When Robert Flaherty made Nanook of the North some 60 years ago, he revolutionized the cinema, opening the eyes of viewers to a new use for the big screen, and paving the way for the development of the film documentary. In Nanook, Flaherty directed a family of Eskimos - among whom he had lived for some time as a mineralogist - enacting their daily activities for his camera. The resultant saga of constant struggle against harsh elements, contrasted to the intimate warmth of a small family, remains one of the most sensitive ethnological documentaries, and one of the most beautiful films, ever made. Nanook of the North was a world-wide success on its release, adding irony to the tragic fate of its hero, Nanook, who starved to death on the ice shortly after the film's release.
The film itself suffered over the years, through decomposition, alterations, and disastrous fires, so that only an incomplete, awkwardly narrated version existed until recently, when a painstaking reconstruction of the original 1922 version was completed by David Shepard, filmmaker and archivist, now Special Projects Officer for the Directors' Guild of America. The Nanook of the North presented this evening by Mr. Shepard has been called by Steve Dobi “absolutely gorgeous, with no reservations to that statement. It displays Flaherty's genius at composition and photography. For this alone the $20,000-plus is well-spent” (“Restoring Robert Flaherty's Nanook of the North,” Film Library Quarterly).