Nanook of the North

Nanook of the North is a silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty, released in 1922. In the tradition of what would emerge as salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuit Nanook and his family in the Canadian arctic. It is considered the first feature-length documentary, though Flaherty has been criticized for staging much of the action and distorting the reality of his subjects' lives.

Film

The film was shot near Inukjuaq, on Hudson Bay in arctic Quebec, Canada. Having worked as a prospector and explorer in arctic Canada among the Inuit, Flaherty was familiar with his subjects and set out to document their lifestyle. Funded by French fur company Revillion Frères, the film was shot from August 1920 to August 1921. Flaherty had done film work in the region prior to this period, but that original footage was destroyed in a fire started by Flaherty dropping a cigarette on the original camera negative, prompting the director to make Nanook of the North in its place.

Related Topics:
Inukjuaq - Hudson Bay - Quebec - French - 1920 - 1921

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As the first nonfiction work of its scale, Nanook of the North was ground-breaking cinema. It captured an exotic culture in a distant location, rather than a facsimile of reality using actors and props on a studio set. Traditional Inuit methods of hunting, fishing, igloo-building, and other customs were shown with accuracy, and the compelling story of a man and his family struggling against nature met with great success in North America and abroad.

Related Topics:
Igloo - North America

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