It would be an understatement to say a lot has changed since 1922.
Robert Flaherty’s ethnographic documentary Nanook of the North (1922) is widely regarded as the first feature length documentary. It depicts a nuclear Inuit family; their world, and their culture. However, today the academic discourse of the film centres on its authenticity, and speculation that scenes were reconstructed to enhance the film’s visual and narrative impact. Flaherty’s film expresses a western colonialist ideology which shapes the way the audience perceives the film and its subjects. It is indeed a great film, but it is limited in showing an accurate depiction of Inuit life.
Robert Flaherty, whether unintentionally blinded by his obsessive romanticism with the Inuit, or intentionally in order to have his film better received by western eyes, codes his film with a western colonialist ideology of ultimate degradation of Inuit culture.
Today I viewed ‘The Whale Hunt’, an online database of interconnected and catalogued images which as a whole, form a whale expedition. It was a very similar scenario as Nanook, but of course, told very differently. I began to reflect on what the differences had done to my viewing experience. A few are as follows:
Nanook is linear. It has a very clear narrative arc culminating in the hunting of the walrus. It operates with time, with day and night cycles.
The data from The Whale Hunt also shows a pinnacle point of tension, the whale being killed. However it is the way in which the user interacts with the work which chooses if this point is the first thing they see, or the last, or the only thing they see. The cataloguing and keywording of the photographs can narrow or widen what the audience sees, making the work multi-linear.
The photos from The Whale Hunt were taken at regular intervals across the time period. In this way, I feel the work is less mediated. Of course, there are still human elements and decisions to the photographs, but it is less staged than Flaherty’s work.
What is better? Is one better at telling or documenting an event than the other? I’m not sure. Possibly, I feel like The Whale Hunt is able to more holistically capture the event.