Megan Houghton – Three Thousand Review

Title of Documentary: Three Thousand

Director: Asinnajaq

Year: 2017

Length: 14 minutes

Keywords: Indigenous Resurgence; Inuktitut; Resilience; Reclaiming the Narrative; Indigenous Art; Inuit Cinema; Visual Sovereignty; Colonial Impact; Reciprocity; Female Filmmaker; Animation; Archival Video

Links to Watch the Film: https://www.nfb.ca/film/three-thousand/  https://gem.cbc.ca/media/media/canadian-reflections/episode-187/38e815a-01051a90ffd

Three Thousand is a 14-minute film created in 2017 by Inuk artist, Asinnajaq. Three Thousand isn’t just a film, but a meditative experience shared through Asinnajaq’s reflections and interpretations upon her Inuit community through the past, present, and future. She takes you on a visual and auditory exploration through time. That affirms the resilience of the Inuit people in their resistance to past and present colonialism. Her story softly flows through footage to the sounds of classical instruments, the northern landscape, throat singing, and breath. The sounds indicate tone shifts that encourage different emotions and feelings in the presence of the footage shared. The visuals are shared to illustrate a journey of time as they begin in black and white archival footage into coloured footage, leading to sharper coloured video and ending in a sequence of beautiful animation contemplating the future of Asinnajaq’s community. Asinnajaq is reclaiming the narrative from the colonial gaze and establishing visual sovereignty of her community’s representation in media.

         The film begins with a woman speaking softly in Inuktitut to an animation of what is seemingly ice and flows into Asinnajaq using the voice of god technique to tell a story in English. After these words are, spoken the film relies on other sounds to convey its message. These sounds are signifiers to the weight of the footage she chose to use. In the presence of Inuit people living their traditional lifestyles, interacting in relationship with their environment, or expressing joy, throat singing, sounds of nature and breath accompany the visuals. When there is a colonial presence, classical music ebbs and flows with it, becoming more dramatic. Without spoken language, these sounds communicate the story.

Asinnajaq also represents the reciprocal relationships Inuit people have with the land by complimenting the visuals of them with the land and animals. To indicate a shift in time, Asinnajaq uses an animated transition that looks as though it’s ice and moves like water with the sound of breath accompanying it. There’s also a shift in footage/media, as it transitions from black and white video to coloured footage and ending in animation. To transition from the present to the future, Asinnajaq uses a breath from a woman making a basket in silence. Her breath leads into the future animation, representing a feeling of falling through time, sounds of kid’s laughter and throat singing ebb and flow. During the animation segment, spoken language returns in the form of an echoing Inuktitut song with a blissful undertone, the sound of optimism for the future. The film ends with joyful laughter as we watch the future slip away into the animated starry night sky.

Three Thousand is a complex film that tears down the simplified colonial lies of who Inuit people are. It relays the complexity of the Inuit peoples while upholding their resilience through colonial oppression and violence. Accordingly, reclaiming identity creates a vision of optimism for the Inuit people in the future. Three Thousand is a reflexive piece told by an Inuit woman that tells a story of Inuit people to disrupt the colonial gaze many of us function within. The ways this story is shared rely on surrender of being and a cultivation of empathy, as it’s not communicated to the audience through spoken language. It compels the audience to reflect on the truth offered by Asinnajaq while listening to the language of the northern landscape. This film is a powerful piece where Asinnajaq engaged with visual sovereignty to relay the voice back to her people, to tell their story. Further, it ends with a beautiful vision of the future, based on the reality of the resurgence and resilience amongst the Inuit people. To obstruct the colonial gaze of settlers, films like Three Thousand are crucial to experience because they uproot the colonial ideals and show the truth relayed through Indigenous peoples’ storytelling.