https://www.lostinthemovies.com/2008/08/nanook-of-north.html
Website breaks down some of the controversary surrounding Nanook of the North
“Nanook and other Inuit hunters use guns, not spears, to hunt, Nanook’s family isn’t actually his family (they were selected by Flaherty for their roles) and to top it all off Nanook isn’t actually Nanook. His real name was Allakariallak – not quite as catchy.”
Longer “cleaned-up” version of Nanook of the North (1922) posted to Andre Bourbeau in 2020
https://youtu.be/3WFT65hVfU8
– another version posted by RetroTV
Interesting comment included at the YouTube link:
Philippine Dard
For those interested in the BTS of this film: Be aware that this is not the documented reality of Inuit life at that time and is closer to what we would now consider a fictional retelling. Flaherty, in collaboration with Allakariallak (Nanook’s actual name), staged every scene of his film to show how Inuit used to live. The family isn’t actually one, the clothes were provided by French fur company Revillon, even the igloo is fake (only half of it was built to allow for enough light to come in & to be able to film “inside”). This staging actually makes sense when you consider how heavy & cumbersome filming was at the time – Setting the camera alone would’ve taken such a long time that it would’ve been impossible to follow these people around like in a “2 days in the life of…” modern vlog style. However, Flaherty showed his film to the general public under the guise of “real images” which then spurred controversy. If you consider this documentary as a collaborative project or a reconstructed narrative that says more about film-making in the 20th c. and about the nostalgia Inuit had for a style of life that was quickly disappearing this is a very interesting piece of film-making history. But one cannot forget to replace this in its colonial context which coincidentally was very much omitted as part of the “romanticizing of the Other” trend of the time. note that Eskimo is a Western term that is considered very offensive & the use of Inuit is preferred as this is how this ethnic group referred to themselves as. Inuk = 1 person, Inuit = 3 or more.
Discussion about the influence of Flaherty’s documentary-style film
Frances Flaherty interviewed by Robert Gardner
https://collider.com/nanook-of-the-north-100-anniversary-documentary-robert-flaherty/
A discussion about the impact of Nanook of the North on cinema and documentaries.
