Freezing, starving, blizzards, Eskimos fight against nature with their own wisdom and ability to survive. In the film, director Flaherty abandons the prejudice of cultural standard, gets rid of the shackles of tradition, focuses on the fragments of the Nanuk family's life in a harsh environment, and records the rapidly disappearing culture of the Eskimos. While being hailed as the world's first documentary, the film also saved ethnographic history and provided historical video materials for research.
As stated in the subtitle at the beginning of the film, the film of the Nordic travel was destroyed by the fire, and the filming of the documentary belongs to the second rehearsal. Times have changed, fishing is no longer a brute force competition, and high-tech such as electric boats have appeared; Nanook in the film, whose real name is not Nanook, even his wife is also played by someone. In the fragmented footage, you can also see the state of the child looking directly at the camera. Documentary is a creative treatment of reality, and its most essential characteristic attribute is truth. This film, the exploration of the real boundaries, proposes a powerful space for thinking.
The appearance of the phonograph, the curious expression of the Nanook family, and even biting the record with their teeth; the novel and satisfied performance of the child after being fed a tablespoon of oil after accumulating food; building an igloo, catching seals, peeling walruses, and the whole family in the snow relocation. The records of the details of life show the poor living conditions and the life style of the Eskimos. Documentaries are about reality, about real people, and about stories that actually happened. In order to create the film, Flaherty lived with the Nanook family, and the filming continued for 22 months before he made a grand film. He respects known facts, talks directly about history, and restores the authentic national living style. Instead of looking at their lives from the point of view of a bystander, they are shooting and rushing to show the content of the shooting to the local people in time. Evolving it into the role of the creator, letting go of culturally based prejudice. Shooting from the perspective of the Other, showing the national characteristics and spiritual world, and using the seemingly fictional film to build a real world of the Other.
If the essence of the documentary is real and non-fiction, then "Nanuk of the North" effectively responds to the so-called real appearance. Reality is not a purely metaphysical concept, it has different levels. The presence of the camera also affects the real composition. As in "Self-presentation in Daily Life", each person plays a different social role under the watchful eye. And the camera is like a pair of eyes, interfering with the most authentic appearance of people. Flaherty follows the historical things themselves, and does not mix too many subjective ideas of his own, and the creation he creates is a real space.
In the earliest documentaries, the charm of storytelling in documentaries was clearly felt. It is not only a simple and straightforward narrative, but also uses multiple details to make the characters full and thick; it also cleverly uses the editing method of montage to create emotions and enhance the appeal.
The film's opening commentary "The barren land and harsh climate are incapable of survival for other races, but in this place, which depends entirely on hunting for a living, live the happiest people in the world. They are fearless, lovely, and happy. Eskimo." The opening remarks with opinions and attitudes show the director's creative position. The expression and transmission of views is a necessary condition for ideological construction, and it also determines the tone and atmosphere of the film.
The use of detailed commentary adds color to the characters of the Nanook family. Ice blocks the road, and Nanouk goes out fishing alone in an attempt to save the family. The image of the brave, independent, adventurous and responsible Eskimos becomes more and more clear and palpable in the snow. They use walrus tusks as bait without bait. In order to cut ice cubes more smoothly, they use their tongues to lick the knife, and the surface of the blade freezes sharper; ice cubes are used as skylights, and snowdrifts are used to reflect light, so that the snow house is filled with more warmth illumination. Some small actions always make the audience amazed at the intelligence and hands-on ability of the Eskimos. When he caught a big fish, he was overjoyed and killed the fish all at once, which more directly showed the heroism of drinking blood. The use of many details shows the national characteristics and national style of the Eskimos. They are no longer rigid and flat people who simply live in history, their flesh, flesh and character are exactly what they look like.
Flaherty also uses editing techniques such as sound-picture montage, cross montage, and parallel montage to create an emotional atmosphere and enhance the audience's sense of substitution. When building an igloo, children pulled dogs and sleds to slide in the snow; when people hunted walruses with difficulty at the seaside, the walruses were endangered and struggling; the scenes of skinning seals and dogs barking on the shore were edited alternately, which would have been boring. The monotonous narrative review, with multi-dimensional dynamic, is full of more life breath. The ingenious use of music also guides and shapes the mood of the picture and empathizes with the audience.
"Nanuk of the North" is regarded as the world's first documentary, and is also of great significance to the study of human history. From the earliest documentaries, seeing the multiple spaces of so-called real existence and seeing the early existence of story narratives have enlightening effects on the current research and creation of documentaries. Interesting Eskimos stepped on a series of footprints on the thick white snow, which also provided a space to think about the future creation direction of the documentary.
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