Caroline Cox
Director/Co-Producer
Caroline Cox is a Northwest Territories based filmmaker who lives off-grid and specializes in projects that focus on the culture, environment and lifestyles of Canadaâs far north. . Raised on a farm in Southern Ontario, Cox moved to the NWT as a young woman working as a folk musician before embracing film as her preferred medium for story-telling. A self-taught cinematographer and editor, Caroline brings a raw authentic lens to her storytelling in the remote part of Canada she has come to call home.
Caroline is the producer and director of the hit TV series Wild Kitchen and CBC series NorthernHer Caroline also works as an Associate Producer for the Discovery Channel. and She is a co-founder at Copper Quartz Media with her business partner, Inuk performing artist, Tiffany Ayalik. Food For The Rest of Us is Caroline and Tiffanyâs first feature length documentary film. The film is a Hot Docs Ted Rogers Fund recipient as well as a Doc Society Good Pitch and Redford Centre selected project.
Tiffany Ayalik
Co-Producer
Tiffany Ayalik is from Yellowknife, NT and is Inuk from the Kitikmeot region in Nunavut. It was in the North, listening to stories from her elders, that she discovered her love of storytelling, and the powerful change that hearing a story can bring about. Tiffany graduated âWith Distinctionâ with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Alberta. As a film actor, her work can be seen at many international film festivals. In Canada you can see her as Daphne in CBCâs âA Christmas Furyâ the full-length spin-off of cult-classic âHatching Matching and Dispatchingâ and on CBCâs âLittle Dogâ and as the host for âNorthernHerâ. When she isnât touring performing or composing, Tiffany enjoys teaching movement, song and storytelling. Tiffany is a Juno award winning musician and collaborates with her sister Inuksuk Mackay in their band PIQSIQ.
Jerri Thrasher
Co-Producer
Jerri Thrasher is an Inuvialuit Film Writer/Director, Television Producer and owner of Gyrfalcon Productions in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. In 2013, Jerri joined the Inuvialuit Communications Society, as a TV Producer and eventually producing Iglaq, Tusaayaksat Tv and Inuit Away for APTN. As an Inuvialuk who’s lived her entire life in remote arctic communities hunting and harvesting from the land, the concept for Food For The Rest Of Us hits close to home. Today, Jerri is an advocate for Inuvialuit and Food-Security in the north, where the high cost of living is creating impoverished communities.
Stuart Henderson
Executive Producer
Stuart Henderson is President of 90th Parallel Productions, Ltd. Since its founding in 1987, 90th has distinguished itself again and again with a focus on premiere content for discerning audiences. The result is dozens of award-winning films over 30+ years.
A creative producer, Henderson is currently overseeing a slate of documentary films ranging from broadcast hours to anthology series to feature-length projects.
Recent films he has produced include the TIFF Peopleâs Choice Award-winning Inconvenient Indian (Director: Michelle Latimer, 2020); Canadian Screen Award nominees Be Afraid: The Science of Fear (Director: Roberto Verdecchia, 2019), Invisible Essence: The Little Prince (Director: Charles Officer, 2018), and The Skin Weâre In (Director: Charles Officer, 2017); My First 150 Days (Director: Diana Dai, 2017).
Henderson has a PhD from Queenâs University and has previously worked as a professor of cultural history at several top research institutions. He is the author of the multiple award-winning book Making the Scene: Yorkville and Hip Toronto in the 1960s.
Dustin Milligan
Executive Producer
Born and raised in the icy darkness of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Dustin has spent the last 15+ years acting, writing and producing his weird little heart out â best known for his roles in Extract (2009), Schitt’s Creek (2014), Dirk Gentlyâs Holistic Detective Agency, (2016), and Rutherford Falls (2021), when he’s not on set, he’s busy click-clacking away on his laptop, writing and developing various features and TV shows that literally no one is crazy enough to get behind…or are they?…No, they’re not. Unless…? No? Okay, cool, just checking.
“Being born and raised in the North has been one of the greatest privileges of my life, in large part due to the teachings of reverence, respect, and connection to the land that so many Indigenous folks offered to settlers like me. The longer I have been away from home, the clearer it has become how crucial those teachings are to forging a sustainable future for the planet, and all the people on it. “Food for The Rest of Us” is a deeply moving and important film that not only reinforces these essential truths, but dives deep into the repercussions of colonialism’s attempted erasure of them, all the while celebrating the inspirational, marginalized heroes who humbly fight for a better future for us all, day by day, seed by seed.”
Director’s Statement
It is our right as humans to be in direct relationship with the land and have access to healthy food.
My name is Caroline Cox and Iâm the Director and Co-Producer of the film, Food for the Rest of Us. I became inspired by the connection to land and food when I was living off-the-grid, seven hours outside of Yellowknife. Being in relationship to seasonal food sources sparked the concept for Wild Kitchen, a TV show hosted by my producing partner, Tiffany Ayalik. This tiny spark of an idea in the high Arctic grew into an international community with followers across the globe. Through this community we realized we are not alone in our desire to create change through food.
Food for the Rest of Us heads to the front lines of 4 communities across North America, from the Arctic to the American Midwest to an island in the Pacific and explores radical activism through farming and harvesting.
For some, the ability to grow your own food is a luxury, but now people who have been historically pushed to the sidelines are leading us forward and using food to make the world a better place for us all.
Thank you, and donât forget to support your local farmers!
Producer’s Statement
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the unfair burden shouldered by marginalized people. Overnight, grocery stores were picked clean. Our glaring disconnection from reliable food sources was now undeniable. How are we to feed ourselves when the only source of food we have access to is cleaned out? Food insecurity is something that my community has been dealing with for decades. I am Inuit and my people live in the circumpolar Arctic from Alaska to Greenland. The exorbitant cost of living, coupled with the cost of shipping food to isolated communities comes together to create uncertainty and instability in something we need to do every day: eat. In the Arctic, we must rely on one another, the land, our ancestral teachings, and innovative thinking about food. These are the only ways we can regain our food sovereignty. Food for the Rest of Us was born out of the North. Director Caroline Cox and I collaborated on Wild Kitchen, a doc series that featured people across the Northwest Territories who live in close connection with their food. This regional show opened our eyes to a global community that is doing the very important work of liberation through food. We must follow their lead if we are to have any chance for ourselves and our planet. The truly inspiring people in our film are not alone; I hope you can find people just like them in your own community. Food is medicine, food is politics and now food is activism!
