Nanook of the North (1922, Robert J. Flaherty)

Before the documentary genre was even invented, Robert J. Flaherty (the so called father of documentaries) ventured into Baffin Island in Northern Canada in 1913 (with no motion picture experience) and secured a film.  When the film editing was competed in Toronto, the negative had caught fire.  He had then ventured once again to the north this time basing the film on one person... Nanook and created the first known documentary.

This is truly a fascinating picture, showing the life of Nanook, his two wives and children (although the wives and children were not really his, they were casted by Flaherty as he had heard that Nanook was the most renowned hunter in the area).  It shows beautiful moments with his wives and children, building an igloo, showing his child how to hunt and even removing their clothes in the igloo before they go to sleep.

One of the most amazing moments in the film is when Nanook is hunting a seal and he knows the seal must breath every 20 minutes, and he waits for the seal with his spear held ferociously in his hand ready to strike... and when he does, it's a battle of will to pull the seal above water and all this is done in one beautiful long shot.

The filming was finished in 1920 and Flaherty went back home to edit the film which was finished two years later but by then he had received word that Nanook had been lost in a storm while hunting for deer and had died of starvation.  Yet Nanook will always be remembered, and so will this film, for it will remain a major inspiration to all documentary film makers.

Rating: 4 / 4