A Boatload of Wild Irishmen

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Robert Flaherty (1884-1951) was the man credited with being the father of the modern documentary film after he produced and directed 'Nanook of the North' in 1922. Flaherty is one of the great name directors in the history of cinema and to this day films such as 'Nanook of the North', 'Moana', 'Man of Aran' and 'Louisiana Story' are widely regarded as classics and still regularly screened.

Flaherty is also a controversial figure in that he was also the first to show that filming the everyday life of real people could be molded into dramatic, entertaining narratives. The minute he chose to stage scenes in order to make a better film out of his seminal Inuit project 'Nanook of the North', he was opening documentary's Pandora's Box. And with his later work in Samoa, the Aran Islands and Louisiana first raised such enduring topics of documentary ethics as ethnographic falsification, exploitation of one's subjects and the perils of corporate sponsorship.

But this entertaining portrait of Flaherty shrewdly looks beyond standard polemical positions to present a complex view of the man and his work (shown in vivid excerpts).

A BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN includes testimony from Flaherty himself as well as contributions from amongst others, Richard Leacock - cameraman on 'Louisiana Story' (1948) and father of the contemporary hand-held documentary style, Martha Flaherty - Flaherty's Inuit granddaughter, George Stoney - documentary filmmaker and professor at New York University, Sean Crosson - film scholar at the Huston School of Film, Jay Ruby - anthropologist and film scholar at Temple University, and Deirdre Ni Chonghaile - musician and folklorist from Arainn, as well as telling interviews with the people whose parents and grandparents Flaherty put onto the cinema screens of the world: Inuit, Samoans and, of obvious personal interest to the Irish filmmakers, the 'wild men' of Aran.

'A long overdue portrait...A BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN makes a particularly important contribution in that it captures some of the histories that have been created, sustained, and recreated by those most closely effected by Flaherty's films.' -Leonardo Digital Reviews

'The film carefully addresses the meaning of documentary within the context of film history and Flaherty's relationship with colleagues and the film industry itself...It should be viewed by everyone interested in the history of documentary film.' -Educational Media Reviews Online

'Informative and evenhanded, A Boatload of Wild Irish is a satisfying survey of Flaherty's work and controversies.' -Libertas Film Magazine

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Main credits

Ó Curraidhín, Mac Dara (film producer)
Ó Curraidhín, Mac Dara (film director)
Ó Fatharta, Mac Dara (narrator)
Winston, Brian (screenwriter)

Other credits

Editors, Chris Hainstock and Mikey Flaherty; Cinematography, Alan Wilson [and 4 others]; music, Steve McGrath.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

Robert Flaherty; Man of Aran; Nanook of the North; Richard Leacock; Brian Winston; communication; cinema; movies; motion pictures; Documentary; Documentaries; films; history; film; video; DVD; "A Boatload of Wild Irishmen"; Icarus Films; ,doc,bio,clad

WEBVTT

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The Seas of Aran, the
Island of Inishmore

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by the village of
[INAUDIBLE], autumn, 1934.

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A frail currach
battles the Atlantic.

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Stephen Dirrane, Pat
McDonough, and a man

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the filmmaker tells us
was called Big Patcheen

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Conneely of the West,
Aran Islanders all,

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skilled boatmen, experienced
fishermen, in no little danger.

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The filmmaker, the
famous American director

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Robert Flaherty, did not
chance upon this scene.

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He set it up.

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He needed a climax
for his picture

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of contemporary
Aran life, the now

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classic film we
know as Man of Aran.

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He wanted a currach
in a monstrous sea.

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He knew, as he was to write,
how dangerous this was.

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I have already been
accused of trying

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to drown a boatload of
wild Irishmen on Aran.

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There is one scene
I remember when

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the currach was
trying to get to land.

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Suddenly, a jagged tooth
of rock was revealed.

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If it had struck that
rock, the currach

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would have been ripped
from bow to stern

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and the three men would have
been drowned before our eyes.

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I should\'ve been shot for what I
asked these superb people to do

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for the film, for the enormous
risks I exposed them to.

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And for what?

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For a film, but
for a special kind

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of film, a documentary
film, a film that

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is supposed to capture the drama
of real life, a kind of film

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invented by Robert Flaherty,
the father of the documentary.

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When, with my wife, I went over
with a small crew to the Aran

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Islands to make
The Man of Aran, we

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had some amusing experiences.

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To begin with,
they wouldn\'t leave

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my name was Flaherty because
almost every other person

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on the island was named
Flaherty or O\'Flaherty.

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It took several months
before they really

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took it in with a gut confidence
in what we wanted to do

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and they began to
take us seriously.

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Flaherty was a genius,
a flawed genius perhaps,

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but a genius all the same.

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He was the first to work
out how to tell exciting,

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absorbing stories on the screen
using ordinary folk, rather

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than actors, going
about their daily lives,

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a brilliant trick but one which
raises questions and causes

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problems that fiction films
avoid, and he knew it.

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He knew that when the seas
rose, the currachs were beached.

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He dreaded the thought of it.

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He did not want any lives
lost, but they found an excuse.

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I think when you see those
three men in a currach,

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riding through the storm,
you will certainly ask,

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did we put them out there in
that danger just for the film?

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The answer is they wanted to go.

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They had taken the film over.

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It was their film.

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They were making it.

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It was a film to show the world
what manner of men they were,

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and they put everything
they had into it.

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And Bob loved such spirit.

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And he exploited it.

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[YELLING]

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Go on, Pat.

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Pick it up, come on.

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[INAUDIBLE]

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Islanders were nearly
drowned beaching

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the boat, including Tiger King,
who plays the man of Aran,

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and his wife, played
by Maggie Dirrane.

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[YELLING]

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[SPEAKING IRISH]

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[SPEAKING IRISH]

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Lift it up.

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We have it, We have it.

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We\'re all right now.

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We are, thank God.

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I think Flaherty wasn\'t
interested in spontaneity

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and adrenaline.

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It was much more the
greatness of cinema,

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and his films were gigantic,
and the characters were epic,

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and they all had
harpoons, and they

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were incredible characters.

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And it was cinema that
he was interested in,

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cinema with a
difference, which is he

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was using real people,
and albeit real cultures,

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even if he had to reinvent them
to tell his amazing stories.

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So he was an
incredible character,

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and an amazing
character, and I think

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he made an enormous
contribution.

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Flaherty was a
child of his time,

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a man born in the late
19th century, burdened

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with all the prejudices and
condescensions of his age.

