Mauro, Ian

Roles: Director

Dr. Ian Mauro is a filmmaker and academic at the University of Winnipeg. Mauro is a pioneer of multi-media methodologies, scholarship and education. He holds a BSc in Environmental Science and PhD in Geography and his work focuses on climate change, food security, industrial development and strategies to build vibrant, resilient, low carbon communities across scales. He uses participatory video to collect, communicate and conserve local and indigenous knowledge, an approach that allows people who live on the land to tell their own stories, in their own language, within the landscapes where their knowledge has been generated. He was awarded an “Apple Distinguished Educator” award for his approach. In 2010, he co-directed Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change (www.isuma.tv/ikcc) – the world’s first Inuktitut language film on this topic – with acclaimed Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk (Atanarjuat The Fast Runner). Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change has been screened globally – at festivals, online and television (e.g. Smithsonian, National Geography, ImagineNative, APTN – and it was recently invited to the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. Following this, Mauro directed Climate Change in Atlantic Canada (www.climatechangeatlantic.com), which he toured across Canada with David Suzuki between 2013-2014. The tour engaged thousands of Canadians with screenings in Halifax, St. John’s, Charlottetown, Moncton, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. This film has been in numerous festivals and was featured with Mauro’s Arctic work in a major Royal Ontario Museum exhibition on climate change that run for 5-months. Mauro then launched Beyond Climate, which was shot across British Columbia between 2014-2015. As part of the participatory filmmaking process, Drs. Suzuki and Mauro toured throughout coastal BC on a “Listening Tour” that engaged citizens, and these insights combined with additional interviews contributed to the final film that is now being released. These films represent the world’s first climate change trilogy, combining social sciences, environmental sciences and digital media – to tell the story of how Canadians are affected by and responding to climate change regionally and nationally.