A film focused on the resilience and revitalization of Inuvialuit culture took home the Northern Filmmaker Award at the 2025 Yellowknife International Film Festival.
The Wandering Soul/Nappata Sanguuyaqsinaqtuaq follows Noel-Leigh Cockney and his family’s story, offering a personal perspective on the cultural, social and environmental changes impacting the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. It features both present-day as well as archival footage from the Inuvialuit Communications Society.
Cockney and Tamara Voudrach, executive director of the Inuvialuit Communications Society, accepted the award following a screening of the film at Yellowknife’s Capitol Theatre on Sunday night.
Cockney said he was “really honoured” to get the award.
Cockney said with The Wandering Soul, he wanted to “share how it is that our ancestors had lived, how we live now and how I’m trying to pass on my own knowledge of my traditions to the next generation.”
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Voudrach said it “was a really great experience” working with Cockney and Henna Taylor, a filmmaker based in Colorado who was unable to attend Sunday night’s screening in Yellowknife.
“It was a lot of making sure that Noel was centered in the decision making and storytelling, because it is his story,” she said.
Voudrach noted Cockney’s great grandfather was Nuligak, whose book, titled I, Nuligak, is recognized as the first Inuvialuit autobiography.
“Our region is very proud of that story and his family’s history,” she said, adding that “being able to comb through” archival footage and “find gems” helped tell that story in the film.
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“A lot of this footage isn’t really seen much and so it’s always good to give it new life.”
Voudrach said some of the Elders shown in archival video in the film have passed.
“Being able to hear their voices and for our young people to see their voices and to hear our language again, a lot of us are trying to learn the language, so it’s emotional but it’s needed,” she said, adding her son recognized his language teacher in the film.
“That’s what’s important, right? They see themselves, they see their communities on the screen.”
Cockney said he wants to continue sharing his and his family members’ stories.
“That is something that I really want to write,” he said. “I could see it being multiple books just because there’s so many stories to actually share and to be told.”
With reporting from AJ Goodwin.
