Canada's Arctic is divided into four territories. With a steady migration of Inuit young people to urban centres in the South each year for school and employment, 30% of Inuit population now live in the South, an area known as "the fifth region." Two of them share their stories and process of navigating separation from traditional culture.
Joshua Stribbell was born in Iqaluit, Nunanvut and raised in Keswick, Ontario. He lives in Toronto where he is an Inuit youth worker. Nancy Saunders is an artist based in Montréal far from her birth place of Kuujjuaq, the largest northern village in Nunanik, Québec.
After years of denying his Inuit heritage, Joshua confronts in head on, just as he reconnects with his birth mother. Nancy struggled to fit into a small community outside Montréal, where she was shunned by her classmates. She finds solace in her art and is on the cusp of breaking into her first gallery show.
Through their eyes, The Fifth Region examines identities removed from their origin and what it means to belong.
Director's Notes;
How we define ourselves and how others see us can be two contradictory perspectives. While making this film it was important to shift people's perspectives, even just a little, to show the impact of colonialism and the lasting damage it can have. - Aeyliya Husain
