Nyla Innuksuk - Focusing on Inuit culture through virtual reality, the Marvel Universe and film making - Part 2

Welcome to Arctic the Culture Cure, the podcast all about Canada's Arctic, the climate, the land, the people and the culture. I'm your host Rob Fagan. Today we have part two of our interview with Naila Inukshuk. Naila is a film director, writer, producer of film and virtual reality content. She is a Ryerson Film graduate and CEO of Mixtape VR. The short horror film that Naila produced, Kayutayuk was chosen as a Toronto International film festival top 10 short. Naila was also named as the inaugural Imaginative Indigenous Vrar artist in residence. Naila is Inuit and originally from Igloolik, Nunavut in Canada's Arctic. After moving to the capital of Nunavut, Aqaluit at the age of three, she moved to Kingston, Ontario, Canada when she was eight years old. Amongst other projects, Naila recently collaborated with Jim Zub to help develop the first Inuit superhero, Snowguard, the newest member of the Marvel superhero team the Champions. Nyla also co wrote the Champions annual with Jim Zub, which came out in December of 2018 and focused on Snowguard.

The things that I wanted to make sure we kind of put in there was that she was from Peng so that, you know, my nephews are only 2 and 4 that when they'll get older and I think they'll think it's really cool.

That was one of the things I thought was fantastic about it as well as the setting was in pain. You know, really neat thing is how they put in comics when they're speaking a different language. There's the kind of the triangular brackets and then at the bottom would actually say spoken in an uktitut or translated from anuktitut and just you know that the capability of people learning through these comics is fantastic. So congratulations on that really neat story on how you got involved and just, just amazing. Now you co wrote and you co produced Koyutayuk and some classified as a short horror film and I thought that was kind of interesting and what stuff

in general I love. So I grew up watching my mom got me into Hitchcock when I was probably too young and I remember being very frightened like when I watched the birds the first time I was I think in grade three or. And so the Birds and then Psycho. But with I had an older brother, I still do. I have an older brother who he. And I just kind of wanted to do whatever he would do and when he was 13, on his 13th birthday, he and his friends were watching the Shining and my mom just was like, you're not allowed to go in There, like, she kind of caught me. I was kind of like, you know, trying to catch a glimpse. And she basically told me, no, no, this is the scariest movie that's ever been made. You're not allowed to watch it. And then kind of said arbitrarily until you're 13, because that's how old my brother was. And I remember just trying to, like, sneak in glass glances, like through the reflection of the TV or something. And when I was 13, like, the first thing I did was go and rent the Shining and just watched it a bunch of times that weekend. But I think, you know, and then Jaws and Scream were big influences me for me in high school. And so when I was actually, you know, I was up in Nunavut as part of, like, for film school, I was making. Doing more filming for this, you know, documentary kind of about my friends. And my one friend introduced, when we were just filming with her, she introduced me to this guy named Johnny who ended up being the actor in that film, right? And now he's an actor in a lot of stuff that he had never acted before when we met him. And he was just so cool, and was one of these guys that worked for the government, kind of a government job, but then would go out hunting every chance he would get. He was kind of like a perfect example of someone kind of living in these two worlds very comfortably and very confidently. And so he told us, I mean, just because I am a big fan of these myths and legends, which are. Because they're terrifying. You know, they are really scary, these Inuit myths and legends, mostly because they're cautionary tales. And the cautionary. I mean, children's stories are often cautionary tales. But our environment's so extreme in the Arctic that our cautionary tales are equally dramatic. And so, I mean, when we just came, it was my friend. My friend Ann Tipper, who's an amazing camera operator. She works with me all the time still, but. And my boyfriend Scott. And we were just talking on the way home from meeting him, and it was like, you know, it would be really cool to do, like, just a horror, because I always wanted to do something with horror. And he was kind of telling us these kind of traditional myths, and it was like, why don't we do, like, something that's more contemporary, something with. And I just got in my head, so I started writing. I didn't ask Johnny if he could act or if he wanted to be in it until much later. Luckily, he did. And it's because he was fantastic in it. And now he's been. You know, he was in the film Indian Horse. He's in the AMC show the Terror. He's like. He's constantly acting. He's been. He's been in many plays down in Stratford. So, you know, it was really kind of fun to explore these kind of more terrifying myths, but in a contemporary context. Because for me, you know, even right now, I'm working with the Winnipeg Art Gallery on a curated art exhibit because they have the largest collection of Inuit art in the world. And for me, when I see Inuit art, it kind of. And sometimes even when I watch in movies, it just kind of feels like a culture that existed 2,000 years ago and not one that exists now. And so just trying to find, you know, for me, it just is. I want to be making the kind of stuff that I want to be watching. And growing up, I was watching scary movies like Scream, or I was watching movies like ET And Jaws, so it just kind of made sense to, like. It doesn't. Although Indigenous cinema, for the most part, you know, can be looked at as is mostly consisting of heavy dramas or documentaries, for me, it didn't kind of make sense that it kind of be limited to that. And in fact, by making things that, you know, might be scary or maybe funny, that we can do just as much to showcase our. Our culture.

