Educational Media Reviews Online

Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny by Mike Sandiford, is a comedic documentary that takes a look at white people through the eyes of the Inuit community. Qallunaat! (pronounced “halunat,” the Inuit word for white people) is his second film. The term does not necessarily refer to skin color so much as state of mind.

The Inuit community share observations from their perspective about contemporary North American culture in terms of such disparate everyday occurrences as visiting friends or relatives, dating, table manners, dealing with real estate, and odors. On a more serious note there is a reading of a 1940s Canadian government publication to educate Inuit community in Western culture, called The Book of Wisdom for Eskimos. The group of women assembled to discuss this archival document cannot believe how patronizing it is with pronouncements such as,” A new baby cannot talk, so it cries.”

Turning anthropological studies on its ear, the film sets out to show role reversal with the hilarious Qallunaat Studies Institute where white young men have parts of their bodies photocopied and measured in order to understand what makes them tick as a culture.

The premise of this film is amusing in that we are shown how we can learn through laughter and role reversal. Unfortunately the preview DVD only played sporadically and incompletely on the 3 different brand DVD players I tried it on, as well as on my computer. I was unable to see much beyond the first 31 minutes of this 52 minute film. I have unfortunately seen this type of quality control problem on other preview DVDs from the National Film Board and don’t understand why it keeps happening. Recommended with reservations as only the first half of the film could be viewed.