This week in class, we watched all of Robert Flaherty’s 1922 film, Nanook of the North. In past semesters, I’ve shown clips from this film rather than the entire thing. The reason for this was twofold: I wanted to show parts of another very early documentary as well, and some sections in Nanook (as a couple of you noted in class) get a little bit slow. Do we really need to see them pull and pull and pull on that walrus for so long? Do we need to watch them build the *entire* igloo? Why not fast forward a bit? I did detect a bit of boredom at times in the classroom Tuesday night, but my sense is that watching the whole film (and skipping a second film) works better for Flaherty’s work. The slowness of the film seems to contribute to the sense of coldness and desolation of the climate his subjects lived in. Nanook’s waiting (for the fish, for the seal, for the down time after building) became our waiting, too.