Nanook of the North (1922)

Director: Robert J. Flaherty

Synopsis: In what is wildly regarded as the first feature length documentary; Robert J. Flaherty charts the life of Inuit Nanook and his family over a year living within the Artic Circle in Northern Canada.

Review

I have found this picture fascinating for a couple of reasons; one of which I now know why when as I child I was wrapped up against the cold my Grandad would say “It’s Nanook of the North!”.

It’s not often a film passingh into popular culture like that, and with “Nanook of the North” its is not hard to understand why. Despite it age this feel feels fresh to watch, the cinematography and filming style is unobtrusive. There is a nice fly on the wall feel when you watch this film. The film attempts to show the Inuit way of life, spearfish, the traditional clothing, building igloos etc before such thing disappeared. The film is attempting also to show the audience something they have never seen before and this is something that it does well and any film maker making a similar documentary today I think would be proud to produce a film to quality on “Nanook of the North” .

However, it is not all as rose coloured as it would appear the Inuit life the film so wonderfully portrays was not vanishing, it had vanished. Flaherty stated many of the scenes, placing the protagonist into traditional clothing they no longer used and it is said that Nanook was not even related to the rest of his “family”. The action maybe staged but the scenery cannot be be, it was made in a different era and it was a valiant effort to show us life as it was.