Shooting TV series North of North’s second season in Iqaluit was much easier than shooting the first one, executive producers Alethea Arnaquq‑Baril and Stacey Aglok MacDonald told Nunavut News.
”North of North has definitely primed Iqaluit for production. In season one, it was a lot harder than it was in season two because the community had never seen anything, certainly, of that size,” Aglok MacDonald said.
“I think that Iqaluit can really now be considered a very production-friendly community, and should certainly encourage more opportunity to film in Iqaluit because of that.”
For six weeks, from mid-February to early April, 120 cast and crew brought the show to life. Even though Iqaluit had become a well-oiled machine for filming this time around, there were still some challenges.
“We shot in some of the colder months of the year. We were out there for 12 hours every day, often in -40 C, -45 C,” Aglok MacDonald said.
“We had to work weekends as well because of those blizzard days. So I think in the whole of production, we had one weekend, one actual full weekend off.”
Last year, North of North filmed its inaugural season from March to June, and didn’t experience such fierce conditions.
Despite three blizzards delaying production on season two, Arnaquq‑Baril said there’s also a benefit to filming in the frigid cold.
“It looks so good on camera when it’s that cold. The steam coming out of chimneys and out of people’s mouths when they talk, it just hangs in the air different when it’s that cold,” she said.
“We also got beautiful Northern lights.”
Hundreds of background actors were hired in Iqaluit to fill out scenes, including some who returned from season one.
Recruiting background actors was much easier this year because people already knew what the show was about.
“I think coming off of the success of North of North season one, there was a lot more excitement to be involved in the show as background performers. Whereas in season one, it was all still a little secretive,” Aglok MacDonald said.
Arnaquq‑Baril and Aglok MacDonald have 20 years of experience working in film with Nunavummiut, some of whom had never been on camera before.
“It’s always fun to see people who are being background performers for the first time, and the stars in their eyes and how cool it is for them to see behind the scenes how it really works,” Arnaquq‑Baril said.
“How one scene might look like it takes 20 seconds, but it took a couple hours to film because everything has to be set up.”
Iqalummiut welcomed the production with open arms, Arnaquq‑Baril said, and that made filming in the Nunavut capital all the more worthwhile.
“Everywhere I’d go, people are so excited to have all the cast and crew back in town — the restaurants are busier and the bars are busier, and it’s just exciting because people are walking by with big smiles when they see us filming on their street, waving, saying, ‘Good luck, guys. Proud of you,’” said Arnaquq‑Baril.
Feeding 120 cast and crew is a big endeavour, but restaurants were more prepared to serve the team this time around.
Last year, Yummy Shawarma was leaned on to provide most of the meals during filming.
“With the short notice last season, the other restaurants weren’t ready to commit,” Arnaquq‑Baril said.
“This season, because they knew it was coming, we were able to do more of a schedule, where we rotated between Yummy Shawarma, and Black Heart (Cafe), and The Frob and the (Royal Canadian) Legion. So it was a shared burden to feed the feed the crew,” Arnaquq‑Baril said.
Arnaquq‑Baril, from Iqaluit, and Aglok MacDonald, from Kugluktuk, are the co-creators of North of North, and together own Red Marrow Media.
The duo are known for co-producing The Grizzlies (2018), Slash/Back (2022), and Twice Colonized (2023).
North of North was co-commissioned by CBC and Netflix in association with APTN, and is available to watch on those three platforms.
Season two is expected to be released this fall.
By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Apr 13, 2026 at 07:47
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