Education
Indigenous Realities
Hope and Resilience in Community
Indigenous Realities – Hope and Resilience in Community explores themes of hope, strength, Reconciliation and contemporary Inuit life.
This learning bundle includes streaming access to the film The Grizzlies, a 55-minute conversation with star Anna Lambe (Inuk), and producers Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Inuk) and Stacey Aglok MacDonald (Inuk), a lesson plan, and support resources.
The accompanying lesson plan explores adversity, resilience, healing, and lacrosse.
This national conversation was recorded on April 16, 2025, but is still relevant, powerful, and interactive for students watching today.
Learn more about the film and special guests below.
This Resource is:
- Free of Charge
- Interactive with student polls, discussion boards and more
- Suitable for Grades 9-12
- Presented in English, with a French-subtitled version also available
About the Film
The Grizzlies
In a small Arctic town struggling with the highest suicide rate in North America, a group of Inuit students’ lives are transformed when they are introduced to the sport of lacrosse. Together, they find a sense of pride and purpose in themselves, and become a shining light for their community. Based on an inspiring true story, and featuring an incredible ensemble cast and a CSA-nominated performance from Anna Lambe, The Grizzlies showcases the power and importance of hope.
The Grizzlies addresses sensitive topics including suicide, violence, and intergenerational trauma.
“ transcendently moving”
– Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter
ABOUT The GUESTs
Please note: Guest biographies reflect their roles and achievements at the time of recording.
Anna Lambe (Inuk)
Star of The Grizzlies
Anna Lambe is getting rave reviews as the star of the new hit comedy North of North, produced by CBC, APTN, and Netflix. She is an accomplished Inuk actress and activist from Iqaluit, NU, who has held key roles in film and TV in The Grizzlies, Three Pines, Trickster, Warrior Up!, and True Detective: Night Country, alongside Jodie Foster. Lambe is a recipient of multiple Canadian Screen Award nominations.
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril
and Stacey Aglok MacDonald (Inuk)
Co-Producers of The Grizzlies
Producing partners Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and Stacey Aglok MacDonald are award-winning Inuk filmmakers residing in Iqaluit, NU, who use the power of film to preserve and share Inuit traditions and contemporary culture. Arnaquq-Baril is the director of Angry Inuk, which won audience choice awards at both Hot Docs and TIFF’s Canada’s Top 10. Aglok MacDonald is the producer of the sci-fi hit Slash/Back, and the award-winning short film Throat Song. Through their production company, Red Marrow Media, they have co-created some of the most influential Indigenous Canadian film and television, from The Grizzlies, to the Canadian Screen Award-winning documentary Twice Colonized, and most recently, the hit comedy North of North.
Jason Ryle (Anishinaabe)
Host
Jason Ryle is a producer, film programmer, and arts consultant based in Toronto. Through his mother, he is Anishinaabe and a member of Lake St. Martin First Nation, Manitoba. Jason was a senior leader at imagineNATIVE, the world’s largest showcase of films by Indigenous artists, for eighteen years, and was its director between 2010 to 2020. His film work has screened at the Berlinale and at TIFF, where he is currently an International Programmer.
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