Twice Colonized

91 minutesCountriesCanada
Denmark
GreenlandLanguagesEnglish
Danish
Greenlandic
Inuktitut

Twice Colonized is a documentary film, directed by Lin Alluna and released in 2023.^[1] A coproduction of companies from Canada, Denmark and Greenland, the film profiles Aaju Peter, an Inuk lawyer and activist who has lived in both Greenland and Nunavut, profiling both her lifelong fight for justice for Inuit peoples and the personal struggles and traumas she dealt with along the way.^[2]

The film premiered in January 2023 at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.^[3] It had its Danish premiere in March as the opening film of the 2023 CPH:DOX film festival,^[4] and its Canadian premiere in April as the opening film of the 2023 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.^[5]

At the 12th Canadian Screen Awards in 2024, the film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary,^[6] and Alary and Malfatti were nominated for Best Original Music in a Documentary.^[7]

The film was broadcast by CBC Television on September 13, 2023, as the season premiere of the documentary series The Passionate Eye.^[8]

In Twice Colonized, renowned Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter is a force of nature. As a member of a historically marginalized and oppressed community, Aaju's heritage puts her in the unique position of someone who has been "twice colonized" -- first by Danish settlers in Greenland, and then by modern-day Canadian policies and institutions. As an activist, she defends the human rights of Indigenous peoples of the Arctic and is a fierce protector of her ancestral lands. She works to bring her colonizers in both Canada and Denmark to justice and deploys her effusive spirit and illuminating wit to provoke self-examination and personal responsibility among Westerners for imposing their colonial ways. As Peter launches an effort to establish an Indigenous forum at the European Union, she also embarks upon a complex and deeply personal journey to mend her own wounds from the unexpected passing of her youngest son.

In the emotionally powerful documentary, director Lin Alluna journeys alongside Peter as she plumbs through the social and personal wreckage of sanctioned white dominance to find the strength — within her abilities, her community, and her own vulnerabilities — to transform her hardships and painful experiences into something amazing that can inspire others who also struggle with the poisonous effects of colonialism.

The film was made over seven years by director Lin Alluna and co-writer Aaju Peter. It is the first co-production between Inuit across colonial borders^[9] In order to fund the film, financing had to be set up through the co-production treaty between the colonizing nations of Canada and Denmark. "[This was] the only way we could engage with each other as fellow Inuit: through the two colonial nations," says Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, one of the film's producers. "The Canadian funding system requires that you have your key creative roles filled by Canadians. It's easier for us to work with a non-native writer, director or producer that lives two, three or 4,000 kilometres away from us — but within Canada — than it is to work with our fellow Inuk, who lives a half-hour flight away from us." "It's a long-known colonization tactic to isolate people from each other," says producer Stacey Aglok MacDonald.^[10]

Canadian filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril was one of the film's producers; she had previously made the 2016 film Angry Inuk, which had also started out as a documentary about Peter, but evolved into an issue-based film including but not entirely centred on Peter, as Arnaquq-Baril struggled to depict more personal side of Peter's life.^[9] In an interview with The Guardian Aaju Peter says: "In this one I wanted everything shown, (...) and how hard it has been for me to be colonized and to reclaim myself. I wanted Lin to show all the good all the bad and everything in between. (...) "A lot of people only want to show the good side, but what we all have in common is that we're all experts in fuck-ups. We should be brave enough to show that. That's what resonates with people, the courage to acknowledge that what people need right now isn't a fake hero that's perfect. For me a true hero is someone who goes through hardship and still fights for what they believe in."^[11]

About working with director Lin Alluna, a Danish woman, Aaju Peter says "people have been chosing for me my entire life, but I chose Lin to make this film because of who she is and how she works." Producer Emile Hertling Péronard added that "I knew that this was going to be a complex film, and it had to be the right director in charge of the vision... What convinced me was seeing Lin's footage up to that point: it was undeniable that there was a strong bond between Lin and Aaju.^[10]"

Guy Lodge of Variety wrote that "Twice Colonized doesn't treat [Peter's] personal life as a background to her professional one, or vice versa. Rather, the film holds both narratives in balance, each informing the other, and both equally essential to understanding this defiantly singular woman. As a character study, then, Twice Colonized has a curiosity and a complexity that distinguish it from various other admiring activist portraits in the documentary sphere: Formidable as Peter's achievements are, Alluna isn't out merely to gild them. For her part, Peter is reluctant to be made either a symbol or a martyr on camera, as she repeatedly corrects those who patronize or romanticize her mission to secure rights and recognition for her people from the cultures that colonized them."^[1]

