Cinema
Nanook of the North
Robert Flaherty · 1922
Synopsis
Ungava, on the east coast of Hudson Bay. The hunter Nanook, his two wives and his children arrive by kayak at the trading post, where he trades the season's skins, fox, bear and seal. The children taste biscuit and lard, and Nanook bites a gramophone record. In summer comes the walrus hunt on an island, with a long haul; in winter, the dog sled, the seal caught at the breathing hole after a walk across the ice, and the igloo built before nightfall, where the family sleeps in furs.
Context
The footage shot in 1914 and 1915 had burned; the filmmaker set out again in 1920, financed by the French fur company Révillon Frères, and shot from August 1920 to August 1921. He had the Inuit re-enact hunting techniques that had already been abandoned, with the spear rather than the rifle, had them build an igloo open on one side so that the interior could be filmed, and developed the film on the spot to show them the takes. The hunter in the leading role already wore Western clothes; Flaherty later let it be known that he had starved to death, although he probably died of tuberculosis.
Who it is for
A silent film with intertitles, of nearly an hour and twenty minutes in the restored version. What it shows is partly re-enacted, and it is best to know this before taking it for a document.
Prizes and reception
The first feature-length documentary to enjoy commercial success; in Czechia it gave its name to the ice-cream bar.
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