Nanook of the North Centennial

Nanook of the North (1922) was filmed by Robert Flaherty between 1920-21 in with the Inuit of Inukjuak (ᐃᓄᒃᔪᐊᒃ), then called Port Harrison, in Nunavik*. Although it is widely celebrated as the first documentary, we now know that much of the film is fantasy taken as fact. Nanook and Nyla are fictional characters in staged scenes performed by the real people Allakariallak and Maggie Nujarluktuk.

Nanook of the North was financed by the French fur trading company Revillon Frères and was considered an advertisement. A 1937 version of the film released by the Museum of Modern Art included the following preface, in scrolling text:

This ancestor of the documentary film was made by Robert J Flaherty as a byproduct of his mineralogical explorations in the eastern Hudson bay region during 1912-1921. Previous films of exploration had recorded merely the surface of life in strange lands, but Flaherty had shared the hardships here depicted and, guided by this experience, was able to select just those which constituted the central fact of [Inuit] life at the time — the struggle for food and shelter. The result was a film which is intimate and dramatic as well as expository, and which gained substantial box office success throughout the world. Not only its technique, but its source of finance (Nanook was produced as an advertisement for Revillon Freres, the furriers) have had important echoes in subsequent documentary film production.

The film was released by Pathé Exchange and premiered at the Capitol Theatre in New York City on June 11, 1922. Its unprecedented commercial success inspired a century of documentary filmmaking and ethnographic distortion to the ongoing detriment of Indigenous peoples worldwide. 

On the centennial anniversary of Nanook of the North, The Flaherty organization acknowledges the complex legacy of our namesake and is committed to addressing our own complicity. We invite viewers of the film to consider the settler intentions and indigenous erasures inherent in its construction — and success. We also invite cinema lovers worldwide to express deserved curiosity for all the Inuit and circumpolar stories told — in past, present, and future — from within.

As of 2022, The Flaherty is no longer collecting royalties for the film. The Nanook Centennial Committee is preparing an acknowledgment card we will share with all current distributors. It will be made available for free on our site shortly. We strongly encourage all exhibitors to screen the film with this card.

In lieu of screening fees, we invite anyone screening the film to make a donation directly to the Avataq Cultural Institute, the Inuit cultural organization of Nunavik (Canada), where Nanook of the North was filmed.

—Signed by The Nanook Centennial Committee, June, 11 2022

*Flaherty’s previous research trips to The Belcher Islands (ᓴᓪᓚᔪᒐᐃᑦ) as an explorer and prospector in 1913 informed the production of Nanook of the North in Inukjuak. The footage shot in 1914 and 1915 was edited and shown in public in 1916 — making it arguably the “first” documentary film — but it is common lore that these early reels were lost to a fire.

The Legacy of The Flaherty, The Legacy of Nanook

The Flaherty is planning a series of interwoven programming initiatives in 2022/2023 to address the complex legacy of Nanook of the North in settler-colonial as well as indigenous cultures. These initiatives are designed and led by primarily Inuit artists, scholars, and curators. Through each of these programs we will offer audiences new and nuanced perspectives on the creative, ethical, and political debates that continue to accompany Nanook of the North, and many nonfiction films into the present moment.

Future Returns: Nanook at 100

A publication co-edited by Heather Igloliorte and Jason Fox, with contributions by Madeline Allakarialak, Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker, Tarralik Duffy, Martha Flaherty, Faye Ginsburg, Zacharias Kunuk, Taqralik Partridge, and Ezra Winton.

Acknowledgment Card

The Nanook Centennial Committee, assisted by an advisory team, is currently drafting an acknowledgment card to accompany the film. This card will be released for free later in 2022.

reMatriation

The Flaherty is currently engaged in the digitization and rematriation of photographic and paper materials related to the making of Nanook of the North. This effort has been made possible thanks to close collaboration with Avataq Cultural Institute, Library Archives Canada, Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Nanook Centennial Exhibition in Inukjuak

In planning the Nanook Centennial Celebration in Inukjuak, Avataq Cultural Institute contacted curator and scholar Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker about photographs made by Flaherty in Nunavik during his multiple journeys to the Arctic. The photographs were first exhibited in 1979 at the Vancouver Art Gallery in an exhibition titled Robert Flaherty: Photographer / Filmmaker. The Inuit 1910 – 1922. The exhibition, curated by Birnie-Danzker, subsequently toured to several museums in Canada and the United States between 1979 and 1980 and to ten villages in Nunavik and five locations in present day Newfoundland and Labrador between 1980-81.

For over 40 years, this set of photographs has been held in safekeeping at the Vancouver Art Gallery.  In May 2022, they were meticulously scanned to produce new, state of the art photographs for the Nanook Centennial Exhibition in Inukjuak. The original photographs, many of which were printed from Flaherty's original glass plates and nitrate negatives, will be gifted to Avataq Cultural Institute.

The images included on this site have been created from the recent scans. Prior to this initiative, the only digital scans of Flaherty’s photographs of the Inuit were made in the 1990s and of poor quality and resolution. The new scans will be made available to scholars, artists, and others. 

Over the past year, Birnie-Danzker, the late Dr. Jack Coogan of the Robert and Frances Flaherty Study Center; Jill Delaney, Lead Archivist, and Richard Huyda, former Director of the National Photography Collection, Library and Archives Canada, worked closely on the history of the Flaherty exhibition which toured Nunavik in 1980-81. A key partner was Diana Freundl, Interim Chief Curator / Associate Director of the Vancouver Art Gallery who provided Birnie-Danzker with access to her curatorial archives at the museum. The Curatorial Department (including Joanna Spurling of VAG Library and Archives) and the Registration Department, offered tremendous support. This became critical when it was decided to produce state of the art scans of Flaherty photographs for the Inukjuak Nanook Centennial Celebration. This was made possible by the superb technical team of Hemlock Printers Ltd (Peter Madliger, Vice President, Prepress, and David De Jager) and the generous support and permission of The Flaherty. Scanning of the photographs of Robert Flaherty was funded by an anonymous donor. 

The Nanook Centennial Exhibition, with 36 camera studies by Robert Flaherty, opened in Inukjuak on June 11, 2022.

*The images featured on this page are all the recent scans of the 1979 exhibition prints.

Nanook Centennial Committee

The committee advises on the projects tied to the centennial anniversary of Nanook of the North and is composed of Genevieve Yue (chair), Adam Piron, Tracy Rector, Jocelyn Piirainen, Ruth Somalo, Pablo de Ocampo, Jason Livingston, and Almudena Escobar López.

Additional consultations with asinnajaq, Sky Hopinka, Heather Igloliorte, Jason Fox, Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker, and the Flaherty family: Juha van Ingen, Nyla van Ingen, Raia van Ingen, and Sami van Ingen.