Nanook Of The North Essay Research Paper

Nanook Of The North Essay, Research Paper

Nanook of the North

In 1922, Robert Flaherty debuted his epic ethnographic film entitled Nanook of the North. At the time, nobody knew of the impact that it would have on the entire industry of filmmaking. One of the innovators of the ethnographic film, Flaherty took his camera into places that no one had ever imagined. His expedition into the Arctic brought forth a new style of filmmaking that is still used in many films today.

The first thing that everybody must notice about Nanook of the North is the cinematography. At this point in the era of film the equipment was obviously quite primitive when compared to everything that we have today. This, however, did not hinder Flaherty in any way as his film still contains many of the most breath-taking images still available for viewing. For example, the opening sequence to the film contains an incredible deep-focus shot of the icebergs floating around in the sea, as the sun is high above the water. Everything in the shot seems to be in place and a type of peace is established before you are introduced to the film s main character, Nanook. Later in the film the camera revisits similar shots using the barren landscape behind the action to further reveal the desolation of the Eskimo people. All you can see is snow and ice for miles and miles as the subjects engage in their activity. Civilization has not touched these

people, and therefore the landscape is peaceful behind the action, even though the Eskimo people are constantly struggling with their natural environment.

Flaherty was also able to pull off many other things than beautiful imagery with his camera work, though. As a matter of fact, the key to the success of Nanook of the North was his innovative camera techniques. In David Parkinson s History of Film, Parkinson states “shot with a participatory camera , the scenic footage and dramatic reconstructions of Nanook of the North captured the spirit of the Eskimo lifestyle through an inspired montage of close-ups, reverse angles , pans and tilts”(45). The key phrase here is “participatory camera,” as Flaherty placed the viewer inside of the action with his personal camera. During many scenes, you feel as involved in the action as the subjects; One scene in particular was the shot of the blizzard conditions attacking Nanook and his family s freshly built igloo. Snow is swirling in all directions and the camera is in the middle of all of it.

The camera work is not the only significant development that this film brought about. This film actually established the rules of ethnographic filmmaking. Many sources blindly praise this film just because of the fact that it did become the model for most other films of this nature to follow. One such comment was “Robert Flaherty used the techniques of narrative editing to heighten the realism of his documentaries”(Parkinson 45). Upon further analysis of the film, however, one begins to see that this is far from true. His films are less like reality and more like his view on the Eskimo people. Unfortunately, his view on the Eskimo people would raise outrage among most viewers today, and amazingly enough his viewpoint is revealed by the same narrative editing that Parkinson claims brings reality. Over the years, this film has been cut and recut so many times that there are several versions available. I have seen two, and it was the narrative editing that changed the entire meaning of the film. Without the use of inter-titles the film seemed more like a documentary as it just showed the every day life of the Eskimo people. You are not told what they are doing; you are left to find out for yourself through the camera. With the addition of the inter-titles, nonetheless, the film becomes a racist view on the Eskimo s and a celebration of the white man conquering the west. The titles themselves suggest a stupidity possessed by the Eskimos as in one scenario they refer to the trading post as “the white man s igloo.” Little comments like this make the Eskimo s seem needy of help and it was good that “the white man” had come to save them.

The use of inter-titles was not the only thing that brought Flaherty s opinion to the helm, though. His montage style editing also played a key role in this. One scene in particular has Flaherty basically de-humanizing the Eskimo people and setting them on the same level of savage beasts. He inter-cuts several shots of the dogs ripping away at the meat that has been fed to them with Nanook gnawing away at meat from, most likely, the same animal. After it goes back and forth on these two events for a while, one begins to subconsciously make the connection of Eskimo and beast. Also, Flaherty found it necessary to include several shots of Nanook licking his knife after a fresh kill as if implying that the Eskimos, like wild beasts, can t stand the hunger and will engulf their kill when they first have the chance. The editing served other purposes than to express his views, obviously, and was served better by the fact that this was actually Flaherty s second attempt at a film coming off of an Arctic expedition. Flaherty “had been able to anticipate editing problems, providing crucial close-ups, reverse angles, and a few panoramic movements and tilts to yield moments of revelation”(Barnuow 39). In particular, the use of close-ups in this film were very effective, but editing them