Zacharias Kunuk – Inuit, filmmaker

In 1981, Zacharias Kunuk bought his first video camera. He brought it to his hometown of Igloolik in Nunavut, and hasn’t stopped making movies since.

His best known work is Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, which tells the Inuit story of a man forced to flee his camp because the camp leader was jealous of his two wives.

The Fast Runner won the Caméra d’Or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, in addition to 6 Genies and grossing $5 million worldwide.

In a 2015 poll, the critics of the Toronto International Film Festival named the Fast Runner “the greatest Canadian Film of all time.”