The Nanook Of The North

Film: Nanook of the North (1992)
Created By: Robert J Flaherty
Length: 79 Minutes

Nanook of the North was a film we saw the opening inter titles of within our lectures. So I decided to explore this documentary, because it was one of the earliest documentaries, and was also silent, so I was interested to learn how they brought their subject across effectively without the use of sound/interview or music at all, as well as the emotional effect this film creates. For this film, Robert J. Flaherty recorded to struggling lifestyle of Inuk Nanook and his family in their home at the Canadian Arctic. Being 79 minutes in length, this was considered one of the first feature-length documentaries.

It follows Nanook and his family as they travel, search for food and trade in Canada. The family are believed to be 'fearless heroes who endure rigours no other race could survive.

To create the film, as explained in the preface inter titles, Flaherty was hired as an explorer for the Canadian railroad company. His job was to learn about the people who lived there, and the lands they inhabit. As he planned to obtain a lot of information, Flaherty decided to take a camera with him on the journey on his third expedition in 1913, however at this time knew nothing about camera work or cinematography. He attended a 3-week course on cinematography and used these skills (along with equipment and lights) to shoot the Eskimo lifestyle (between 1914-1915). By 1916, he believed he had enough footage to return home and create a film with his work. However after returning home, he unfortunately dropped a cigarette onto the camera negative and lost the majority of the film. So, Flaherty decided to return with a clear focus for his film, and focused on this one particular family.

This film cleverly links together the theme, facts and emotion. Watching snippets of the film, you are given the majority of information through inter titles that are presented throughout the piece. Even, to me, they created an emotional link to the characters, as well as Flaherty, because firstly, you hear about the ruin of the film and also the death of the main focus of the film. This instantly makes you want to carry on and learn this hero's story. The style is almost poetic, it allows the inter titles to juxtapose with the shots to bring together an emotional story of a family who are happy without any material possessions. It's warming and makes you appreciated what you have as a family, question what you really need to be happy, and many other questions. It doesn't decide these for you in my opinion. It merely shows you ONE case within this environment, another family's story maybe completely different, however this personal link creates the emotional link for the audience to react. I think it uses a clever balance of fact and emotion to keep the audience connected.

Being used to sound, I found it difficult to keep interested sometimes, however the way it was kept was definitely the intertitles of information. Your interested in the facts, however the way the facts are presented are important because you may want your audience to feel a particular emotion or make a certain question raise in their mind - which I feel this film successfully does. There are a range of shots, to keep interest, but they all flow and link to the flowing narrative of the work. I feel that this piece was successful, saying it was one of the first ever feature length documentaries, without any sound is impressive. Flaherty has captured the emotion and interest of the audience without this extra feature.