The Sun at Midnight getting theatrical run Down Under

Director Kirsten Carthew’s The Sun at Midnight, the first Telefilm-supported feature film to be produced in the Northwest Territories, will be shown on theatre screens in Australia this July, according to a media release issued today by its producers.

“The film has screened at over 50 festivals and traveled around the world, winning awards in the USA and Canada and traveling the world to screenings in India, China, Russia, Germany, the Czech Republic, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Algeria,” reads the release.

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Yellowknife short film tapped to face off on CBC

This year’s edition of CBC’s Short Film Face-Off will feature a film produced in the NWT.

BAIT! from director Keith Robertson, has been selected to represent the northern territories as one of nine finalists in this year’s competition.

Each episode in the TV series features three short films which are screened and then critiqued in person by panelists from Canada’s film and media industry. Once a final three films are selected, the overall winner is then chosen by viewers.

The winning filmmaker receives a prize to use towards the creation of their next short film, which will be licenced for broadcast by the CBC.

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Aarigaa: Meet the NWT’s newest film festival

“Inuvik is overdue for a film festival, and why wait any longer?”

This statement was written in the first Facebook post made by organizers of Inuvik’s newly-minted Aarigaa Film Festival on their official page.

Set to take place on July 20 & 21, the inaugural edition of the NWT town’s first very-own film fest (a production of Inuvialuit Communications Society) has been a long time coming, said Festival Director, ICS manager and local filmmaker Dez Loreen.

“The festival was started because our community has been lacking a film presence. We have a handful of local people from the region who are making films and shorts, but we never had a stage to showcase them,” he said.

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Help us change the way lottery funds are spent in the NWT

The Northwest Territories is the only jurisdiction in Canada which denies lottery funds to be used for the arts. Under current legislation, 100 per cent of our territory’s dividend from lottery sales goes towards sports and recreation funding.

The Government of the Northwest Territories is currently reviewing the Lottery Act and an e-petition has been created by Eli Purchase of Yellowknife to allow a portion of the funds to be used to support the arts in our territory.

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