuit eyes". 

The dialog is entirely in Inuktitut with English subtitles. The accompanying musical score is an eclectic collection of aboriginal music from Arctic Canada, Australia and the Asian country of Tuva.

Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner has not yet been broadly released for home video. The versions that were available in the Canadian North prior to Christmas 2001 were a limited edition so that Inuit in Nunavut would have a chance to see the film and not have to wait until after a theater release release down south.

The film will be released in theaters in Canada by Alliance Atlantis/Odeon in Spring, 2002 and then across the United States by Lot 47 in June, 2002. After that, it will surely be available on home video and DVD.

For more info on when DVD and home video copies will be available, please contact the distributors directly:

Canada
Odeon Films, Inc./Alliance Atlantis
121 Bloor Street East, Suite 1500,  Toronto, ON,  M4W 3M5,  CANADA
tel. 1-416-967-1174;  fax. 1-416-960-0971 
http://www.allianceatlantisfilms.com/

United States 
Lot 47 Films, Inc.
22 W. 19th Street, 8th Floor,  New York, NY  10011,  USA
tel. 1-212-691-4747;  fax. 1-212-691-7477; http://www.lot47.com

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