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He came from Irish
American, perhaps indeed

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Aran Island stock, born
in 1884 in the north

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of the American
state of Michigan

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in the town of Iron Mountain.

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Robert\'s father was
a mining engineer,

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managing one of its many mines.

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And Flaherty was to follow
in his father\'s footsteps.

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Education did not
much distract him.

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He was largely self taught,
but with dad\'s help,

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he got a job as a prospector.

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By himself, he became
a fine photographer.

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Robert\'s-- Bob\'s-- life as
an explorer, a prospector,

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a traveler to far
flung places began.

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The Wandering
Irishman, he was to be

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called in the days of his fame.

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He made repeated
prospecting expeditions

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to the Canadian Arctic.

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None made him rich, but
he earned a reputation

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as an explorer great enough to
get him elected to the Royal

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Geographical Society
in London in company

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with Scott and Shackleton.

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By 1915, he had
discovered cinematography,

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and like many other
adventurers of the day, began

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to take what he called a moving
picture machine into the wild,

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[INAUDIBLE] hand
cranked specifically

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for use in hostile environments.

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Flaherty filmed
scenes of Inuit life

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on Baffin Island,
deploying techniques

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which went beyond
mere observation

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of the barren lands,
for example, a specially

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built open sided
igloo to permit enough

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light to shoot interiors.

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After his third trip,
despite being pretty poor,

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he made a very good marriage.

00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:09.650 align:middle line:90%

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He had met Frances Hubbard,
a graduate of Bryn Mawr

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and daughter of a prominent
wealthy geologist in 1903.

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Frances was a Yankee
and a very refined lady.

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Although both of them
came from mining families,

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Bob was a rough neck.

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He liked the out of doors.

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So I think there was
a major difference.

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He came out of a tradition
of outdoorsy, manly men

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who drank and smoked
and roughed it,

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and that was a little on
the appalling side to her.

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But she saw him as a
fairly disorganized person

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who would never do
anything unless someone

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like her organized this life.

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He was 30, she a
year older, and he

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was to be cushioned his
entire life by her wealth.

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Nevertheless, perhaps
Bob\'s moving picture making

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could be turned into a career?

00:11:14.280 --> 00:11:23.880 align:middle line:90%

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In 1915, the stills
photographer Edward Curtis,

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famous for his photographs
of Native Americans,

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had caused a stir with
the motion picture

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In the Land of the Headhunters,
set in the Pacific Northwest

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among the Kwakiutl people.

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This was a time when Robert
and Frances were looking

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for money and ideas
and assistance.

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They went to Curtis\'s office
or studio in New York,

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and had the
screening, and Frances

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said she was very impressed
and she thought Bob was, too,

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and then they
talked about money.

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At this point, they
were desperate.

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He couldn\'t find anybody who
wanted to give him money.

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Head Hunters and Flaherty\'s
Baffin Island footage,

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now lost, were screened together
before an invited audience

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of experts in New York
on April the 13th, 1915.

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Flaherty\'s shots
suffered in comparison.

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His \"scenes of this,
scenes of that\" as he

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was to describe
them, couldn\'t match

00:12:30.910 --> 00:12:35.940 align:middle line:84%
the excitement of Curtis\'s
melodramatic tale,

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fantastic dances, evil medicine
men, doomed lovers, war.

00:12:47.270 --> 00:12:50.476 align:middle line:90%

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At the cost of
authenticity, Curtis

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had created a confused,
if eventful saga,

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a sort of Western.

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But it was,
nevertheless, one which

00:13:01.420 --> 00:13:05.540 align:middle line:84%
he claimed used
documentary material.

00:13:05.540 --> 00:13:09.170 align:middle line:84%
And I think possibly,
when he saw Curtis\'s film,

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the light bulb went off on the
top of his head and he said,

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that\'s what I should be doing.

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I should be making a story.

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And I don\'t think it
occurred to him before.

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Certainly, when Flaherty
returned to the Arctic in 1920

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with two movie cameras,
he now had a clearer idea

00:13:27.650 --> 00:13:28.650 align:middle line:90%
of what to do with them.

00:13:28.650 --> 00:13:31.240 align:middle line:90%

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Eight years earlier, he
had encountered an Inuit,

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[? Kumac, ?] Comock of
[? Cavach. ?] The man suddenly

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appeared out of
the Arctic wastes.

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He had survived with
his family for 10 years

00:13:45.050 --> 00:13:47.080 align:middle line:90%
on a desolate, isolated island.

00:13:47.080 --> 00:13:49.760 align:middle line:90%

00:13:49.760 --> 00:13:52.910 align:middle line:84%
Others were to tell
Flaherty similar stories,

00:13:52.910 --> 00:13:57.420 align:middle line:84%
but Comack\'s adventures become,
in Flaherty\'s mind, the essence

00:13:57.420 --> 00:13:59.320 align:middle line:84%
of the Inuit\'s
life and struggle.

00:13:59.320 --> 00:14:03.410 align:middle line:90%

00:14:03.410 --> 00:14:06.500 align:middle line:84%
So in the film he
started to make in 1920,

00:14:06.500 --> 00:14:11.270 align:middle line:84%
he set about reconstructing
these incidents.

00:14:11.270 --> 00:14:14.780 align:middle line:84%
There are still scenes of
this and scenes of that,

00:14:14.780 --> 00:14:17.880 align:middle line:84%
but they are now performed
by one character.

00:14:17.880 --> 00:14:19.750 align:middle line:90%
Nanook, Flaherty called him.

00:14:19.750 --> 00:14:23.431 align:middle line:84%
His name was actually
Allakariallak.

00:14:23.431 --> 00:14:26.850 align:middle line:84%
For Flaherty, he
was a Comock figure.

00:14:26.850 --> 00:14:31.380 align:middle line:84%
And, after 29 minutes of
various scenes of Inuit life,

00:14:31.380 --> 00:14:36.970 align:middle line:84%
a Comock style adventure
story begins to emerge.

00:14:36.970 --> 00:14:39.860 align:middle line:84%
With the title card
\"Winter,\" Flaherty

00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:42.470 align:middle line:84%
moves cinema into
a whole new way

00:14:42.470 --> 00:14:46.610 align:middle line:84%
of seeing the real,
nonfictional world.

00:14:46.610 --> 00:14:51.290 align:middle line:84%
It would come to be
called documentary.

