Review of Nanook of the North (1922) by Eddy L — 16 Aug 2009

Very interesting movie and history of cinema.

Nanook Of The North, is called the first real documentary and was first made in 1911 when the director Robert J. Flaherty explored the arctic and met the eskimo Nanook and his family for the first time and made a picture about their lives.

But Flaherty lost the negatives and had to remake the picture and so he did in 1922.

I can only say that I'm happy that he was forced to remake it, and did so ten years later cause I'm telling you, you wouldn't enjoy seeing a documentary made 1911. Never has the camera made so much developement as it did between 1910-1930. And that's another thing that is so amazing with Nanook Of The North; the impressive quality of the camera! I mean, it's made in 1922 and you can even see the fish in the water that Flaherty films.

But I can't help asking myself, how much of this is staged and acting? Probably much more then one thinks. They could have given us a better time references, since it appears like every second day they've catched a walrus which gives them hundreds of kilos of meat and the next day they are so starved they cannot wait to lick the blood off the knives from the next walrus/seal.

Reportedly Nanook freezed/starved to death a couple of years after this movie was released, so we can suppose that their lives in arctis are just as hard as it looks like.

Truly entertaining documentary, which is a must to see to become movie litterate.