Humanity has long been interested in documenting itself. With each new way of recording history, we’ve found different ways to represent our cultures, histories, and beliefs. We have hieroglyphs and holy scriptures from thousands of years ago, books of history and opinion, paintings and photos, and more recently films.
Film began as a curiosity, but artists and inventors quickly took note of its potential to document. The early years of cinema allowed for the exploration of what documentary filmmaking was to become. With initial films being more scientific in how they recorded actuality, there was room for other aspects of filmmaking to evolve. With Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North, documentary filmmaking was more clearly codified and accepted as a serious form of cinema. Nanook of the North helps us identify four aspects of documentary filmmaking: indexical documentation, poetic experimentation, narrative storytelling, and rhetorical address.
Indexical Documentation
Nanook of the North ostensibly follows a typical Eskimo family as they go about their lives. However, Flaherty uses the audiences implicit understanding that what we see is true to his advantage. For example, there are moments in the film where he shows Nanook and his family on the inside of an igloo. As an audience, we believe that they’re truly inside one, Flaherty and camera included. The truth is that these scenes were staged using half-built igloos to allow for both camera angles and effective lighting. What we see on screen is technically the truth, but the audience can be misled to understand the truth to be something else.
Poetic Experimentation
Flaherty staged a group of people as family, even though none of them were actually related. He also portrayed them living in a way that had already been outdated for decades. In doing this, he brought a version of Inuit life to the masses of people that he eventually exhibited to. He took poetic liberties in how he staged many months of filming as a single day for Nanook and his family. The film allowed viewers to see the Inuit people through the eyes of a camera; it allowed them to see them in a fresh light.
Narrative Storytelling
In the film, Flaherty constructs a narrative for the audience to follow. A family in the harsh north struggle daily for survival and overcome many obstacles due to the strong guidance of their leader, Nanook. There’s a clear story told here from start to finish.
Rhetorical Address
The rhetorical question asked by this film is “what is everyday life like for the Inuit people?” With this point, Flaherty answers the question with a strange sense of honesty. As stated earlier, Flaherty did a lot to stage much of the documentary. However, despite that, Flaherty does provide a clear look at his distinct perspective on what Inuit life was like, even if it was representative of a lifestyle that had all but disappeared decades before due to the arrival of modern-day technologies, such as firearms.
Nanook of the North as an example of documentary does an excellent job in highlighting different aspects of what documentary filmmaking is. There were and are questions about whether Nanook of the North can actually be considered a documentary, due to how it was staged and edited. Despite the questions, it’s still a prime example of what documentary filmmaking can and should be.
