I Always Knew "Nanook of the North" Was Fiction

rather than a straight documentary (I also have the DVD), but I had no idea what a mess of a personal life its director had.

Flaherty was a deadbeat dad, too, according to Wikipedia:

Melanie McGrath, a writer, writes that, while living in Northern Quebec for the year of filming Nanook, Flaherty had an affair with his lead actress, the young Inuit woman who played Nanook's wife. A few months after he left, she gave birth to his son, Josephie, whom he never acknowledged. Josephie was one of the Inuit who were relocated in the 1950s to very difficult living conditions in Resolute and Grise Fiord, in the extreme North (see High Arctic relocation). According to McGrath, Flaherty knew of his son's difficulties, but took no action.[9] Corroboration of McGrath's account is not readily available and Flaherty himself never discussed the matter.

There

isn't a whole lot to write or blog about. The weather is now very springlike, and I have been taking advantage of it. I have the next week off, so I will be in and out of the house often.

I received my two DVDs in the mail today. If I haven't mentioned it before, in almost 30,000 posts and God knows how many million words, I truly enjoy silent films. I had quite a few of them on VHS, and now I am trying to acquire many of them on DVD. Today's acquisitions include the Louise Brooks classic, Diary of a Lost Girl, and the semi-documentary classic, Nanook of the North. Right now I am watching the latter film.

I call the film "semi-documentary" because it isn't really true; director Robert Flaherty did engage in some manipulation in the film. However, it is extremely well made and poignant, as the Eskimo who portrayed the title character, Allariallak, died shortly after the film's 1922 release.

It's considered to be the forerunner of the documentary, so it is still well worth seeing.