00:14:51.290 --> 00:14:53.230 align:middle line:90%
It is his great breakthrough.

00:14:53.230 --> 00:14:57.610 align:middle line:84%
The harsh, exotic, but everyday
events of Nanook\'s life become

00:14:57.610 --> 00:15:01.530 align:middle line:84%
molded into a drama,
shaped by Flaherty\'s camera

00:15:01.530 --> 00:15:04.750 align:middle line:90%
and on his film editing bench.

00:15:04.750 --> 00:15:08.170 align:middle line:84%
In fact, into a melodrama
suitable for the tastes

00:15:08.170 --> 00:15:11.240 align:middle line:84%
of the cinema\'s post-World
War I mass audience.

00:15:11.240 --> 00:15:15.820 align:middle line:90%

00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:18.960 align:middle line:84%
The story he tells in
the titles is illustrated

00:15:18.960 --> 00:15:22.940 align:middle line:84%
by shots and sequences
taken at different times,

00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:25.360 align:middle line:84%
but put together to
tell of a single trip.

00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:28.560 align:middle line:90%

00:15:28.560 --> 00:15:33.710 align:middle line:84%
Footage is recast to
serve the story\'s needs.

00:15:33.710 --> 00:15:37.660 align:middle line:84%
Here\'s the interior of the
igloo Nanook makes, open

00:15:37.660 --> 00:15:40.660 align:middle line:84%
sided to allow enough
light for filming,

00:15:40.660 --> 00:15:43.010 align:middle line:84%
an idea Flaherty
first used years

00:15:43.010 --> 00:15:46.240 align:middle line:84%
before when shooting his first
Arctic movies on Baffin Island.

00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.192 align:middle line:90%

00:15:49.192 --> 00:15:51.630 align:middle line:84%
At the climax, the
family shelters

00:15:51.630 --> 00:15:55.350 align:middle line:84%
from a blizzard in another
igloo, the title card tells us.

00:15:55.350 --> 00:15:59.580 align:middle line:90%

00:15:59.580 --> 00:16:00.910 align:middle line:90%
But it wasn\'t.

00:16:00.910 --> 00:16:02.820 align:middle line:90%
It is the same one.

00:16:02.820 --> 00:16:06.250 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty filmed the family
going to bed and getting up,

00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:08.740 align:middle line:84%
but reversed that
order for the film

00:16:08.740 --> 00:16:11.330 align:middle line:84%
and represented the
one igloo as two.

00:16:11.330 --> 00:16:16.470 align:middle line:90%

00:16:16.470 --> 00:16:18.650 align:middle line:90%
And much was hidden.

00:16:18.650 --> 00:16:23.672 align:middle line:84%
Canada and the modern world were
closer than they appear to be.

00:16:23.672 --> 00:16:27.350 align:middle line:84%
The Inuit had a role in the
West\'s fashion industry,

00:16:27.350 --> 00:16:30.120 align:middle line:84%
but despite a fur company\'s
sponsorship of the film,

00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:34.850 align:middle line:90%
there\'s little sense of that.

00:16:34.850 --> 00:16:37.935 align:middle line:84%
And the Inuits were armed
with more than just harpoons

00:16:37.935 --> 00:16:38.435 align:middle line:90%
and knives.

00:16:38.435 --> 00:16:43.600 align:middle line:90%

00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:49.484 align:middle line:84%
Here, Nanook brilliantly
harpoons a basking walrus,

00:16:49.484 --> 00:16:53.050 align:middle line:84%
but there\'s an unmentioned
rifle left by accident

00:16:53.050 --> 00:16:55.800 align:middle line:84%
and shot on the shore,
if that doesn\'t work.

00:16:55.800 --> 00:17:02.600 align:middle line:90%

00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:06.390 align:middle line:84%
Indeed, the Inuits were far from
being the technological naives

00:17:06.390 --> 00:17:09.450 align:middle line:90%
Flaherty presents on the screen.

00:17:09.450 --> 00:17:12.415 align:middle line:84%
For one thing, they
processed his films for him.

00:17:12.415 --> 00:17:15.099 align:middle line:90%

00:17:15.099 --> 00:17:17.020 align:middle line:84%
There\'s a lot of
Flaherty in Nanook.

00:17:17.020 --> 00:17:19.230 align:middle line:84%
He had very much
taken to the Inuit

00:17:19.230 --> 00:17:23.140 align:middle line:84%
from 1910, the first time
he went to the north.

00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:24.569 align:middle line:90%
He found his people.

00:17:24.569 --> 00:17:27.349 align:middle line:84%
And he loved to put himself
in these odd situations

00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:29.170 align:middle line:84%
where they were
taking care of him.

00:17:29.170 --> 00:17:31.970 align:middle line:84%
And so it was like
Flaherty was being reduced

00:17:31.970 --> 00:17:34.540 align:middle line:84%
to this helpless
child among the Inuit.

00:17:34.540 --> 00:17:37.960 align:middle line:90%

00:17:37.960 --> 00:17:40.830 align:middle line:84%
But crucially, Flaherty
does not invent

00:17:40.830 --> 00:17:43.160 align:middle line:90%
the incidents of the film.

00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:46.490 align:middle line:84%
Because of Comock, who
Flaherty recalls in the name

00:17:46.490 --> 00:17:50.750 align:middle line:84%
he gives the husky of Nanook\'s,
the picture of Inuit life

00:17:50.750 --> 00:17:54.790 align:middle line:84%
is a generation
out of date, but it

00:17:54.790 --> 00:17:57.310 align:middle line:84%
is based on stories
Flaherty heard

00:17:57.310 --> 00:18:01.610 align:middle line:84%
a decade earlier about events
that happened in the decade

00:18:01.610 --> 00:18:04.310 align:middle line:90%
before that.

00:18:04.310 --> 00:18:08.770 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty is only the reporter,
distilling Comock\'s adventures

00:18:08.770 --> 00:18:13.230 align:middle line:84%
and retelling them, first by
writing them down on paper,

00:18:13.230 --> 00:18:17.561 align:middle line:84%
and then reconstructing them
with Allakariallak\'s help

00:18:17.561 --> 00:18:18.060 align:middle line:90%
as Nanook.

00:18:18.060 --> 00:18:22.930 align:middle line:90%

00:18:22.930 --> 00:18:26.170 align:middle line:84%
40 years after he
first encountered him,

00:18:26.170 --> 00:18:28.830 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty recorded
at the BBC the words

00:18:28.830 --> 00:18:32.200 align:middle line:84%
he put into a Comock\'s
mouth, incidents

00:18:32.200 --> 00:18:35.650 align:middle line:84%
that were to reappear whole
in Nanook of the North.

