The ‘Fast Runner’ Trilogy, Inuit Cultural Memory, and Knowledge (Re-)Production

• Published in: Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
• Main Author: Kilbourn, Russell J.A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Walter de Gruyter GmbH 2020
• Subjects: Literature and Literary Theory; Linguistics and Language; Language and Linguistics; Rasmussen; inuit
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zaa-2020-0019; https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/zaa/68/2/article-p191.xml; https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zaa-2020-0019/xml; https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zaa-2020-0019/pdf

Abstract This paper reads the Isuma ‘Fast Runner’ trilogy – Atanarjuat, The Fast Runner (2001), The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006), Before Tomorrow (2008) – as contemporary digital video instantiations of Inuit cultural memory and knowledge (re-)production; as fixed audiovisual texts ironically documenting and archiving a repertoire of traditional cultural folkways, reinscribing them in the present as still-living cultural practices. This is achieved in the films through Isuma’s unique approach to cinematic style, combining long takes and natural light with the freedom and unpredictability afforded by the digital format. In the end, Isuma’s openness to post-literate media forms emerges as an ideal approach to the representation of specific posthuman Indigenous identities.