Norman Cohn
Norman Cohn was born in New York in 1946 and received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1968. He has been an independent video artist for twenty-five years with exhibitions including MOMA, New York, National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Dokumenta 7, Germany, ICA London and others. In 1990 Cohn was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship.
By 1979 Cohn had immigrated to Prince Edward Island and initiated his video portraits of children, Children in Hospital (1979-1980), including Peter in Long Term Care. In 1980-81 he produced a series of portraits of Canadians entitled How We Lived and in 1983 he released In my end is my beginning, a five part three-hour video study of residents in an old age home in Springdale, Newfoundland. These videos were included in a solo exhibition of sixteen videotapes, Norman Cohn: Portraits, first presented in 1983 by the Art Gallery of Ontario, and then traveling to six other Canadian and American museums. In 1986 Cohn completed Quartet for deafblind, a feature-length experimental collaboration with a nine-year old deaf and blind boy, one of six Canadian works selected for Dokumenta 7 in Kassel, Germany, and recently broadcast by TVOntario. In 1987-88, prior to moving permanently to Igloolik, Cohn was artist-in-residence at First Bank Minneapolis, where he produced Bank, an experimental video "process" work involving seventy videotapes and fifty bank employees.
Artist Code: 116
Videography
ISUMA INUIT CLASSIC COLLECTION: 1987-2009
2015, colour, Inuktitut, French & English subtitles
2012, 30:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English Subtites
Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (Le savoir inuit et les changes climatiques)
2010, 54:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English Subtitles (French subtitles also available)
2009, 07:23 minutes, colour, No dialogue, Closed Captioned
2009, 46:45 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w/English Subtites
2007, 45:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
Unikkaat Sivunittinnit (Messages from the Past) CD
2007, colour
Atanarjuat the Fast Runner (Soundtrack CD)
2007, colour
2007, colour
Exploring Inuit Culture Curriculum Gr. 4-6
2007, colour
2006, 08:47 minutes, colour, English and Inuktitut
Inuit Piqutingit (What Belongs to Inuit)
2006, 49:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English subtitles
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen
2006, 112:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English, French s-t
2006, 46:49 minutes, colour, English
2005, 48:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English, French s-t
2004, 48:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English, French s-t
2003, 52:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English s-t
Atanarjuat the Fast Runner (companion book)
2001, colour
2001, 161:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut, English subtitles (dual layer BR)
2001, 52:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English subtitles only
2001, 52:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English subtitles
Nanugiurutiga (My First Polar Bear)
2000, 48:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut with English s-t
1999, 51:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English subtitles
1998, 52:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English subtitles
Episode 13: Quviasukvik (Happy Day)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
Episode 11: Tuktuliaq (Caribou Hunt)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
Episode 10: Qaisut (Polar Bear Island)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
Episode 9: Aiviaq (Walrus Hunt)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
Episode 8: Avamuktulik (Fish Swimming Back and Forth)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
Episode 7: Qulangisi (Seal Pups)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut w English or French subtitles
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
Episode 4: Tugaliaq (Ice Blocks)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
Episode 3: Qarmaq (Stone House)
1995, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
1994, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
Episode 1: Qimuksik (Dog Team) - Nunavut
1994, 28:50 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
1993, 30:30 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
Nunaqpa (Going Inland) (Marcher dans les terres)
1991, 58:15 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
Qaggiq (Gathering Place) (Lieu de Rassemblement)
1989, 58:00 minutes, colour, Inuktitut
1986, 80:00 minutes, B&W, English
Snaps (In the End is my Beginning Prt. 5)
1983, 53:00 minutes, colour, English
David Wells (In the End is my Beginning Prt.3)
1983, 36:00 minutes, colour, English
Lucy Brown (In the End is my Beginning Prt. 2)
1983, 38:00 minutes, colour, English
Joseph Verge (In the End is My Beginning Prt.1)
1983, 36:00 minutes, colour, English
Sunday Afternoon in the Infirmary (In the End is my Beginning Prt.4)
1982, 27:00 minutes, colour, English
1981, 45:00 minutes, colour, English
1980, 52:00 minutes, colour, English
1980, 56:00 minutes, colour, English
David MacDonald: Part 3: Election Day
1980, 31:00 minutes, colour, English
David MacDonald: Part 2: The Island Campaign
1980, 60:00 minutes, colour, English
David MacDonald: Part 1: Ottawa
1980, 33:00 minutes, colour,, English
Willis Reid, Harold Pottle, Harbour Pilots
1979, 39:00 minutes, colour, English
1979, 34:00 minutes, colour, English
Michelle on the Day of Surgery
1979, 29:00 minutes, colour, English
1979, 29:00 minutes, colour, English
1979, 29:00 minutes, colour, English
Critical Writing
by . Journal of American Folklore, Summer 2013, v. 126.
by . The Globe and Mail, Sept. 6, 2006.
by and . Bank: Norman Cohn: A Video Portrait Process, 1989. Minneapolis: First Bank System, Division of Visual Arts, 1989.
by . 2nd International Video Demonstration, In Montbelliard, France, 1984.
by . 49th Parallel, 1984. New York: 49th Parallel, 1984.
by . The Second Link - Viewpoints on a Video in the Eighties, 1983. Banff: Walter Phillips Gallery, 1983.
by . Fuse, Nov. 1981, v. 5, no. 8 & 9.
by . Fuse, Mar. 1981, v. 5, no. 2+3.