00:18:35.650 --> 00:18:39.170 align:middle line:90%

00:18:39.170 --> 00:18:42.620 align:middle line:90%
Winter came on.

00:18:42.620 --> 00:18:45.915 align:middle line:84%
The ice was rough, for the
first big wind of the winter

00:18:45.915 --> 00:18:49.410 align:middle line:84%
had jammed the ice
hard against the coast

00:18:49.410 --> 00:18:53.180 align:middle line:84%
and piled it up many times
to the height I stand.

00:18:53.180 --> 00:18:54.110 align:middle line:90%
It was heavy going.

00:18:54.110 --> 00:19:00.560 align:middle line:90%

00:19:00.560 --> 00:19:03.035 align:middle line:84%
And there I waited all
day until the seal had

00:19:03.035 --> 00:19:05.100 align:middle line:84%
made his rounds of
his breathing holes,

00:19:05.100 --> 00:19:07.880 align:middle line:84%
and at last, the
bubbles of his breathing

00:19:07.880 --> 00:19:12.420 align:middle line:84%
began to rise in my hole,
and I took up my harpoon

00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:14.110 align:middle line:90%
and I killed the seal.

00:19:14.110 --> 00:19:22.890 align:middle line:90%

00:19:22.890 --> 00:19:26.610 align:middle line:84%
To avoid scenes of this
and scenes of that,

00:19:26.610 --> 00:19:29.800 align:middle line:84%
you need to focus
on an individual.

00:19:29.800 --> 00:19:34.500 align:middle line:84%
Novelists, dramatists, and
journalists all knew this.

00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:35.375 align:middle line:90%
Hollywood knew it.

00:19:35.375 --> 00:19:38.400 align:middle line:90%

00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.510 align:middle line:84%
The key, the trick,
was to concentrate

00:19:41.510 --> 00:19:45.060 align:middle line:84%
on filming the normal
behavior of a very small group

00:19:45.060 --> 00:19:49.030 align:middle line:84%
of people, to focus
on a nuclear family,

00:19:49.030 --> 00:19:54.470 align:middle line:84%
to focus on a nuclear family
going about their daily round.

00:19:54.470 --> 00:19:58.600 align:middle line:84%
And there, between the
shapelessness of lived lives

00:19:58.600 --> 00:20:01.370 align:middle line:84%
and the tight
tensions of a story,

00:20:01.370 --> 00:20:07.250 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty found what we would
come to call documentary film.

00:20:07.250 --> 00:20:09.180 align:middle line:84%
The film came out, and
the very next morning,

00:20:09.180 --> 00:20:11.170 align:middle line:84%
the critic of the
New York Times wrote

00:20:11.170 --> 00:20:13.770 align:middle line:84%
that we don\'t need
fiction film anymore,

00:20:13.770 --> 00:20:17.140 align:middle line:84%
that this was the
end of fiction film

00:20:17.140 --> 00:20:20.320 align:middle line:84%
as we\'d known it because we
had this wonderful new way

00:20:20.320 --> 00:20:22.380 align:middle line:84%
of making films
with real people,

00:20:22.380 --> 00:20:24.630 align:middle line:84%
and that Hollywood
could never, ever

00:20:24.630 --> 00:20:27.990 align:middle line:84%
hope to present
anything as believable

00:20:27.990 --> 00:20:30.330 align:middle line:90%
as what Flaherty created.

00:20:30.330 --> 00:20:32.030 align:middle line:84%
The Hollywood they
were rejecting,

00:20:32.030 --> 00:20:34.960 align:middle line:84%
though, was a very
specific Hollywood,

00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:37.690 align:middle line:84%
and that was the Hollywood of
the Fatty Arbuckle scandal.

00:20:37.690 --> 00:20:40.420 align:middle line:90%

00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:45.190 align:middle line:84%
In September, 1921, Virginia
Rappe, model and actress,

00:20:45.190 --> 00:20:47.940 align:middle line:84%
was found dead in a
San Francisco hotel

00:20:47.940 --> 00:20:52.280 align:middle line:84%
room booked by famous silent
in comedy star and director

00:20:52.280 --> 00:20:55.180 align:middle line:84%
Roscoe Fatty
Arbuckle, apparently

00:20:55.180 --> 00:20:58.890 align:middle line:90%
as a result of sexual abuse.

00:20:58.890 --> 00:21:02.520 align:middle line:84%
Arbuckle, after three trials,
was found innocent of her death

00:21:02.520 --> 00:21:06.860 align:middle line:84%
in spring 1922, but this
scandal, among others,

00:21:06.860 --> 00:21:09.380 align:middle line:84%
occasioned a moral
panic about the movies.

00:21:09.380 --> 00:21:13.170 align:middle line:90%

00:21:13.170 --> 00:21:17.140 align:middle line:84%
And in June, Nanook
opened in New York,

00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:21.810 align:middle line:84%
innocent first people,
not depraved movie stars.

00:21:21.810 --> 00:21:26.040 align:middle line:84%
Epic reality, not
tawdry fiction.

00:21:26.040 --> 00:21:27.615 align:middle line:90%
Flaherty\'s timing was perfect.

00:21:27.615 --> 00:21:31.770 align:middle line:90%

00:21:31.770 --> 00:21:36.000 align:middle line:84%
But there was anyway an
irony here, long hidden.

00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.380 align:middle line:84%
Nanook of the North was billed
as a story of life and love

00:21:40.380 --> 00:21:45.010 align:middle line:84%
in the actual Arctic,
but the picture of love

00:21:45.010 --> 00:21:46.195 align:middle line:90%
was far from actual.

00:21:46.195 --> 00:21:49.040 align:middle line:90%

00:21:49.040 --> 00:21:51.660 align:middle line:90%
Nanook\'s family is a cast.

00:21:51.660 --> 00:21:54.165 align:middle line:84%
I mean, he quite
literally cast the people.

00:21:54.165 --> 00:21:56.890 align:middle line:90%
He cast two women he knew.

00:21:56.890 --> 00:21:59.360 align:middle line:84%
One was Nyla,
whose real name was

00:21:59.360 --> 00:22:02.170 align:middle line:84%
Maggie, who lived
in Port Harrison.

