Northern SIghts is a virtual reality project produced by Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, and partnerships with the Initiative for indigenous futures, and Telus World of Science Edmonton. The resulting works will be showcased in an exhibition that will tour communities across Canada and the Northwest Territories (NWT), finishing at the Yellowknife International Film Festival in November 2019.

Carmen Braden
“Changes” - 5 min.
Composer Carmen Braden performs an original piece on an acoustic piano that has been sunk and frozen into the Great Slave Lake. The performance, which also captures sounds above and below the frozen lake, explores the physical and acoustic interactions between the mechanics of the piano and the acoustic qualities of ice and water.

Casey Koyczan
NAHGA - “Fish Eyes” - 5 min.
Multi-instrumentalist/artist Casey Koyczan creates a sculptural installation on the shore of Russell Lake. The installation is constructed not only to serve as a form of shelter in the future for local hunting, fishing, berry picking, and cookouts, but also serves as a stage, as Koyczan performs his brand of live-looping electro-alternative music within the shelter as his artist persona ‘The Bushman”, Koyczan’ creates an experience influenced by the landscape.

Leela Gilday
“Tu Dze (Water Heart)” - 5 min.
Juno-award-winning singer/songwriter Leela Gilday travels to her home community of Deline, NWT where she writes and performs a song with Deline drummers in celebration of their sacred connection with the Sahtu. In collaboration with members of the Deline drummers, the song is based on a traditional Dene story about the heart that lives in great bear lake and features the faces of Deline elders and youth. Thematically, it explores the role of generations entrusted with the protection of the water, and safeguarding it for generations into the future.

Derrald Taylor
“The Dancing Polar Bear” - 5 min.
Inuit sculptor and visual artist Derrald Taylor creates a snow sculpture of the North’s most iconic animals, a polar bear. Filmed on the frozen Arctic Ocean, under the northern lights, this piece represents both the eternal permanence of the North, as well as the transience and fragility of our delicate environment. While the creation of the sculpture was filmed in Virtual Reality, the natural destruction of  the piece would be a view reserved only for those in the community of Tuktoyaktuk.

The Borderless Art Movement (BAM)
“@ Giant Mine” - 5 min.
BAM, lead by artist Terry Pamplin, combines live painting with musical performances, but never before have they captured this experience in Virtual Reality. Working in a circle around the camera, accompanied by Yellowknife musicians, Andrea Bettger, William Greenland, and Sami Blanco, BAM (Terry Pamplin, Jen Walden, Jessica Mcvicker, Diane Boudreau, Rae Braden, Sheila Anderson) creates one of their memorable masterpieces about the past and future of the NWT, near the historic Giant Mine Site.

France: Isle of the Dead.
8 min.
A timeless trip, from an average apartment towards our final destination, guided by Charon, the ferryman of the Underworld.