1) Rony's article focuses on Nanook of the North as a piece of visible anthropology and ethnography and discusses how it could be the archetypal film of such areas. This could be attributed to the addition of title cards detailing the trivial daily activity unfolding onscreen allotting for a more factual presentation of the images.
Keeping the same images in the same order how could changing the information on the title cards alter the message conveyed to the audience? For example, if the title cards followed a more Hollywood narrative style would the meaning of the images have changed? Would Nanook of the North still be viewed as a piece of ethnography or would it be just another film romanticizing the "first man". Think back to both the Dippie and Pinney readings from last week and bring it one step further with Rony.
2) Rony discusses how even though Nanook of the North follows Inuit daily life it still contains a "slight narrative". One could argue that it is difficult to portray a piece of documentary without a narrative that reflects the opinions of the filmmaker no matter how diligent they are. In Nanook's case this includes Rony's claim that Flaherty's films all contain the desire to portray the majesty of an untainted primitive way of life.
Keeping this in mind when thinking about Nanook of the North's musical track, how does the pairing of the images with the fluctuating music convey or impact the story the filmmaker wants you to see or the emotion the filmmaker wants you to feel? Does it glorify trivial daily activity like climbing to the top of a hill or is it simply a nice addition to an otherwise silent film?
Katharine Oppeneer
The main responsibility we have as an audience while viewing ethnographic films, as simplistic as it is, is to go in with an open mind. We have begun learning in this class how preconceived notions about American Indians give us a skewed vision of their life, history, and culture. First, by going in with an open mind it allows the viewer to start to understand people in a film. Viewers have preconceived notions about what characteristics make people “real”, such as family, food, and home life. In Nanook of the North we saw Nanook help his children learn to hunt, caring for his wife, and how he hunted to provide for his family. By going in with an open mind it means that even though the audience has never experienced or seen the culture they are viewing they still can relate with them. I believe that is why Nanook of the North helped the many people break down their stereotypes of the Inuit tribes and view them as “real people”. By viewing ethnographic films with an open mind it helps us forgo stereotypes. Before Nanook of the North came out the majority of people believed, “an Innupiat from Northwest Alaska…without technology, without a culture, lacking intelligence, living in igloos, and at best, sort of simplistic ‘native boy’ type of subhuman arctic being” (p. 300). They saw them doing activities, that were different from what they do, but still had same fundamental principle of human beings: love, food, shelter and community. Secondly, we owe it to the culture we are viewing to go in with an open mind by putting ourselves in that situation. Though I have not personally ever been the arctic I know have a greater sense of how one survives through hunting and shelter. Furthermore I can see aspects of my life in Nanooks’. I can understand helping family out, providing food for the family, and the love Nanook has the family. In addition our responsibility in viewing ethnographic films is just going in with an open mind. You’ll never know what you’ll find.
Sorry that was a response for question 1.
Response to Question #2
In Flaherty’s film, Nanook of the North, the music functions as a significant conveyor of meaning, emphasizing and glorifying the mundane actions of the Inuits in a way that can be construed as both condescending and romanticizing. It dramatically celebrates the small triumphs such that the view is left with a sense that these tasks, gently belittled by the title cards, are great accomplishments for such an obviously primitive people. The music and film together present The Other as a quaint people, a temporally-isolated version of the civilized man’s former self. This works with Rony’s notion that “…the Utopia of life-like reproduction depends upon, and reacts to, the fact of death. It is a strenuous attempt to recover, by means which must exceed those of convention, a state which is (and must be) recognized as lost” (Rony 304) because the music is working with the images to create the representation of a lost people from a lost time, and in doing so it suggests a direct juxtaposition to the seemingly larger, more complicated challenges faced by the non-Inuit people, presumably those living in industrialized areas, who viewed the film. Had the film been shown with no soundtrack at all, the inherent racism and ethnocentrism would still translate based purely on the images and title cards. However, the rise and fall of the music, with the ominous tones signifying the tense moments (like that during hunting) set in opposition to the jolly jingles while there are scenes of child-like wonder at a gramophone, a child sledding down a hill, etc., the emphasis on how truly different The Other is becomes drastically elevated.
--Stephanie O'Donnell
Where the narration of Nanook portrays “the majesty of an untainted primitive way of life,” combined with music, it seems even more fantastic. The music of Nanook of the North functions in much the same way as the narrative of the Indian Picture Opera. It can be argued that both aid in creating an ambience in combination with the images they accompany. But the importance is in what kind of ambience is being created. The narrative of the Indian Picture Opera repeatedly characterizes the Indians in the photographs as whimsical, mysterious, noble, and even magical. Indians, according to the Indian Picture Opera, are fantasy creatures who live in a fantasy world. Combined with the “vanishing race” assumption, one gets the impression that soon, like faeries and unicorns, one will need travel to a special place inside the imagination to visit a “real Indian.” Similarly, the music that accompanies each scene in Nanook is inserted to appropriately convey the sense of excitement, comedy or whimsy as needed. The scene of climbing to the top of the hill is made to seem less like a daily chore involving much danger and difficulty, which is the impression one may get from the images alone, and more like a fun and exciting adventure. There are certainly other factors, including the narration and staging by Flaherty that attempt make the “vanishing” Inuit seem more interesting and exciting to the film’s intended white audience. But the music definitely enhances the feel of what Flaherty was going for.