I agree 100%. I mean, when you think of it, what a perfect setting for that type of movie, you know, with a horror genre. I mean, beautiful up in the Arctic, but you have the northern lights, you have. You have the darkness in the winter, you have spirits, you have the legends, you have all of that. It's the perfect setting, really.

I don't know, you know, when I'm making this alien movie and it looks like a different planet, it's this beautiful. It's. I mean, if aliens were to come, like, Pang would be one of these spots. I think they would show up. It's just. It's so. It just is this magical place, and, you know, to have these kind of, you know, times where for half the year in some communities, it's 24 hours sunlight. Like this kind of idea that the sun just kind of hovers around 360 is just this, like, seems almost otherworldly. And it's kind of like a perfect place for me to get inspiration for things like, you know, these alien movies or what have you.

Yeah. Now, you are also involved in virtual reality, and I don't think a lot of people are still in tune with that yet. And what that means really, as far as filmmaking, can you just give us a bit of a virtual reality for dummies on, you know, how you're using that media and what you're doing with that?

Yeah. So virtual reality for me, when I started exploring it probably about five years ago, when it was very early in this, I mean, virtual reality has been around for decades, but with technology's only gotten to the point where it can start to be experienced in the way that we're kind of the way we talk about it right now in the last five, six years. So I was pretty early, like a pretty early adopter to VR technology, which for me kind of felt like a combination of video games and film to make it. It requires a lot of the skill of making video games. And technically it has a lot of the same requirements. But for me, I also saw it as a way to. Another way to tell stories, which is essentially what I want to be doing. And VR doesn't necessarily have to just mean telling stories. And certainly augmented reality, there's lots of other potential for these technologies, including education. But essentially the way I use it and for people that are maybe total newbies to VR, it's content that you would watch in a headset, like an Oculus Rift or Oculus Go. You know, there's all these different ones, but essentially you're wearing this goofy looking headset and with the goal of kind of being in a synthetic environment that feels real to the viewer. And sometimes those environments can be interactive. Sometimes the only interaction is your ability to look where you choose within the space. And so when it came out for me, I realized that when I started making movies for me, it was really fun because it would be just something I would be doing with my friends and we didn't know how to do it, so we'd be having to figure it out on our own. And that kind of process of like innovation was really enjoyable to me. It's something I got to do when I was like in high school making movies, but also when I was in university making movies. And it's something that when I started exploring VR, it felt very kind of nostalgic in that way for me because one, there's no experts, everybody in the room is on pretty equal playing field and we're all kind of having to weld cameras together to see if it's going to work or trying out these new stitching techniques. But we're all making it up as we go. And that's still the case with VR because it is so new. So I've kind of the first. The first things I did were extensions of 2D content, meaning. And by 2D, I mean like, just regular TV or movies. My friends. I have producer friends that, you know, were making regular movies and then asked if I would make a VR. The first thing I was asked to do was a VR trailer for a movie called Bang Bang Baby. It was a musical, kind of like a comedy or drama musical that had won Best First Feature at TIFF and was gonna be having a theatrical release. So I produced this trailer, and it just was one of these things where basically we'd been making content that was accessible to no one. Meaning, like, there were no places to watch VR because headsets weren't available to consumers yet. We only had these developer kits from Oculus that you couldn't buy anywhere. And there weren't any platforms like Facebook or YouTube with 360 players. But when we made that trailer for Bang Bang Baby, it kind of came out with, like, we had it released essentially the same week as these players were playing, made available. So it was. So for that original trailer got a lot of attention because it was essentially the first 360 trailer for a movie. And then we found that that was just a kind of another way of reaching a different audience. And so with the same producer, my friend Dan Beckerman, for his next movie called Kayak to Klemtu, which is directed by my friend Zoe Hopkins, an indigenous director. We. It was about. It's a drama about a girl that's kayaking from Vancouver to her community of Bella Bella to protest these oil ships that are going by the coast of bc, her community. And then a week after wrapping of the film, there was an oil spill from one of these ships in the community that they'd been filming in Bella Bella, which is where the filmmakers from and where the crew had been spending, you know, the last 30 days working. And it was. So it was this really kind of