I find that Nanook of the North is as much of the White explorers giving themselves a pat on the back, as it is a documentary about an Inuit’s life. Especially in the early portion of the documentary, it subtly celebrates the greatness of the White explorers in the Inuit’s own domain. This can be seen though the emphasis on the White’s superiority in terms of living supplies. This is evidently seen in the scenes where the children interact with the White traders. Even though the children are only gifted lard and sea biscuits, a fare that the population back in Europe would snub, the meal was described as a “banquet”. Not only does the extreme joy of consuming poor European food show the European superiority in procuring food supplies, it also implies the generosity of the White traders bestowed upon the poor starving Inuits.
The image of the benevolent White trader does not stop there. Through the scene of administering castor oil to the ill child, the traders show their medical advancements as well. The White trader is portrayed as a person of medical authority as the film shows the child being immediately handed over to the White trader and not the parents. Moreover, the camera focuses on the bottle of castor oil during the entire scene. Even when spooning the castor oil to the child, the bottle starkly remains in the White trader’s grip, in the foreground. The symbol of the castor oil becomes a reminder that it is a product of the foreigners, and that the Inuits depend on the traders for their well-being.
In addition, the Inuits are reduced to a helpless race that depends on the White traders for their continued livelihood. Even though the Inuits are said to be great hunters, the film portrays them in a way makes them seem harmless through the use of music. The lighthearted background music suits the family scenes well enough. However, the music clashes jarringly with the serious hunting scenes and detracts the hunting skills of Nanook. In the fishing scene, the music specifically changes to the cheery plucking of string instruments to match the baiting motion of the fishing rod. While this scene does not show Nanook’s ability as a strong hunter, it does make light of his skill, dedication and endurance needed to fish in the freezing Arctic. Furthermore, it also makes light of the Inuits’ imminent starvation. As such, Nanook’s triumph in finding food to overcome starvation becomes trivialized, and his skills and efforts reduced to humorous actions in a lighthearted scene.
As a side note, I wish to share something interesting but not necessarily linked to our theme of Empire. When I first watched Nanook of the North, I found it rather similar to the modern animal documentary. Specifically, The Rise of the Black Wolf, a documentary about a famous Yellowstone wolf, which I watched a year ago. Both films share similar documentary technique of portraying a sentimental angle in a supposedly factual report. However, the very same techniques used to document man and animal have different social implications and are purposefully employed accordingly to further different purposes.
While Nanook of the North is primarily focused on a single Inuit, Nanook, the film also introduces members of Nanook’s family at the beginning of the film. The introduction scene where they show a father, mother, children and even a pet dog alighting from a canoe portrays a happy, complete family. The focus on a family and not a single man, sentimentalizes the Inuits by showing that they have a human familial structure. As such, the film creates a connection that the viewers that existed thousands of miles away can draw upon despite that vast cultural difference that existed in the untouchable, exotic Arctic.
Similarly, The Rise of the Black Wolf also tracks the life of a single wolf. The way the documentary filmed and narrated is similar to the sentimental style in Nanook of the North. The documentary does this by giving Wolf #302 a name and a ‘human’ story. Indeed, they traced the black wolf’s life from his early days to his retirement as alpha, but they also spun a story about a Casanova, a story about a smart underdog that came out the victor. In the end, Black Wolf get the ‘girl’ and the happily ever after a main character deserves. The documentary appeals to the masses because of Black Wolf’s exciting life, instead of the dry, scientific logs. When indignant fury from the masses descended upon wolf hunters for killing protected Yellowstone wolves, anti-wolf groups has been accused such techniques of sentimentalizing the wolf packs of Yellowstone. The anti-wolf groups claim that the method of humanizing the wolves unfairly tricks the common audience, who is uneducated in the wolf’s true bestial nature, into false sympathy and creating unnecessary fuss. Regardless of that can of worms, it does prove that the sentimental technique of filming documentaries does successfully stir the hearts of people, even hundreds of miles away, removed from space and culture.