Veronica Esposito of The Guardian wrote that the director "Alluna has done excellent work in finding scenes and images that implicate numerous sides of her subject, while drawing in the web of relationships and power structures that surround her. Over the course of the film's 90 minutes, these chunks add up to far more than the sum of their parts." paving new ground as she "chose to buck the convention of most documentaries, making it a priority to give Peter broad agency over the telling of her story, and also involving her in decisions regarding the shooting and editing of the film."^[12]

Wendy Ide of Screen Daily wrote that "As the story unfolds, Peter courageously decides to harness her traumas and use them in a positive way, as the foundations for a far-reaching exploration of the impact of colonisation on communities like her own. In doing so, she comes to realise just how much of the colonisation process occurs in the minds of those who are colonised – her own included. Peter finally leaving her abusive partner is a satisfying story moment for the film, but nothing captures her spirit to quite the same extent as a shot of her dancing through her pain, fiercely and defiantly, alone in her kitchen."^[4]

Carly Brascoupé of Exclaim! wrote that "Twice Colonized is a poignant documentary that is both heartrending and buoyant, a glimpse at how to navigate life from an inspirational and thought-provoking perspective. It is a clear reminder that successes can be dealt with in grief's silences and significant failures are a necessary texture of daily life."^[2]

At the 12th Canadian Screen Awards in 2024, the film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Feature Length Documentary,^[6] and Alary and Malfatti were nominated for Best Original Music in a Documentary.^[7]

Winner of Transparency Jury Prize at SIMA - Social Impact Media Awards 2024.^[13]

Aaju Peter was named a 2024 Unforgettables Honoree by Cinema Eye Honors after her performance in Twice Colonized.^[14]

The film won the Camera Justitia Award at the Movies That Matter documentary festival in The Hague.^[15]

Winner of Fighting Spirit Award and Special Mention Best International Feature at Doc Edge Festival 2023 in New Zealand.

Winner of second Rigoberta-Menchú Award at Montreal First Peoples' Festival 2023.

Winner of best documentary at Nuuk International Film Festival 2023.^[16]

Grand Jury Prize winner at Gimli Film Festival 2023.^[17]

Olivier Alary and Johannes Malfatti received a Prix Iris nomination for Best Original Music in a Documentary at the 25th Quebec Cinema Awards in 2023.^[18]

Winner of the best documentary at Oslo Pix Filmfestival 2023 with the words: «Juryen ønsker å gi prisen for Beste nordiske dokumentar til en meget engasjerende film. I dokumentaren følger vi en karismatisk hovedperson i et rasende opprør. I filmens fortelling er den personlige utviklingen og det politiske opprøret dypt sammenflettet i hverandre. Det personlige gir dybde til den politiske kampen. Og den politiske kampen gir en forståelse av den personlige konflikten. Med subtile virkemidler og et vart kamera kommer vi tett på både hverdag og store tragedier uten at det føles påtrengende. Vi blir med på en reise der tragediene er med på å styrke den politiske kampviljen og evnen og som til slutt viser oss håp om en langsiktig endring. En usedvanlig viktig og inspirerende film, som kaster lys over en underfortalt historie»^[19]

The film was nominated for best documentary at the Danish Academy Award Robert Prisen 2024^[20] and the Danish Golden Globes Bodil 2024^[21]

Winner of the Arctic Documentary Award for best political, environmental and cultural relevance at Tromsø International Filmfestival's North Pitch Below Zero 2019.^[22]

Winner of Corus prize and Surprise Prize at Hot Docs Forum 2019.

Winner of Cineuropa award / Cineuropa Marketing Prize for best pitch at DOK Leipzig 2020.^[23]

Winner of best pitch at Cannes docs-in-progress at Cannes Film Festival Marché du Film 2022. Handing out the prize, jury member Gugi Gumilang, executive director at In-Docs, said: "The project really struck a chord with the jury for its outstanding empathetic storytelling as it explores a strong woman who wants to change herself and the world. The film walks an emotional tightrope and asks us broader questions around our culpability in systems of inequality."^[24]

• Twice Colonized at IMDb