I’m not a fan of documentary films but maybe I’ve been watching ones that just hold no interest at all. Although the film “Nanook of the North” had little to no dialogue besides the text provided by filmmaker Robert Flaherty it was interesting. It wasn’t like the usual documentary films I’ve seen which is with people talking directly to the camera or just amongst others about their situation. This was more of visual type of film. This type of film reminds me of an old cartoon that’s in black and white where music is the only thing playing but you’re still able to understand what was going on.

Now to talk about the film in details, the life of an Eskimo seems harsh. It’s said that certain things were staged. One scene where they were in this canoe and the entire family, including a dog, came out just looks to be fake. It could’ve been real on some cases because maybe they didn’t want to make several trips back and forth but the way it looked, just made it look unreal. The eskimos way of hunting was also shown and again some of it wasn’t real. Flaherty seems to try to portray a different image of the eskimos, one that would make them look savage like. Yes, they had to hunt for food and would eat raw meat but the time the filmmaker filmed this, newer technology was being used by Nanook. There are more scenes where things were changed for Flaherty’s sake but there were also real moments captured. Those moments would be when Nanook would hunt for food and still find time to play with his children. The children Cuncyou and Allie are seen to laying while Nanook and Nyla are building the igloo and it just looks so normal, like having a camera n them didn’t affect their behavior.

I also agree with another classmate Bar Niazov as he points out in another post about the influence the sponsor had on the film. The sponsor Revillon Freres, a fur company helped with the shaping of the documentary. As Nanook was trading furs for other goods, that’s all you seen. They also had this specific type of animal they captured and would sell. It was a white fox they would capture and kill. The trader they traded with had that same type of animal hanging up behind him. Nanook and his family even had on fur coats but maybe they were provided with those for the film or that was theirs already prior to the films.

This documentary was the first of many that I’ve analyzed and seen the truth behind the filming. With the help of Bill Nichols and his description on certain things, I now know that all Documentaries aren’t all real but it can be portrayed to look like it.