Okpik’s Dream is a documentary film about the compelling life story of the remarkable and inspiring Harry Okpik, a champion sled dog musher and amputee who has lived through the incredible changes that have affected Inuit people in just one generation.

Okpik’s Dream is a story of tragedy and courage, broken and reclaimed dreams, and the power of believing we are greater than our circumstances.

At the heart of the story: sixty-year-old Harry Sam Willy Okpik, a champion dog musher who lives in the remote Inuit community of Quaqtaq, Nunavik in Arctic Quebec, and his lifelong determination to rebuild his identity and live his life with a sense of purpose.  

Becoming a dog musher was his childhood dream. But in the early 1960s, when government agents shot the dogs of Quaqtaq, 11-year-old Harry saw the sky turn red and thought his dream forever destroyed. Twelve years later, after traumatic residential schooling, another personal tragedy occurred. Three years of intense hospitalization and estrangement from his community followed. Then Harry made a harrowing decision – one he believed would forever rob him from becoming a real man, a father, a true Inuk. A decision he made because it would lead him to recovery, back to his home, the north.  

Okpik's Dream takes the viewer into the modern Inuit world. Shot over the course of several years, we follow Harry as he recounts the momentous events of his life and cares for his magnificent husky dogs in preparation for the Ivakkak, a gruelling 600 km Inuit dog sled race across the Canadian Arctic.

This is a powerful human story that leaves us feeling inspired by the encounter with an everyday man whose exceptional life and message of determination transcends cultural differences.

A note from Writer/Director Laura Rietveld

I first met Harry Okpik on a blindingly sunny, -30 degree-day in Quaqtaq over five years ago. I was visiting my aunt, a teacher, who arranged for us to dogsled with Harry. Out on the land that day, Harry spoke of his passion for dogsledding, the Ivakkak race, and about the near-fatal hunting accident that cost him his leg. He also described the day his father’s dogs, the dogs he cared for as a boy, were killed by government agents. What became known as the Dog Slaughter would kill thousands of Inuit huskies across the Canadian Arctic in the 1950s and 60s, nearly eradicating the breed. As a Canadian, I was shocked and embarrassed that I had not heard of this event before.

Harry’s story stayed with me long after I left the North. Three years ago, I proposed the idea of making a film about him to Katarina Soukup at Catbird Productions. She is a documentary producer based in Montreal who has a long history of filmmaking in the Arctic, including collaborating with award-winning Inuit filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat the Fast Runner, Kiviaq versus Canada) in Nunavut and Jobie Weetaluktuk (Umiaq Skin Boat, Kakalakkuvik Where the Children Dwell) in Nunavik.

Our Crowd-Funding Partners

We are thrilled to launch this campaign with Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV), a non-profit community broadcaster based in Igloolik (Nunavut) which will air the film when it is finished, and IsumaTV, an independent online interactive network of Inuit and Indigenous multimedia.

After two years of filming in Nunavik, we’ve nearly completed the documentary. But we are $30,000 short and need your help.

Filming in the north is extremely expensive and funding sources in Canada for documentaries are becoming fewer and fewer. We’ve been very lucky to get this far with the film. It required faith and commitment from our production team, who agreed to jump into the first year of filming with no guarantee of being paid. That’s how much we believe in this important documentary.

Today, with the support of Air Inuit, CBC, NITV, Shaw Media Hot Docs Development Fund, and the Canada Media Fund, we have almost finished our film, but still require $30,000 to complete the final stages of post-production. This includes the editing, music composing, sound design, 5.1 surround sound mix, colour correction and graphic design. Here's the breakdown:

Please join us and our crowd-funding campaign partners - Nunavut Independent Television Network (NITV) and  IsumaTV - and help us bring Okpik’s Dream to life!

The film will be broadcast on CBC Québec and CBC North later this year, and also on CBC documentary and Nunvavut Independent Television Network (NITV) next year.