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.

Notes

• Flaherty used two newly-developed Akeley gyroscopic cameras to make his film. They required minimal lubrication, allowing the director to tilt and pan for certain shots despite the bitter cold.
• Allakariallak, Flaherty's "Nanook" character, starved to death while on a hunting expedition two years after the film was released.
• Parts of the film are featured on the DVD release of The Residents album, Eskimo.
• The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry.