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Nanook himself, Eskimo hero of Flaherty's fine documentary.
Nanook of the North, 1922
Nanook of the North is often referred to as the movies' first documentary. Like so many alleged "firsts," it really wasn't. After all, all the initial movies were basically documentaries, even if they were of little more than newsreel length. But 'of course, Nanook was the first successful feature-length documentary, and indeed one of the very few documentaries that have ever enjoyed any kind of box office success. Sponsored by the Revillion Freres, and released ultimately by United Artists, it turned out to have no commercial plugs for its sponsors at all, but instead to be a darned exciting adventure of the Far North. Its obvious authenticity gave it added novelty value in the early 20's, when location-shot films were still a comparative rarity, especially those with locations as extreme and isolated as Nanook's. So deft a craftsman was writer-directorcameraman Robert J. Flaherty that he managed to resort to some decidedly non-documentary techniques to add to the excitement. Audiences didn't realize that
some of his thrills were achieved through skilful editing of disconnected scenes; nor did they realize that his igloo interiors were fakes. But this is not to brand Nanook a dishonest film. Let us say that it achieved an honest impression of Eskimo life by imagination and ingenuity as much as by factual camera reporting!
Nanook had no stars, but its Eskimo cast, particularly wise, kindly old Nanook himself, played as though they had been before the cameras all their lives. Flaherty always had a great fondness for the "natives" who appeared in his films— although he hated that condescending word and never used it— and his love of them, and his respect for their way of life, showed through in all his films, but never more so than in Nanook. Because of the hardships and dangers in the Eskimo existence, the film naturally had more melodramatic and adventurous content than Flaherty's later films. It was, understandably, his most popular film. It was also, without question, his best.
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