The YouTube of aboriginal cinema

Aboriginal films from around the world hosted on new Canadian websiteInuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and his co-producer Norman Cohn grabbed worldwide attention for their film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) when it won a medal at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, but neither expected the accolades and attention to trickle down to others telling aboriginal stories.

That's why the two have started a new service allowing such filmmakers from around the world to share and show their work on a website that could become the YouTube of aboriginal cinema.And:The duo's new website, called Isuma.TV, has already gathered 100 films and videos from four countries in the four weeks since it began.

The offerings, all free to watch online, range from complete versions of Kunuk's features Atanarjuat and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen to accounts of a Swedish Sami girl's efforts to learn her native language.