The earliest of all films were, by the broadest definition, documentaries. However, it took long time for the word to enter into vocabularies and the documentary got its proper form relatively late, at leats in comparison with other genres. One of the most important events in that process was production of Nanook of the North, 1922 film directed by Robert J. Flaherty, known as the first feature documentary and one of the most important and influential documentaries ever made.
The film is dedicated to the small group of Inuk (or Inuit), natives of Ungava Peninsula at the northwestern part of Labrador, on the shores of Hudson Bay. The area, which is roughly the size of England, has only three hundred inhabitants and the film shows that it is so because of its harsh Arctic climate that deprived the land of vegetation and forced Inuk to rely on animals as the source of anything – food, fuel, clothes, tools, weapons and building materials for their kayaks. Hunting is, therefore, key to survival and the best hunter of them all is Allakarialak (named “Nanook” in the film). Film follows Nanook and his family visiting trading post and then going to hunting expedition during which he would show his skills in catching fish, hunting seals and walruses and building igloos.
Nanook of the North was the first film in the career of Flaherty. Years before production he was working as iron prospector in Canadian Arctic and during one of his expeditions in 1910s he brought film camera. His first recordings were, however, lost in fire, son in 1920 he ventured back and spent a year trying to record life of Allakarialak and his family. The silent film, accompanied by Flaherty’s commentary in intertitles, was financed by French fur company. After the premiere it became a smashing success, which can be best explained with Flaherty giving audience an access to strange, exotic world which, despite being real, looked more fascinating than most works of fiction that were shown in the cinema at the time. Flaherty’s main contribution to the development of genre was ability to edit various slices of real life in a way that conveyed the story. Another important reason why Nanook of the North became such success was the protagonist. Nanook is shown as man with perennially cheerful disposition who always smiles, despite being subjected to harsh Arctic conditions being, like the rest of his family, under constant danger of starvation. He easily wins audience and because of him the century old film can be not only appreciated but also provide entertainment to the audience today.
Although a great success during premiere, Nanook has, just like many important films from the silent period, found its detractors. The most common complaints against Flaherty’s work is that it isn’t documentary at all. Flaherty obviously staged many scenes; character of Nanook’s wife Nyla (whose real name was Alice Nevalinga) wasn’t Allakarialak’s wife at all (and was, according to some sources, one of Flaherty’s lovers). The famous scene when Nanook and his family build igloo was also staged, although Flaherty can be forgiven because the camera – the only one at his disposal – couldn’t fit with proper lighting equipment into igloo’s interrior, so Allakarialak and his people had to build it as a set. But the worst accusation against Flaherty is that he deceived the audience about life of Inuk. By the time film was made, natives had been in contact with Europeans for decades and this has already made permanent changes to their life. They were living in permanent houses instead of igloos, wore Western clothes and, most importantly, used guns instead of harpoons or arrows to hunt. Yet, Flaherty insisted that they dress and hunt exactly in the same way they ancestors did. However, it would be still unfair to accuse Flaherty of trying to pass work of fiction as documentary. His ultimate intention was to familiarise the world with people for whom he had developed fondness and admiration while living in Arctic. And, while some scenes were staged, some were not, including exciting hunt against large walrus. Flaherty’s work, despite all controversies, provided valuable document about Inuk’s traditional way of life and Nanook of the North has set the trend of using documentary film making as one of the more efficient methods of ethnography. Flaherty also did very good job considering technical and logistical limitations of production. Flaherty’s most important achievement was that he has proven that documentaries can be as exciting and entertaining as scripted films, thus paving the way for the genre to quickly evolve in years to come. In 1994 the production of the film was reconstructed in Kabloonak, Canadian film in which Flaherty was played by Charles Dance and Arrakarialak by his distant relative Adamie Inukpuk.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
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