Unitas Fratrum : The Moravians in Labrador

Second Stories follows on the heels of the enormously successful First Stories project, which produced three separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. First Stories films have gone on to win many awards, both collectively and individually, in national and international festivals and competitions. Second Stories builds on that success by providing a continuum of training for three of the twelve Indigenous filmmakers who delivered such compelling documentary shorts. Through this unique mentoring and training process, Second Stories filmmakers have a chance to hone their storytelling craft (in a professional production experience), while working with a strong creative team to assist in the realization of their half-hour documentaries. Each of the filmmakers selected were assigned a story consultant/story editor and an NFB producer. As was the case with First Stories, the emphasis is on enabling Indigenous filmmakers to tell the stories that are important to them and their communities. The partners in this special initiative are CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND. Honour Thy Father Honour Thy Father is a poignant look at cultural misunderstanding and its toll on a family's grief. The loss of his father was a devastating blow for filmmaker Gerald Auger. The local Anglican priest refused to allow the family to bury their father in the traditional Cree way - with the drum and the smudge - because he was buried on Anglican church property. Gerald sets out to resolve his hurt and anger by seeking official church approval to honour his father traditionally; his path leads him to some unexpected places.

In the vastness of northern Quebec, on the edge of the Arctic Ocean, lies the village of Kangirsujuaq, in Nunavik. Here, tradition and modernity intersect on a daily basis. Teenagers lap up "southern" culture and play golf on the tundra. Their elders--many of them former nomads and hunters--are trying to get used to the strange feeling of staying put. Elisapie Isaac, a young filmmaker born in Nunavik, decides to return to her roots on this breathtaking land. To bridge the growing gap between the young and the old, she lets Naalak, an elder, and Danny, a young policeman from Kangirsujuaq, tell us what they think. She also speaks to her grandfather, now dead, and confides in him her hopes and fears. Above all, she asks the fundamental question: Can Inuit culture survive in the modern world? In English and Inuktitut, with subtitles.

This film shows the inspiration, often related to belief in the supernatural, behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit's approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film centres on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp.