History - Nanook of the North

Nanook of the North was filmed from 1920-1921 in Port Harrison, Northern Quebec by Robert Joseph Flaherty. This was the first successful documentary ever made, and was a true benchmark for ethnographic film. Robert Flaherty brought and entirely unknown culture to the western world. Documents one year in the life of Nanook, an Eskimo (Inuit) and his family. Describes the trading, hunting, fishing and migrations of a group barely touched by industrial technology. Nanook of the North was widely shown and praised as the first full-length, anthropological documentary in cinematographic history.