tragic event. It's. It's another Bella. Bella is one of, like, the north, you know, very isolated. It's got food. Security is a real issue. Food's expensive, and they. And they rely on their. Their fish and their clams for. For their own food, but also clamming as their main source of income. And that was essentially devastated by this oil spill. And so we went. We found out, and I think, like, essentially the same day, I had a crew go to Vancouver to film a documentary, a 360documentary about this. And that was then released through CBC, but also kind of accompanied the film when it went on to festival runs. So it's kind of an. It's another way to kind of extend that content in a different way. But then I've also, you know, created original stuff with my friend. My friends at Tribe Called Red. We did an interactive. Yeah, we did an interactive music video, which their. Their music's amazing because they kind of incorporate powwow music into electronic dance music. And so with this experience, you know, depending on where you were looking, the soundscape changed. And so there was kind of this dance battle. If you're looking with powwow dancers versus kind of B boys. And if you're looking at the powwow dancers, you're gonna hear more of the powwow influence of the music. If same, if you look at the B boys, you're gonna hear more of the hip hop influence. So it was kind of this being able to remix the track based on where you're looking, which was a lot of fun. And so. Yeah, and then it's. And then we're, you know, currently. I'm directing this. This project about shamanism, working with some producers here in Vancouver out of the National Film Board. So that's kind of, you know, another. It's a. It's a cool project that gets to push me technically, but kind of I get to have fun with the kind of technical challenge of that. But it's also something that allows me to really kind of explore these issues of shamanism that, you know, maybe otherwise I would just be too busy for.

Right, so that's something you're working on right now.

Yeah, so that's one I'm working on right now.

Amazing. Now, I would be remiss as we get closer to the end of the interview. I'd be remiss if I didn't touch base with you on something that I saw in another interview with you when you were going to Ryerson and going through school. It said one of the ways that you kind of funded yourself or made money was editing online porn. So how does one stumble onto that as a way to, you know, make some money while they're going to school?

Yeah, it was one of these weird things where, you know, when you're in university, you kind of. You're wanting to work, but you're also wanting to work in your field, if you can. And I was. When I started going to university, I thought I wanted to be an editor. It's still. It's like. I mean, I still really enjoy the editing process. I think it's one of the most creative elements of Production, particularly in documentary, which. Remember when I was younger I was really kind of passionate about documentary. I had read these, you know, it's so funny because like my, I had these like noble ideas of editing. I'd read this amazing book, it's called In Conversations with Walter Murch and Michael Ondaatji about the art of digital editing in the 20th century. And it's like, you know, it's all about editing and this art form. And. And so I got to school and was like, yes, I'm going to be this editor. And then just, you know, when I was in the summer wanting to find a job and if I could get a job editing, that would be great. And it was this, you know, I don't think these kinds of jobs necessarily exist anymore. But it was like a time when the Internet where you people would just like still pay for this, for online porn, I guess. But yeah, it was a really, it was kind of an uncomfortable situation. But it was also really well paying job and I was doing what I wanted to be doing, which was editing. And I mean after you kind of put aside that, you know, the fact that you're. It's mildly uncomfortable and if you're a bit of a prude, it's very uncomfortable. And you know, and I am a bit of a prude. So it wasn't exactly the most enjoyable experience. But I also, you know, I also think that like I would do it again. And I also think that it's. That it's not the worst job I've had in the industry. And it's also, you know, not. I mean, it's. We talk, you know, and with porn it's so explicit kind of this exploitation of people. And you know, I. There was an uncomfortable time during, while I was working for this company that you know, the owner asked if I would be okay sitting in on some of the auditions with women because I was one of the only women that worked there. And it just was like, no, no, that's not my job. But it was kind of like, you know, that. And that would be exploitative, I guess. But it's. I also recognize that, you know, being an indigenous person that works in, that works in Canada and in the arts, you know, there's constantly potential for you to be exploited. And so yeah, it's, it's definitely kind of was an interesting experience. And you know, the money was so good that if it was around maybe I would do it as a side job still. But it's. Yeah, but it's one of these. I Think, you know, you just kind of, when you're working and when you're working in the arts, you kind of just have to take opportunities and some of them will work out and some of them won't.

