page_title: Nanook of the North
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Nanook of the North / Plot
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph, Nanuk (White Bear), Port Harrison (?), QC, about 1920, Samuel Herbert Coward, Silver salts on paper mounted on paper - Gelatin silver process - 10 x 8 cm Français&#160;: Photographie, Nanuk (White Bear), Port Harrison (?), QC, vers 1920, Samuel Herbert Coward, Sels d'argent sur papier monté sur papier - Gélatine argentique - 10 x 8 cm
context_page_description: Nanook of the North is a 1922 American silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty, with elements of docudrama, at a time when the concept of separating films into documentary and drama did not yet exist.
  In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the Inuk man named Nanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic. Some have criticized Flaherty for staging several sequences, but the film is generally viewed as standing "alone in its stark regard for the courage and ingenuity of its heroes."
  In 1989, Nanook of the North was one of the first 25 films selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
context_section_description: The documentary follows the lives of an Inuk, Nanook, and his family as they travel, search for food, and trade in the Ungava Peninsula of northern Quebec, Canada. Nanook; his wife, Nyla; and their family are introduced as fearless heroes who endure rigors no other race could survive.  The audience sees Nanook, often with his family, hunt a walrus, build an igloo, go about his day, and perform other tasks.
caption: Nanook (Allakariallak),[7] 1920
exif: {"Image ExifOffset": "26"}