Norman Cohn

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Norman Cohn (b. 1946, New York) is a video artist and filmmaker, and president and co-founder with Zacharias Kunuk of Kunuk Cohn Productions, co-founder of Isuma Distribution International and IDI's website IsumaTV. A Canadian citizen since 1981, Cohn lived and worked in Igloolik from 1985-2005. In 1990, as one of four founding partners of Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc. with Kunuk, elder Pauloosie Qulitalik and the late Paul Apak, Cohn's early video work helped develop Isuma’s signature style of ‘re-lived' cultural drama, combining the authenticity of modern activist video with the ancient art of Inuit storytelling.

Cohn is producer, co-writer and cameraman for the Cannes-winning feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, the Nunavut (Our Land) TV series and most of Isuma’s collective videography through 2005; co-director with Zacharias Kunuk on The Journals of Knud Rasmussen which opened the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2014 non-fiction feature, Ataatama Nunanga (My Father's Land), on the 2012 Baffinland Iron Mine Environmental Assessment Public Hearings. Cohn led creation of IsumaTV's website starting in 2007 and was co-director with Zacharias Kunuk of Digital Indigenous Democracy from 2012-14 using new media to inform and consult Inuit to improve democratic participation in the Baffinland Iron Mine environmental review. Before moving to Igloolik in 1985 Cohn’s solo video exhibition, Norman Cohn: Portraits, opened in 1983 at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, National Gallery of Canada, Musee des arts contemporain and 49th Parallel Gallery in NY. Cohn's experimental non-fiction feature, Quartet for Deafblind (1986), was selected for Dokumenta 8 in Kassel, Germany. Winner of a 1990 Guggenheim Fellowship to assist his work in Igloolik with Kunuk, Cohn was co-winner with Kunuk of the 1994 Bell Canada Award for Outstanding Achievement in Video Art. Most recently, Kunuk, Cohn and the 30-year ISUMA media art group were selected to represent Canada in the 2019 Venice Biennale, presenting My Father's Land and their newest feature, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, to over 300,000 visitors to the Canada Pavilion in Venice from May through November 2019.

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Activity

  • ARTCO

    uploaded by: David Ertel

    <?php echo t('ARTCO "Artisans of Today\'s Communities" is a project led by Kingulliit Productions and IsumaTV where Inuit and Cree children use new media tools to explore their past and present realities, practice collective action and create a better future.') ?>

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    uploaded date: 22-08-2011

  • Distribution

    uploaded by: John Hodgins

    These urls are direct links to 1080p h264 files for Isuma Productions. They can be copied (right-click and select "Copy Link Location") and pasted and emailed directly to authorized clients. These urls are specially encoded and stop working after 24 hours from the time you loaded this page.… Read more

    uploaded date: 27-01-2010

  • Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change

    uploaded by: Ian Mauro

    About the film

    Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change had its world premiere October 23, 2010, at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto. The complete film also streamed online simultaneously watched by more than 1500 viewers around the world. Following the film, a Q&A with filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk and Dr.… Read more

    uploaded date: 29-04-2009

  • IsumaTV

    uploaded by: IsumaTV

    This channel showcases Radio and Video interviews with the minds behind IsumaTV, and their reflections about its development.

    IsumaTV is a collaborative multimedia platform for indigenous filmmakers and media organizations. Each user can design their own space, or channel, to reflect their own identity, mandate and audience.

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    uploaded date: 10-02-2008

  • Kingulliit

    uploaded by: Stéphane Rituit

    ᑭᖑᓪᓖᑦ ᐅᖄᕗᖅ ᐃᓄᓐᓂᒃ ᐃᓅᓕᓚᐅᕐᓯᒪᔪᓂᒃ 1900-ᐄᑦ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᕐᖄᕕᓂᖏᓐᓂ 30-ᓂ. ᐊᑦᓯᔭᐅᒪᔪᕕᓃᑦ `ᑭᖑᕚᖑᓕᕐᑐᑦ` ᓯᕗᓪᓕᐹᐅᓐᓂᕋᒥᒃ ᐊᕐᕌᒍᒐᓴᕐᔪᐊᓂ ᓵᑦᓯᓱᑎᒃ ᐊᑦᔨᐅᖏᑦᑐᒥᒃ ᓄᓇᕐᔪᐊᖑᒻᒥᔪᒥᒃ ᐊᓯᑦᔨᓚᐅᕐᓯᒪᓐᖏᑑᑉ ᖃᐅᔨᒻᒫᕆᔭᐅᑦᓱᓂᓗ ᓴᓂᐊᓐᓂᑦ ᑲᒪᒋᔭᐅᓕᓂᒻᒪᕆᐅᑦᓱᓂ ᐊᒥᓱᒐᓴᕐᔪᐊᓄᑦ ᑭᒍᕚᕇᕐᑎᑐᓄᑦ ᑌᑦᓱᒪᓐᖓᓂᐊᓗᒃ.… Read more

    uploaded date: 04-12-2012

  • Lloyd Lipsett Human Rights

    uploaded by: Lloyd Lipsett

    A channel of commentary and documents by Lloyd Lipsett, human rights lawyer and leader of a 2012-13 Human Rights Impact Assessment of the $6 billion Baffinland Iron Mine proposed development in the middle of north Baffin Island.

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    uploaded date: 07-05-2012

  • Our Baffinland Atlas

    uploaded by: Ian Mauro

    ABOUT OUR BAFFINLAND

    The Arctic is warming double the global average, decreasing sea ice, making it easier to access and extract mineral and oil resources from the region, and this cumulative climatic and economic change has significant human and environmental health implications for Inuit and their communities.… Read more

    uploaded date: 12-09-2013

  • The Fast Runner Trilogy

    uploaded by: John Hodgins

    Three unique Inuit films expressing the dramatic history of one of the world’s oldest oral cultures from it’s own point of view.
    “A masterpiece... The first national cinema of the 21st century.” – A.O. Scott, NY Times review of Atanarjuat The Fast Runner, 2002.

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    uploaded date: 23-10-2009