00:22:02.170 --> 00:22:05.430 align:middle line:84%
Some writers have
taken great trouble

00:22:05.430 --> 00:22:09.800 align:middle line:84%
to document Flaherty\'s
relation with Inuit women,

00:22:09.800 --> 00:22:11.820 align:middle line:84%
and one of them,
in fact, has talked

00:22:11.820 --> 00:22:14.820 align:middle line:84%
about Nyla living with
Flaherty as he was actually

00:22:14.820 --> 00:22:17.330 align:middle line:84%
shooting Nanook of the
North, and has gone on

00:22:17.330 --> 00:22:19.842 align:middle line:90%
to write about their son.

00:22:19.842 --> 00:22:23.350 align:middle line:84%
I don\'t know if my grandmother
was married, first of all.

00:22:23.350 --> 00:22:27.140 align:middle line:84%
Nobody ever
mentioned about that.

00:22:27.140 --> 00:22:31.970 align:middle line:84%
And whether he exploited
my grandmother or not,

00:22:31.970 --> 00:22:35.460 align:middle line:84%
I don\'t think it was
intention of exploitation.

00:22:35.460 --> 00:22:36.810 align:middle line:90%
I think there was some romance.

00:22:36.810 --> 00:22:40.327 align:middle line:90%

00:22:40.327 --> 00:22:41.910 align:middle line:84%
But Robert Flaherty
was a married man.

00:22:41.910 --> 00:22:46.740 align:middle line:84%
He was a married man, but many
married men did those up north,

00:22:46.740 --> 00:22:51.470 align:middle line:84%
and the separation
is very, very long,

00:22:51.470 --> 00:22:54.450 align:middle line:84%
after all, months and
months and months.

00:22:54.450 --> 00:22:59.000 align:middle line:84%
Some of them stayed there
for years with no partners.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:03.570 align:middle line:84%
I think it\'s sort of
romantic what happened.

00:23:03.570 --> 00:23:07.590 align:middle line:84%
Anthropology is
burdened, in a way,

00:23:07.590 --> 00:23:10.660 align:middle line:84%
with this reputation
that Flaherty

00:23:10.660 --> 00:23:13.810 align:middle line:84%
has as the father of
anthropological documentary,

00:23:13.810 --> 00:23:17.580 align:middle line:84%
but it\'s a rather ambiguous
inheritance, really.

00:23:17.580 --> 00:23:20.595 align:middle line:84%
There\'s a number of similarities
between Flaherty and Bronislaw

00:23:20.595 --> 00:23:24.580 align:middle line:84%
Malinowski, who was the
founding figure, the father,

00:23:24.580 --> 00:23:26.920 align:middle line:84%
of modern anthropology,
if you like.

00:23:26.920 --> 00:23:29.324 align:middle line:84%
And what distinguished him
from previous anthropologists

00:23:29.324 --> 00:23:31.240 align:middle line:84%
was the same thing that
distinguished Flaherty

00:23:31.240 --> 00:23:33.200 align:middle line:90%
from previous documentarists.

00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.630 align:middle line:84%
Malinowski didn\'t talk
about his dalliances

00:23:35.630 --> 00:23:38.025 align:middle line:84%
with the young ladies of
the lagoons of the Trobriand

00:23:38.025 --> 00:23:41.290 align:middle line:84%
Islands any more than Flaherty
talked about his dalliances

00:23:41.290 --> 00:23:43.860 align:middle line:84%
with the young ladies
of the far north.

00:23:43.860 --> 00:24:11.142 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING INUIT]

00:24:11.142 --> 00:24:22.620 align:middle line:90%
[CHANTING]

00:24:22.620 --> 00:24:24.890 align:middle line:84%
Martha\'s father only
took the Flaherty name

00:24:24.890 --> 00:24:27.460 align:middle line:84%
when forced by the
Canadian government

00:24:27.460 --> 00:24:32.030 align:middle line:84%
to choose a Western
surname in the 1970s.

00:24:32.030 --> 00:24:33.920 align:middle line:84%
But Martha doesn\'t
think Flaherty

00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:38.630 align:middle line:84%
forced his pictures of
Inuit life in the 1920s.

00:24:38.630 --> 00:25:27.930 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING INUIT]

00:25:27.930 --> 00:25:31.180 align:middle line:90%
This is no mere family loyalty.

00:25:31.180 --> 00:25:33.080 align:middle line:84%
Many first people
are coming to value

00:25:33.080 --> 00:25:35.956 align:middle line:84%
the old films of
their ancestors,

00:25:35.956 --> 00:25:36.955 align:middle line:90%
even if they are flawed.

00:25:36.955 --> 00:25:43.800 align:middle line:90%

00:25:43.800 --> 00:25:49.890 align:middle line:84%
Zacharias Kunuk is the first
Inuit feature film director.

00:25:49.890 --> 00:26:53.930 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING INUIT]

00:26:53.930 --> 00:26:57.000 align:middle line:84%
I think it\'s a good image
for the people in Nunavik.

00:26:57.000 --> 00:27:04.620 align:middle line:90%

00:27:04.620 --> 00:27:08.040 align:middle line:84%
Nevertheless, the
questions about the ethics

00:27:08.040 --> 00:27:11.400 align:middle line:84%
and authenticity of
Flaherty\'s stagings

00:27:11.400 --> 00:27:16.860 align:middle line:84%
persist, and they
were to persist

00:27:16.860 --> 00:27:20.245 align:middle line:84%
with every documentary he
made over the next 30 years.

00:27:20.245 --> 00:27:25.680 align:middle line:90%

00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:28.870 align:middle line:84%
Take this ritual
tattooing, for example,

00:27:28.870 --> 00:27:31.560 align:middle line:84%
found by Flaherty for
his next film, Moana,

00:27:31.560 --> 00:27:33.320 align:middle line:90%
set in the South Seas.

00:27:33.320 --> 00:27:39.330 align:middle line:84%
It Was it really
what the title says,

00:27:39.330 --> 00:27:42.410 align:middle line:84%
a time-honored
ceremony long practiced

00:27:42.410 --> 00:27:48.890 align:middle line:84%
in the Samoan island
of Savai\'i, or did he

00:27:48.890 --> 00:27:53.870 align:middle line:84%
set the whole thing
up from scratch,

00:27:53.870 --> 00:27:57.220 align:middle line:84%
reviving a tradition
that had died out just

00:27:57.220 --> 00:28:00.994 align:middle line:84%
because without an Arctic
blizzard or great hunt,

00:28:00.994 --> 00:28:02.410 align:middle line:84%
he could think of
no other climax?

00:28:02.410 --> 00:28:06.022 align:middle line:90%

00:28:06.022 --> 00:29:02.050 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING SAMOAN]

00:29:02.050 --> 00:29:04.470 align:middle line:84%
It\'s like a kid from
the [INAUDIBLE].

00:29:04.470 --> 00:29:41.420 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING SAMOAN]

00:29:41.420 --> 00:29:45.610 align:middle line:84%
But it wasn\'t a concern for
the state of native culture

00:29:45.610 --> 00:29:49.780 align:middle line:84%
that caused Hollywood studio
boss Jesse Lasky to contact

00:29:49.780 --> 00:29:55.500 align:middle line:84%
Bob in 1923 with a proposition
he could not resist.

00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:59.440 align:middle line:84%
Make me another Nanook
somewhere, anywhere.

00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:01.570 align:middle line:90%
Flaherty was a hot property.

00:30:01.570 --> 00:30:04.510 align:middle line:90%

00:30:04.510 --> 00:30:07.210 align:middle line:84%
So off he goes with
Lasky\'s agreement

00:30:07.210 --> 00:30:10.320 align:middle line:84%
that he could proceed in the
same unconventional way he

00:30:10.320 --> 00:30:14.890 align:middle line:84%
had on Nanook, long
periods of research on site

00:30:14.890 --> 00:30:20.190 align:middle line:84%
leading to a film shot 100%
on location, indeed processed

00:30:20.190 --> 00:30:23.510 align:middle line:84%
on location too,
without any real script

00:30:23.510 --> 00:30:24.585 align:middle line:90%
or professional actors.

00:30:24.585 --> 00:30:49.110 align:middle line:90%

00:30:49.110 --> 00:30:53.030 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty did not travel
alone to Savai\'i.

00:30:53.030 --> 00:30:57.090 align:middle line:84%
This time, Frances was
not to be left behind.

00:30:57.090 --> 00:30:59.260 align:middle line:84%
Clearly, there was to
be no South Seas maiden

00:30:59.260 --> 00:31:03.230 align:middle line:84%
to distract him as the
Inuit Nyla had done.

00:31:03.230 --> 00:31:05.850 align:middle line:84%
And Frances brought
their three children

00:31:05.850 --> 00:31:07.360 align:middle line:90%
with their nanny to make sure.

00:31:07.360 --> 00:31:09.900 align:middle line:90%

00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:12.480 align:middle line:84%
Frances, though, was far
from coming along just

00:31:12.480 --> 00:31:17.390 align:middle line:84%
to keep Bob from local
romantic entanglements.

00:31:17.390 --> 00:31:21.280 align:middle line:84%
She had become a very
fine stills photographer,

00:31:21.280 --> 00:31:25.470 align:middle line:84%
and with Moana, she established
her role as a prime influence

00:31:25.470 --> 00:31:27.380 align:middle line:90%
on Bob\'s work.

00:31:27.380 --> 00:31:32.290 align:middle line:84%
In fact, she took a prominent
screen credit as co-producer.

00:31:32.290 --> 00:31:36.500 align:middle line:84%
But she soon realized that there
was no excitement, excitement,

00:31:36.500 --> 00:31:41.580 align:middle line:84%
excitement, as she put
it, to film on Samoa.

00:31:41.580 --> 00:31:44.070 align:middle line:84%
Looking for it, she increasingly
felt, was ludicrous.

00:31:44.070 --> 00:31:46.800 align:middle line:90%

00:31:46.800 --> 00:31:49.250 align:middle line:84%
Instead of a Nanook,
a great hunter,

00:31:49.250 --> 00:31:53.520 align:middle line:84%
they found a master of
the Siva dance, Ta\'avale,

00:31:53.520 --> 00:31:56.190 align:middle line:90%
to play the hero, Moana.

00:31:56.190 --> 00:31:59.700 align:middle line:84%
Frances described him
as a Samoan Nijinsky,

00:31:59.700 --> 00:32:04.400 align:middle line:84%
the fabled star of the European
Ballets Russes dance company,

00:32:04.400 --> 00:32:09.100 align:middle line:84%
and Moana was given a
little brother called Pe\'a.

00:32:09.100 --> 00:33:27.910 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING SAMOAN]

00:33:27.910 --> 00:33:31.656 align:middle line:84%
I think, generally, there\'s
a humor attached to it.

00:33:31.656 --> 00:33:35.022 align:middle line:84%
If I see my family
people on the screen,

00:33:35.022 --> 00:33:38.940 align:middle line:84%
the immediate reactions
of Samoans is to laugh.

00:33:38.940 --> 00:33:42.190 align:middle line:84%
It\'s laugh of appreciation,
it\'s laugh of seeing something

00:33:42.190 --> 00:33:44.310 align:middle line:84%
on the film that\'s
geared to them.

00:33:44.310 --> 00:34:03.280 align:middle line:90%

00:34:03.280 --> 00:34:05.890 align:middle line:84%
I think general
depiction of life

00:34:05.890 --> 00:34:10.245 align:middle line:84%
at the time, things that
we\'re doing every day,

00:34:10.245 --> 00:34:13.440 align:middle line:84%
go about in families, go to the
plantation, go to the ocean,

00:34:13.440 --> 00:34:16.460 align:middle line:84%
and doing things,
asking, starting fires,

00:34:16.460 --> 00:34:19.060 align:middle line:84%
I identify very closely
with those things,

00:34:19.060 --> 00:34:23.469 align:middle line:84%
and in \'50s, \'60s, \'70s, they
were still doing those things.

00:34:23.469 --> 00:34:27.500 align:middle line:84%
Historically speaking, that\'s
a very important part of it.

00:34:27.500 --> 00:34:28.989 align:middle line:90%
But it\'s a stage thing.

00:34:28.989 --> 00:34:30.270 align:middle line:90%
It\'s not everyday life.

00:34:30.270 --> 00:34:33.270 align:middle line:84%
If that was the intention,
to depict Samoans

00:34:33.270 --> 00:34:37.574 align:middle line:84%
in everyday life, that was
certainly not everyday life.

00:34:37.574 --> 00:34:40.820 align:middle line:84%
The dancing, you don\'t just
get up and dance like that.

00:34:40.820 --> 00:34:42.864 align:middle line:90%
There has to be an occasion.

