Meet our speakers

Born in 1954, John Houston spent his first eight years in the Canadian Arctic. Early immersion in Inuit culture has affected his entire life. Later, in British and Ontario schools, John still called the North home, spending summers on the land with Inuit friends. His first job in film was as coffee boy on The White Dawn (Paramount/73), adapted from his father, James Houston’s first novel. John graduated from Yale University in 1975, having spent his junior year in Paris, print–making at Atelier 17 while gaining fluency in French. When Inuit artist Lipa Pitsiulak offered him the position of Art Advisor to Pangnirtung’s printmaking project, he seized the opportunity to return north. John enjoyed the position for five years, bringing out four remarkable graphics collections, gaining complete fluency in Inuktitut, and creating the story idea for Art of the Arctic Whalemen, a documentary directed by his father. 

Hollywood called, and he was off on a 20,000 mile trek, casting Inuit for Carroll Ballard’s Never  Cry Wolf (Disney/82) on which he served as 1st Assistant Director. With the proceeds, he and his  mother established Houston North Gallery in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, now in its 40th year of  showcasing Inuit art. They also co-founded Folk Harbour, the province’s longest-running music  festival. Since 1991, John has guided travelers on Arctic sailings with Adventure Canada. He  worked on films around the world, and rejoined Ballard to make Fly Away Home (Columbia/96). 

With 25 years of helping directors to realize their vision as his apprenticeship, John began filming  his own stories in 1998, co-writing and directing Songs in Stone, a one-hour documentary about  the collaboration between his parents, James and Alma Houston, and the Inuit of Kinngait/Cape  Dorset, that launched Inuit art onto the world stage. His Arctic trilogy includes a quest for the Inuit  deity, Nuliajuk: Mother of the Sea Beasts, and is capped by Diet of Souls, a look inside the mind  of the Inuit hunter. Then Kiviuq, a performing arts special, revived the ancient Inuit shaman/hero  whose story missionaries strove to eradicate. He celebrated his father’s life in James Houston: The  Most Interesting Group of People you’ll ever Meet, then, for his first drama, John adapted his  father’s children’s book, The White Archer. These films all won national and international awards.  Growing up between two cultures gave John an appreciation for the values he explores in his work. To help promote and preserve the Inuit oral tradition, John co-authored inuitQ.ca, a Virtual Learning  Environment (VLE) on Inuit Traditional Knowledge with Acadia University, followed by a website on the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: TRCtalk.ca. John lectures and screens his films nationally and internationally, including presentations at Yale,  Berkeley, the Smithsonian (Washington & NYC), Montana, Ottawa, Vancouver, Spain and Tokyo. Dedicated to growing Nunavut’s film industry, John was Ajjiit Nunavut Media Association’s  founding President, and the 2005 recipient of their Industry Recognition Award. He co-produced feature film The Snow Walker and associate-produced Sleep Murder. For service to the Directors  Guild of Canada, John was the 2012 recipient of the Don Haldane Distinguished Service Award. He  has since co-produced the feature film Copperhead, capper to Ron Maxwell’s Civil War trilogy. In 2017, John issued a wall-sized six-panel environmental photographic mural, “The Six of Bees.” In Fall 2019 he released two films: L’NUK 101: Finding Common Ground, a docudrama on which  he mentored three Mi’kmaq as co-writer, co-director and co-producer; and his eighth film, in which  Northern Québec Inuit and Cree recount the rise of their co-ops: Atautsikut/Leaving None Behind. John Houston is delighted and inspired to have been selected in 2021 as an inaugural explorer in The Explorers Club 50: Fifty People Changing the World the World Needs to Know About. John shares a Halifax heritage home with his wife, marine biologist and fellow Fellow of the Royal  Canadian Geographic Society, Ree Brennin Houston. They enjoy spending time with John’s son  Dorset when he’s home from Queen’s University, and daughter Becky Kilabuk of Iqaluit, Nunavut.