Yeah. I mean, again, it's editing a way to develop your skill. I, I was reading that, you know, you said it was one of the nice things about it too, is something you could do when you were sitting in a Starbucks and I wondered, did you ever get anybody looking over your shoulder as they drank their Frappuccino?

I don't know. I'm sure maybe someone thought something, but I would be pretty strategic, I think.

I guess you'd have to be. Any advice that you would give to a young person as they start out in their career, you know, maybe they don't know yet quite what they want to do. You know, whether it's someone of indigenous background or not. You know, it's finding that love that you want to do something and also that balance, cultural balance, as you go forward in your life with a career.

Yeah, I mean, I think that, I guess, you know, being able to find something that you're really passionate about and. Well, for me, you know, sorry, I might have to. I kind of got a little distracted when you were, when you were saying your sentence, when you were asking that question. Just any advice? I think that. Oh, gosh, like. Well, I'm a perfect example of when, if you're not really sure of what you want to do, just do a bit of it all until you find what you're good at and what makes sense. Because, you know, even to this day, I'm, you know, I'm making a movie this year, a 2D feature, but I'm also making a virtual reality project. I'm directing an episode of a podcast. I write comic books, so. And then I'm doing, you know, capacity building workshops for youth, you know, learning how to code and create VR content. So it's, you know, I'm not doing any one particular thing either. And I've. And it's possible to kind of. But they, but they all, all of my projects kind of balance each other out and are all kind of come from the same place and it's just, you know, taken a lot of time for me to get to this position. This is kind of, you know, last year was really one of the first times where, well, when I had left, I left a company that I had co founded with some other guys called Pingwa, and started my own company, Mixtape. That was kind of a big Shift and by doing that, really choosing what I wanted to be focusing on. And when I started mixtape, I thought that we were going to be this tech company that was like a service production company. We would be kind of doing jobs for clients, not necessarily creating our own original work. And it really shifted as I just started to, one, start to believe in my projects enough, but also realize that, you know, you get a lot of opportunities as an indigenous person and they're. But not all of them are. You know, you can say no to a lot of them. And also some of them aren't going to make sense because, you know, I'd gotten to a point where I was. I was done with all of the training and the mentorship and the workshops that I was being offered or, you know, and I started from these, you know, institutions that gave up these opportunities, started realizing, you know, it has to get to a point where we start actually making real things, like where I'm not just being part of a lab that. Because those kinds of resources are going to be available for indigenous people. But then also I realized, you know, understanding that as an indigenous artist, there's certain value that I have that I can bring to a project. And once I recognize that value, starting to, you know, from these people that are offering. Offering opportunities, if they don't fit with what I need, letting them know and saying, this is what I need actually, and asking for it and when. And, you know, putting an actual monetary value on that. Indigeneity is something that's important because I think that, you know, it can. Even when we're doing this movie up in the Arctic with Slashback, we're bringing crew from the south to work collaboratively with crew from the Arctic. And when even the word, you know, when we're. We're kind of doing this. These workshops in the beginning, to call them training wouldn't be really. Wouldn't really be accurate because it would suggest that the people from the south are coming to train the people from the north when really it's, you know, a collaborative. The people from the south are learning just as much, you know, from these artists. And so we have to, you know, recognize that in the way we talk about it in the language and then also how we pay people. And so I think, you know, In general is, you know, kind of this idea that, you know, what you're going to do or feeling. Having this idea that I have friends that kind of do like to have these, like, very clear goals set for themselves, like, I'm gonna win an Oscar by the time I'm 35 and for me it just is like. Seems like you're kind of setting yourself up for disappointment and also you're gonna have. You're gonna miss