- Zacharias Kunuk was born on November 27, 1957 in Kapuivik, Nunavut, Canada. He is a director and producer, known for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001), The Shaman's Apprentice (2021) and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (2006).
- Kunuk has said his love of movies came from watching 16mm John Wayne films on Saturday nights at a community center.
- Kunus and his 5 siblings grew up in a sod house in the Canadian arctic. His parents hunted with a dog sled and took care of the house in a subsistence culture.
- He made living carving souvenirs, then larger art pieces. In 1981, in Montreal, he bought his first video gear and began a production company with Paul Apak Angilirq.
- He learned English at age 9, at a parochial school in Igloolik, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut). At the time, the Canadian government forced indigenous children to attend boarding schools.
- He only shoots digital video, and has never shot film.
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