Year: 1981
Language: English
Format: 16mm Colour
Runtime: 57 min
Director: Peter Raymont
Producer: Peter Raymont, Arthur Hammond
Writer: Peter Raymont
Cinematographer: Martin Duckworth, Ian Elkin
Editor: Michael Fuller
Sound: Claude Beaugrand, Aerlyn Weissman, Bernard Bordeleau, Jean-Pierre Joutel, Richard Nichol, Anne Whiteside, Leon Johnson
Narration: Michael Kane
Production Company: National Film Board of Canada, Investigative Productions Inc.

This documentary examines the impact of Canadian and American television on the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic and the attempts by the Inuit Tapirisat – the Eskimo Brotherhood – to establish the first Inuit-language television network. Inukshuk, as the network was called, began broadcasting to six Inuit communities in December of 1980. Magic in the Sky (the phrase was initially used by the Hudson’s Bay Company to promote their television sets) goes beyond its immediate topics to explore the crisis of any culture trying to preserve its own identity in the face of television’s impact. A brilliant illustration of the theories of Harold Innis, the film stands as one of director Peter Raymont’s key works.