GME Distributes Robert Flaherty's NANOOK OF THE NORTH In Conjunction with Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Screening This Month

KEY ART FOR NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922). SOURCE: FLICKER ALLEY.

As part of their Essential Cinema series, a collection of films screened on a repertory basis, Anthology Film Archives will show Robert Flaherty’s 1922 drama NANOOK OF THE NORTH on January 28th, at 5:45pm. GME distributes NANOOK OF THE NORTH on Blu-Ray to the North American university market.

Anthology’s program notes describe Flaherty’s film as follows:

Flaherty’s pioneering ethnographic film depicts the struggle for survival of Inuit hunter Nanook and his family. Though rife with staged scenes, anachronisms, and an indulgence in the myth of the “noble savage” (Nanook was in fact an Inuit man named Allakariallak, who hunted not with harpoons and spears but with a rifle), NANOOK OF THE NORTH is a work of great lyricism, simplicity of design, and genuine affection for its protagonists, and its force is undiminished almost 100 years after it was made.

BLU-RAY COVER ART OF NANOOK OF THE NORTH (1922) AND THE WEDDING OF PALO (1934). SOURCE: GME.

GME’s Blu-Ray edition of NANOOK OF THE NORTH is remastered in high definition at the visually correct speed from the 35mm restoration that occurred in 1972, with an orchestral score composed and conducted by Timothy Brock.

In addition to Flaherty’s feature, Knud Rasmussen’s 46-minute silent film THE WEDDING OF PALO is included on this release, as well as a number of bonus features. Among them is the 1988 French made-for-television documentary NANOOK REVISITED (SAUMIALUK) by Claude Massot, filmed in the same locations as the original film, which depicts how Inuit life changed in the decades since NANOOK OF THE NORTH, how Flaherty consciously depicted a culture which was then already vanishing, and how the film is used today to teach the Inuit their heritage.