Uiksaringitara | Wrong Husband is a Canadian feature film set thousands of years ago in the Arctic. It was also screened as part of the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 50th anniversary.
We subsequently had a chance to sit down with producer and cinematographer Jonathan Frantz at the Whistler Film Festival (WFF).
HNMAG: When did you become interested in film and television?
Jonathan Frantz: It was later in life. Like every other young person, I watched TV and movies, but it was at grad school at UBC that I started to really see how powerful it could be used in different ways. I have never been involved in the mainstream industry. It has always been for more social and cultural reasons.
HNMAG: Do you have an indigenous background?
Jonathan Frantz: No, just through the style of work that I was involved with, I just naturally gravitated towards indigenous people. I just cold-called Zach and Norman Cohn. I said I really appreciate their work and was looking to move up North and have an adventure. i sent them some of my work and they said sure, come on up.
HNMAG: When was that?
Jonathan Frantz: That was back in 2012.
HNMAG: Ok, that was a while ago. You’ve done a few films with Zacharias Kunak.
Jonathan Frantz: I started doing odd work to help with their different slates of production. Some editing work, some camera, then some advocacy projects where we were writing applications around mining projects in the North. We wanted to bring transparency to conversations that were happening in closed doors. Few people had access to what people were talking about. We brought cameras into these long, technical mining hearings. We would broadcast them live over the internet or make documentaries with the footage as well.
HNMAG: What part of Ontario did you grow up in?
Jonathan Frantz: London, for the most part.
HNMAG: Why did you go to UBC?
Jonathan Frantz: I moved out to Vancouver for a change, and I was actually a banker for a while.
HNMAG: Oh wow!
Jonathan Frantz: My undergrad was in economics. Then I was banking, and I realized it wasn’t my thing. The bank had a buy-out package, so I took that. I went back to school, and I found community planning. I incorporated video work into that. I graduated from UBC in 2004. I started a film planning company with friends at UBC, and we started using film for planning purposes.
HNMAG: When did you start working on Uiksaringitara | Wrong Husband?
Jonathan Frantz: They tend to be a three-year process. That would have been 2022. Zach started with the story over fifteen years ago. He had the concept and it was on the shelf for a while.
HNMAG: How did the funding work?
Jonathan Frantz: We have found a financing structure that has given us enough money to make a film like this. This is one of the more expensive films in recent years, with using the Canadian Media Fund (CMF) and Telefilm. The indigenous screen office has been a great addition to the funding pot in recent years. As well as tax credits and broadcaster investments. They are all relatively easy pools of money for us to get, especially with Zach’s track record. We’re not trying to convince distributors or market people who are looking to recoup on their investment. Zach is free to do what he wants to do.
HNMAG: Great, he doesn’t need to compromise. He doesn’t have to answer to studios’ demands for content.
Jonathan Frantz: Yes, he has the final cut.
HNMAG: Where do you see this movie exhibited?
Jonathan Frantz: There have been some theatrical screenings. There is a new national, all-Inuit language broadcasting network called Uvagut TV. It underwent a four-year CRTC application process and was awarded a mandatory national distribution order.
HNMAG: That channel will be available on all cable packages.
Jonathan Frantz: It’s required now to be on basic cable.
HNMAG: That’s good for Canada, and hopefully it will get some international distribution as well.
Jonathan Frantz: We are working with Isuma Distribution International. They will try and sell it to other regions around the world.
HNMAG: What is an important takeaway that you had from producing this movie?
Jonathan Frantz: I feel really good about the layers of detail that came about behind the film. Zach always says that he makes films so people in one hundred years can learn how things were done traditionally. He really puts a lot of care, effort, and time into those details. In every shot in the film, there is a wealth of information if you pay attention and look for it.
HNMAG: What kind of berries were they foraging?
Jonathan Frantz: I don’t know the name. One thing I find interesting is that one person said it looks like a void landscape, but it’s not at all if you know what you’re looking for. There are roots, mushrooms, berries; there are all kinds of uses for things. As Zach said in the intro, Inuit were not always cold and hungry. You just had to prepare. There is plenty on the land to survive. You just had to know what you’re doing.
HNMAG: Would they have a fire within the tent to keep warm?
Jonathan Frantz: Usually not, but they would have shallow, half-circle fat-burning stones. That would be a safer, low-flame way to keep water warm for tea and heat.
Uiksaringitara | Wrong Husband was shot when it was twenty-four-hour daylight on the island of Igloolik in Nunavut. More romantic scenes were shot when the sun was lighter in the sky. That would be around two or three in the morning. The cast and crew had to constantly adjust their schedule. They were also camping on site and living together. The story is set around three thousand years ago. The details in the props and costumes reflect that. There is no metal. Objects are made from stones and bones. All the knives and needles are made from chipped caribou bones. There are many layers of culture visually present. There were elders on site to teach the younger actors some of the traditional terms. Shamanism and spirituality are a big part of the movie. Shamans are conduits to the supernatural.
Jonathan Frantz is a passionate producer who cares about the history and culture of this land’s indigenous people. Uiksaringitara | Wrong Husband is a unique and well-crafted movie that brings the viewer on a mystical journey that honors the life of the people who have always been here.