Listening to the Land: Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre on Tuktuit Caribou and Handmade Documentary

In Tuktuit:Caribou, filmmaking is not an act of observation alone. It is an act of relationship.

Directed by Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre, the Sundance selected documentary short offers a tactile, meditative experience rooted in Inuit knowledge, land stewardship, and the enduring bond between people and caribou. Rather than explaining its subject, the film invites viewers to slow down, listen, and feel the material presence of the Arctic landscape.

Selected for the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Shorts Program, Tuktuit:Caribou stands apart through both its subject matter and its process. The film is as much about how it is made as what it reveals.

Filmmaking as Material Practice

McIntyre’s work exists at the intersection of experimental cinema, documentary, and Indigenous knowledge systems. With more than 40 films screened internationally, she is known for pushing film beyond image capture and into physical labor.

For Tuktuit:Caribou, McIntyre created handmade film emulsions using caribou hide, lichen, and organic materials gathered from the land. The result is a film that does not merely depict caribou but is materially connected to them.

“There’s a responsibility that comes with working this way,” McIntyre explains. “You can’t separate the process from the subject.”

This approach reframes documentary filmmaking as a reciprocal relationship rather than extraction. The land is not a backdrop. It is a collaborator.

Beyond Explanation

Tuktuit:Caribou resists the conventions of traditional documentary structure. There is no voiceover guiding interpretation. No clear argument being made. Instead, the film unfolds through texture, rhythm, and repetition.

McIntyre is intentional about this restraint. She believes that Indigenous stories do not always need to be translated for understanding.

“There’s a difference between clarity and accessibility,” she notes. “Not everything needs to be explained to be felt.”

The film trusts the audience to sit with uncertainty, to experience the land without instruction, and to recognize that knowledge can exist outside of Western narrative frameworks.

Labor, Failure, and Learning

The handmade nature of Tuktuit:Caribou comes with risk. McIntyre speaks openly about failure as part of the process. Materials behave unpredictably. Experiments do not always succeed. But those moments are not discarded.

“Failure is information,” she says. “It teaches you what the material wants.”

This philosophy extends to her work as an educator, where she encourages students to engage with analog processes and embrace uncertainty. In a digital era driven by efficiency and polish, McIntyre’s work insists on patience, imperfection, and care.

Environmental Storytelling Without Didacticism

While Tuktuit:Caribou engages deeply with environmental themes, it avoids the language of activism or urgency. There are no warnings or calls to action. Instead, the film offers presence.

McIntyre believes that environmental responsibility begins with relationship rather than messaging.

“If people feel connected,” she says, “they already understand why it matters.”

By grounding the film in Inuit knowledge and lived experience, Tuktuit:Caribou reframes environmental cinema as something quieter but no less powerful.

Sundance and a Moment of Recognition

Premiering at Sundance during the festival’s final year in Park City carries a particular weight. For McIntyre, the selection represents recognition not just of a film, but of a way of working that prioritizes land, labor, and Indigenous knowledge.

Tuktuit:Caribou arrives at Sundance not as spectacle, but as an offering. It asks audiences to listen differently, to value process over product, and to reconsider what documentary cinema can be.

In a festival landscape often driven by urgency and noise, McIntyre’s film does something radical. It slows down.

Tuktuit:Caribou screens as part of the Sundance Film Festival Documentary Shorts Program. Kickin' It With Tyree