Nanook and Good Life

1685 Words7 Pages
As texts mirror values of the respective contexts, a comparison of two texts allows for a deeper reflection of these concerns. Through the comparison of the two texts Nanook of the North (1922) by Robert Flaherty and Imaginary Life (1978) by David Malouf the audience is able to comprehend the values and concerns present in two different contexts such as the ongoing concerns with the survival of the Indigenous cultures as well as the importance of nature and land. Nanook of the North by Robert Flaherty is a silent documentary depicting the life of the Inuit people of Canada, showing the concerns with their survival. As the documentary had been filmed during a time the Inuit culture was being assimilated, throughout the documentary Flaherty also focuses on the importance of survival of 1920s Inuits. By editing the documentary and making it a silent film, Flaherty immediately depicts to the struggles of survival due to a lack of communication. The establishing shot of the harsh, cold environment is symbolic of not only the nature for the Indigenous Inuits but also the 1920s Inuit’s lives, as they too struggled to survive complacently during the time. Being an ethnographic film, Flaherty emphasises the importance of the Inuit culture’s survival by amazing the Western audience with their unique activities. In order to do so, Flaherty uses mise en scene by manipulating Inuits to act out a walrus hunting scene, showing the difficulty of surviving for the Indigenous Inuit people. The portrayal of Nanook eating a walrus immediately is symbolic of the Inuit lifestyle in the 1920’s, as they were also struggling to exist being on the “brink of starvation” and having to take extreme measures to survive. The portrayal of this reflects the ever present concerns and values of survival for the Inuits in the 1920s. As survival of Indigenous races has been an important issue

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