The Owl and the Raven : An Eskimo Legend

The owl and the lemming in this animated film are short-legged, plumply stuffed puppets made of sealskin by Inuit artists. The accompanying song and voices are in Inuktitut, although the legend is narrated in English. It is a story that all audiences, especially children, will enjoy. Moreover, it preserves on film an example of Inuit folklore that may in time disappear.

In this Inuit legend it is plausible enough that a goose should capture the fancy of an owl and that the owl should be quite bewildered by what follows. The sound effects and voices are Inuktitut, but the animated pictures leave no doubt as to the happenings that transpire. It is a story with the wry humour characteristic of many Inuit tales, for audiences young or old.

A hunter is pursued, bound up and carried to a cave in this legend of a river and of how fog came to the land. The story is enacted by Inuit using katadjak or throatsinging. The audience is locked in an alien world of sights and sounds where human activity seems propulsed by primeval forces.