100 Films over 100 years project: Nanook of the north (1922)

For 1922, I selected another film to watch.

It is none other than the world's first documentary.

Influential 1922 Films

 Nanook of the North (1922)

Watched 20th July 2022

The Gist

This film was a project of love by director Robert J Flaherty, who also served as its cinematographer, editor, writer, and producer. This is a culmination of his travels to the far North after visiting an Inuit who went by Nanook.

Well... not really...

When he first debuted it to audiences a hundred years ago, Robert received a huge mix of reactions. It was then revealed that he staged and exaggerated much of what went on in the picture.

For one, Nanook was not the Inuit hunter’s real name at all!!!

And most shocking of all, the hunter’s wife was allegedly Robert’s in-laws.

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This grand-daddy of all documentaries received quite a bit of flak back in the day due to its real-life depictions of killing animals onscreen, something you’ll be hard-pressed to find on the squeakily clean silver screens today.

Robert capitalized on the infamous savagery of the Innuits and showcased them in a wild and savage that is far from the truth. (Like in the famous scene where Nanook bites onto a gramophone disc thinking it was edible (also staged by Nanook no less).

While it was seemingly unethical, Robert's tactics proved wildly successful and were lapped up by the unsuspecting 1920s theatre-going crowd. It became a ground-breaking success that branched out into a new cinematic art form.

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A little sumthin’ sumthin’

The film begins like the strewn icebergs around the icy tundra, drifting along slowly and uneventfully.

It then goes on to reveal boundary-pushing imagery that you can surely not find today. Strange little time capsule-esque vignettes of yesteryears like that of Inuit children eating lard, presentation of husky dog’s flesh, and when the tempo of the music drops suitingly; hunting of a wild walrus and wolves (quite a tough watch to sit through).

“This goes on for the entirety of the film. Strange people doing strange things but wearing similar gaudy fur coats that do nothing for the already unreliable lighting"

But with every bizarre scene, we are also treated to some charming moments.

Like the very ‘Arabian Nights’ surreal desert scenes and some heartwarming depictions of love and emotions.

"Nanook of the North" does get stale after a while, there is only so much ice fishing and digging you can witness before your attention wanes. But I can fully understand its appeal and how it can be magical for the people who first watched it a century ago.

And I appreciate how it encapsulates how much humanity has changed but remained the same throughout these years, something I always look forward to with films from these charming moments of cinema that we can never get back again.

The Good	The Bad	The WTF
Informative and reveals a lot about olden day film techniques and inuit life-albeit scripted (salvage ethnography) The camerawork for its time is quite a marvel. Shooting outside in natural lightning might have been terrible. Some moments of emotions included, giving a nice balance to the harsh scenery The first of its kind. Kickstarted Documentary productions	The lighting was not good. The dull darkness of the fur coats AND low contrast made everything look the same Can get boring fast:repetitive Not the easiest thing to sit through for modern audiences with their tik-tok attention spans Highly scripted, might not paint a truthful picture of the 20th century Inuit (read: exploitation.)	Children eating lard and then taking italian castor oil for overeating Fake Inuit woman sleeping in the nude, in the fake igloo. Hais… Pretty Bizarre if you put it all together The slightly extreme closeup of Nanook and his ‘wife’ was a little disturbing
Final Rating-O-Leon:	A strong 66%