00:34:42.864 --> 00:34:43.530 align:middle line:90%
And the topless.

00:34:43.530 --> 00:34:46.125 align:middle line:90%

00:34:46.125 --> 00:34:48.780 align:middle line:84%
I think they\'re
offending all right.

00:34:48.780 --> 00:34:58.310 align:middle line:90%

00:34:58.310 --> 00:35:45.140 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING SAMOAN]

00:35:45.140 --> 00:35:47.980 align:middle line:84%
It took Bob two
years of shooting,

00:35:47.980 --> 00:35:49.580 align:middle line:84%
and he finished
up with a quarter

00:35:49.580 --> 00:35:55.000 align:middle line:84%
of a million feet of
film, 66 hours\' worth.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:58.230 align:middle line:84%
Studio shooting ratios
usually used a third or so

00:35:58.230 --> 00:36:01.770 align:middle line:84%
of what was shot, with
takes repeated because

00:36:01.770 --> 00:36:08.360 align:middle line:84%
of unsatisfactory performances
or other technical reasons.

00:36:08.360 --> 00:36:10.960 align:middle line:90%
Lasky needed about 90 minutes.

00:36:10.960 --> 00:36:12.780 align:middle line:84%
Bob, who was just
repeating what he

00:36:12.780 --> 00:36:15.180 align:middle line:84%
had done over years
in the Arctic,

00:36:15.180 --> 00:36:21.480 align:middle line:84%
was going to have to throw away
about 97.5% of his material.

00:36:21.480 --> 00:36:24.284 align:middle line:90%
Bring your camera.

00:36:24.284 --> 00:36:26.500 align:middle line:90%
Ready, steady, go.

00:36:26.500 --> 00:36:30.890 align:middle line:84%
For some, though, this wastage
was not at all unprofessional,

00:36:30.890 --> 00:36:34.410 align:middle line:84%
but a clue to
Flaherty\'s greatness.

00:36:34.410 --> 00:36:36.210 align:middle line:84%
Ladies and gentleman,
Ricky Leacock.

00:36:36.210 --> 00:36:42.090 align:middle line:90%

00:36:42.090 --> 00:36:45.240 align:middle line:84%
Ricky Leacock, very much
the creator of modern

00:36:45.240 --> 00:36:49.450 align:middle line:84%
fly on the wall
observational documentary,

00:36:49.450 --> 00:36:53.120 align:middle line:84%
but also, as a young
man, the camera operator

00:36:53.120 --> 00:36:55.970 align:middle line:84%
on Flaherty\'s last
major feature,

00:36:55.970 --> 00:36:59.870 align:middle line:84%
explains to a conference of film
scholars Flaherty\'s approach.

00:36:59.870 --> 00:37:03.230 align:middle line:90%

00:37:03.230 --> 00:37:06.310 align:middle line:84%
He said most people
think that you

00:37:06.310 --> 00:37:11.990 align:middle line:84%
start a sequence
with a long shot.

00:37:11.990 --> 00:37:15.370 align:middle line:84%
At schools, I think
they tend to teach that,

00:37:15.370 --> 00:37:21.150 align:middle line:84%
so the audience can
orient themselves

00:37:21.150 --> 00:37:24.840 align:middle line:90%
and know where they are.

00:37:24.840 --> 00:37:26.380 align:middle line:90%
Not Flaherty.

00:37:26.380 --> 00:37:27.665 align:middle line:90%
He would start a sequence.

00:37:27.665 --> 00:37:33.280 align:middle line:84%
He said that the camera is
like a horse with blinders on.

00:37:33.280 --> 00:37:38.300 align:middle line:84%
It only sees what\'s
directly in front of it.

00:37:38.300 --> 00:37:43.240 align:middle line:84%
And the audience naturally
doesn\'t know what the hell it\'s

00:37:43.240 --> 00:37:47.383 align:middle line:84%
looking at always
and wants to see

00:37:47.383 --> 00:37:54.220 align:middle line:84%
more, so you give
it another close up,

00:37:54.220 --> 00:37:56.640 align:middle line:90%
give it a little more.

00:37:56.640 --> 00:38:00.230 align:middle line:84%
He says what you\'re
aiming at is creating

00:38:00.230 --> 00:38:04.010 align:middle line:90%
visual tension in the audience.

00:38:04.010 --> 00:38:08.595 align:middle line:84%
Give me more, give me more,
rather than explaining things.

00:38:08.595 --> 00:38:11.230 align:middle line:90%

00:38:11.230 --> 00:38:14.440 align:middle line:84%
In Moana, there\'s
a pile of rocks,

00:38:14.440 --> 00:38:19.460 align:middle line:84%
and the boy, Pe\'a, the
young hero of the film,

00:38:19.460 --> 00:38:22.115 align:middle line:90%
is looking around these rocks.

00:38:22.115 --> 00:38:22.906 align:middle line:90%
You don\'t know why.

00:38:22.906 --> 00:38:25.500 align:middle line:90%

00:38:25.500 --> 00:38:31.270 align:middle line:84%
Then he cuts a piece of wood
and another piece of wood

00:38:31.270 --> 00:38:35.380 align:middle line:84%
with a knife, and he starts
rubbing the wood things

00:38:35.380 --> 00:38:38.810 align:middle line:84%
against each other,
putting shavings on,

00:38:38.810 --> 00:38:40.810 align:middle line:90%
and it catches fire.

00:38:40.810 --> 00:38:47.020 align:middle line:84%
And he sets fire to some
gorse bush that he has handy,

00:38:47.020 --> 00:38:49.650 align:middle line:90%
and that catches on fire.

00:38:49.650 --> 00:38:52.470 align:middle line:84%
He blows it out, and
it\'s smoking and smoking,

00:38:52.470 --> 00:38:55.530 align:middle line:84%
and he\'s putting the
smoke around the rocks.

00:38:55.530 --> 00:38:59.010 align:middle line:84%
You still don\'t know
what the hell he\'s doing.

00:38:59.010 --> 00:39:02.439 align:middle line:84%
And eventually,
a crab walks out.

00:39:02.439 --> 00:39:08.310 align:middle line:90%

00:39:08.310 --> 00:39:12.710 align:middle line:84%
Visually tense or not, this
wasn\'t the great Arctic hunt

00:39:12.710 --> 00:39:18.740 align:middle line:84%
or the scene of desperate danger
Lasky thought he was buying.

