Nanook of the North (1922)

The great view of arctic life

Nanook of the North provides not only an extremely accurate view of Inuit life but makes one wonder why sub arctic families cannot live and love together. It is a world modern man could not survive which should make us envious. February 22, 2008

Pleased with this purchase

This film lives up to all I have read about it. For me as a documentary filmmaker it is important to make these kinds of connections with the pioneers of this format. Nanook of the North is a must-have for anyone who is serious about the documentary format.

September 15, 2007

The beginning of Feature Documentary Filmmakin

This is a glimpse into an amazing way of life which, for the most part, no longer exists. The Filmmaker was an explorer before he became a filmmaker, so great care is taken to tell these people's story, through the example of one main character: Nanook, the Bear. I was pleased at how well this work has been preserved and transfered to the new medium of DVD. If you are interested in the Arctic region, Anthropology, History, or even great Adventure, you will enjoy Nanook of the North. April 9, 2007

How Far We've Come

When I watched this classic documentary, I couldn't help but think that if we ever had to get back to the level of living portrayed here, we just wouldn't make it. What it took for Inuits to survive and the almost always smiling faces on them makes me think that despite our modern proclivity for shopping malls, body-piercing, Hummers and rap music, underneath it all is a heritage that is raw, rich and admirable; and thank god somebody was able to capture it to film before it was swallowed up. It would be interesting to produce Nanook II and show what goes on in this remote part of the world now. November 12, 2006

Robert J. Flaherty's classic staged documentary of the life of the Inuit

"Nanook of the North" has a place in cinematic history as the first feature-length documentary, shot by Robert J. Flaherty near Inukjuaq on Hudson Bay in the arctic part of Quebec, Canada. A former explorer and prospector in that region, Flaherty decided to document the lifestyle of the Inuit, with funds provided by the French fur company Revillion Freres. The result was an early opportunity for people to see a movie that showed that a distant place and a foreign culture, rather than something staged on a set in a studio. Focusing on the title character and his family, "Nanook of the North" showed the traditional Inuit ways of hunting and fishing, building igloos, and other cultural aspects. Consequently, Flaherty's film is considered a prime example of what is called salvage ethnography, which had to do with capturing a record of a culture before it disappeared.

There are questions about the degree to which Flaherty manipulated situations and edited his film. We know that Flaherty picked an Inuit named Allakariallak to be his star because he was the most famous hunter in that area, but we also know that Nyla and Cuanyou, the two Inuit women cast as his wives, were not his wives, any more than Allee and Allegoo were his sons, carried around by their "mothers" in the hoods of their parkas. Anthropologists agree that the way we see Nanook and the other Inuit hunting seals and whales are traditional practices, but there is reason to believe Flaherty would not let his subjects use guns and made them hunt in the manner of their ancestors. Consequently, what we have here could be the recreation of traditional Inuit ways of hunting, which still has to be of some value. Besides, the life of hunting on the ice that Flaherty shows is indeed as dangerous as it looks, where a seal could prove to be as deadly as a walrus, and Allakariallak would die two years later when he was lost in a storm.

We understand that by contemporary standards Flaherty's practices would be considered unethical for someone making a documentary film, but since he was a pioneer in this field he gets the benefit of working at a time when rules did not exist to be broken. Hearing stories of how special igloos had to be constructed so that Flaherty could have his large camera inside to shoot family scenes speaks more to his attempt to show people what it was like than an attempt to just make things up, so overall I am comfortable with the sense of mimesis established here. Only at the end, when we are supposed to believe Nanook's family are desperately searching for shelter, does the documentary really descend into dramatic license that is clearly over the line.

All things considered, "Nanook of the North" might not be true, but for the most part it comes across as being real, which is ultimately more important. I can see elements that might be considered racist, but I have to wonder if that is because the film has the audacity to suggest that the stereotypical view of the Inuit as happy people is more true than false. Then again, lots of people smile a lot more when they know a camera is on them. The 1922 documentary runs 79 minutes and remains in fairly good condition, with a passable chamber music score. There is also a brief interview with Flaherty's widow from the 1950s and a selection of still photographs from both the "Nanook of the North" shoot and some of Flaherty's other trips through the Arctic north. The historic value of "Nanook of the North" might outweigh the artistic, but not by much. July 27, 2006

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