opportunities that are really exciting and. Yeah. So just trying to kind of find that. Find that balance. But, you know, it's for. For me, what really kind of helped was being able to say no to projects because I was, you know, I was asked a lot of. I would get emails and I still do all the time get emails from about. For, you know, indigenous projects by non indigenous teams, maybe television series or films or, you know, projects that are being. That need in order to trigger financing or to legitimize the project, they need an indigenous person on board as a producer or director or writer. And it kind of gets exhausting kind of being like the last person in on a project when it's. When it's made to seem as if like my role is so significant and it's. And I've also. So, you know, saying no to those projects and then, you know, really taking advantage of others and you know, it was a choice to make. I get offers like partnerships with not Marvel, not at that level, but I mean, I get these kind of opportunities quite often. I almost said no to the Marvel opportunity because I thought that it might just be one of these cases of, you know, just trying to check off a box in order to make this character happen. But actually meeting with Jim and talking about it with him and us really kind of going through the process of creating the character together. I knew immediately that, that, that that it was just a good relationship and that it was that we both respected each other. And so it's, you know, it's really kind of. It is an extra added level of emotional labor that I think that, you know, indigenous people have to go through. But, you know, it's important to kind of do that works that you're not, you know, being taken advantage of or. Because, you know, I had my first company, Pinghua, which co owned with these. Which, you know, the company's still around. But I was the only Inuk at the company. When I joined. The three other owners were like three white people from Lindsay, Ontario. None of them were living in Nunavut. And their company was. Is called Pingwa, which means play in Inuktitut. And they essentially kind of branded themselves as this and you know, company. And then when I joined was kind of, you know, told that I would be the face of the company, which really. And then I realized, you know, that and we kind of created, you know, Pingwa VR, which I would lead because I was the only one that actually was, you know, familiar with virtual reality or production. They came from a place of making video games. But, yeah, then I. It was one of these things where I kind of realized a little too late that I was, you know, any. I was being paid less than half of what my male co owners were being paid. And so. Yeah. And I really don't know why. And it's. Yeah. So it was one of these things where that kind of really made. Once I. Once I left, Ping Wa was able to kind of readdress everything. And, you know, it was. It's interesting because you talk about this kind of change that's happening in the Arctic, and I think it's happening these kind of conversations about cultural appropriation and stuff, these are all new, and these are things that are kind of just starting to. I mean, we're having these conversations in film a lot, and then I see that it's starting to trickle into other kinds of parts of that. People outside of the film community are also talking about these things, but. And representation in video games and all of these other types of things. So it's actually been, you know, it was kind of a crazy thing, but it's. It's also been interesting just to have these conversations. And I think that they're starting. They happen a little slower, I think, in the Arctic maybe, than in the South. But, yeah, I think that these are. These things are starting to happen.

Yeah. No, really appreciate you going through that and the advice you give and along with your three superpowers that you mentioned at the start of our podcast, you take that together, the advice and the three superpowers. I think you have a very powerful group of things that, you know, someone can take and use going forward with their career. So thank you very much for that. So thank you very much. Naila, it's been amazing to have you on the podcast. You're such a great role model, and congratulations on all these projects you've been working on that you've got out. And I know I'm going to be keeping my eye on your projects going from here, not just Marvel, even though that's maybe the one area I love the most, but, you know, incredibly interesting projects. Looking forward to the film you're working on, you know, and so on. So need to keep in touch. And thank you so much again.

Great. Thanks so much, Rob.

Okay, thank you, everybody. And that's the end of our episode on Art of Canada Culture cure. Please tune in again next time.