00:39:18.740 --> 00:39:22.790 align:middle line:84%
No such excitements were to be
found in the Samoan paradise.

00:39:22.790 --> 00:39:26.700 align:middle line:90%

00:39:26.700 --> 00:39:29.710 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty was ordered to
cut the three-hour version

00:39:29.710 --> 00:39:32.826 align:middle line:90%
he presented to Lasky in half.

00:39:32.826 --> 00:39:38.520 align:middle line:84%
A Paramount Studio suit
queried, where\'s the blizzard?

00:39:38.520 --> 00:39:43.890 align:middle line:84%
The PR lady said there were
not enough bare breasts.

00:39:43.890 --> 00:39:46.280 align:middle line:84%
The studio was
happier with this,

00:39:46.280 --> 00:39:48.900 align:middle line:84%
another speculative,
exotic location

00:39:48.900 --> 00:39:54.310 align:middle line:84%
picture of what the papers then
called the travelogue kind.

00:39:54.310 --> 00:39:57.080 align:middle line:84%
Grass, A Nation\'s
Battle for Life,

00:39:57.080 --> 00:40:01.570 align:middle line:84%
was shot by Merian Cooper
and Ernest Schoedsack.

00:40:01.570 --> 00:40:05.910 align:middle line:84%
It was on an Iranian nomadic
tribe\'s annual dramatic trek

00:40:05.910 --> 00:40:08.280 align:middle line:90%
to find winter pastures.

00:40:08.280 --> 00:40:12.270 align:middle line:84%
It had both a built-in
story, the journey,

00:40:12.270 --> 00:40:17.640 align:middle line:84%
and, on occasion, real
tension and drama.

00:40:17.640 --> 00:40:20.610 align:middle line:84%
Grass was released
in March, 1925,

00:40:20.610 --> 00:40:24.501 align:middle line:84%
when Flaherty was
still editing Moana.

00:40:24.501 --> 00:40:26.930 align:middle line:84%
But even when he was
done with the edit,

00:40:26.930 --> 00:40:28.430 align:middle line:90%
Paramount still vacillated.

00:40:28.430 --> 00:40:38.016 align:middle line:90%

00:40:38.016 --> 00:40:41.120 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty waited
uneasily in New York,

00:40:41.120 --> 00:40:44.940 align:middle line:84%
holed up in the Chelsea Hotel,
establishing his reputation

00:40:44.940 --> 00:40:48.640 align:middle line:84%
as a convivial companion with
a host of wonderful anecdotes.

00:40:48.640 --> 00:40:51.830 align:middle line:90%

00:40:51.830 --> 00:40:54.970 align:middle line:84%
He also eased the wait
for a release date

00:40:54.970 --> 00:40:57.840 align:middle line:90%
by making two shorts.

00:40:57.840 --> 00:41:02.420 align:middle line:84%
One was a little reconstruction
of a 19th century pottery made

00:41:02.420 --> 00:41:05.700 align:middle line:84%
for the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art

00:41:05.700 --> 00:41:10.570 align:middle line:84%
using its patrons as actors,
including the elderly lady,

00:41:10.570 --> 00:41:14.050 align:middle line:84%
Elizabeth Bacon Custer,
General Custer\'s widow.

00:41:14.050 --> 00:41:19.000 align:middle line:90%

00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:22.310 align:middle line:84%
For a private investor, he
made a more ambitious film,

00:41:22.310 --> 00:41:23.830 align:middle line:90%
Twenty-Four Dollar Island.

00:41:23.830 --> 00:41:39.660 align:middle line:90%

00:41:39.660 --> 00:41:44.160 align:middle line:84%
In Twenty-Four Dollar Island,
what Flaherty is really

00:41:44.160 --> 00:41:48.640 align:middle line:84%
doing in this film is to
give a sense of the vibrancy.

00:41:48.640 --> 00:41:50.700 align:middle line:84%
So many of these films
that were city symphonies

00:41:50.700 --> 00:41:54.232 align:middle line:84%
in the \'20s were really
looking at, what is urban life?

00:41:54.232 --> 00:41:55.190 align:middle line:90%
What does it feel like?

00:41:55.190 --> 00:41:57.610 align:middle line:84%
And can cinema maybe
be the one to capture?

00:41:57.610 --> 00:41:59.500 align:middle line:84%
Maybe it\'s the best
medium for capturing

00:41:59.500 --> 00:42:03.670 align:middle line:84%
the vibrancy and the
excitement and the rhythms

00:42:03.670 --> 00:42:04.600 align:middle line:90%
of contemporary life.

00:42:04.600 --> 00:42:09.520 align:middle line:90%

00:42:09.520 --> 00:42:11.940 align:middle line:90%
The fact is that he had an eye.

00:42:11.940 --> 00:42:16.660 align:middle line:90%

00:42:16.660 --> 00:42:20.240 align:middle line:90%
It\'s really more about the awe.

00:42:20.240 --> 00:42:21.640 align:middle line:90%
It\'s really like the sublime.

00:42:21.640 --> 00:42:25.860 align:middle line:84%
It\'s a sort of urban
sublime that you\'re given.

00:42:25.860 --> 00:42:28.250 align:middle line:84%
For the suits in
Hollywood still uncertain

00:42:28.250 --> 00:42:31.640 align:middle line:84%
what to do with Moana,
Flaherty\'s way with the sublime

00:42:31.640 --> 00:42:33.450 align:middle line:90%
was irrelevant.

00:42:33.450 --> 00:42:35.900 align:middle line:84%
Eventually, they
did the obvious.

00:42:35.900 --> 00:42:40.530 align:middle line:84%
Moana acquired a tag line,
\"The love life of a South Sea

00:42:40.530 --> 00:42:42.490 align:middle line:90%
siren.\"

00:42:42.490 --> 00:42:47.960 align:middle line:84%
The film was released in January
1926, and despite the tag line,

00:42:47.960 --> 00:42:50.930 align:middle line:84%
but as the executives
feared, it was not

00:42:50.930 --> 00:42:53.490 align:middle line:90%
the smash hit Nanook had been.

00:42:53.490 --> 00:42:55.750 align:middle line:84%
It took only a tenth
of what was then

00:42:55.750 --> 00:42:58.900 align:middle line:90%
expected of a successful movie.

00:42:58.900 --> 00:43:01.230 align:middle line:84%
But some reviewers
were ecstatic,

00:43:01.230 --> 00:43:03.920 align:middle line:84%
and one was to use
a review of Moana

00:43:03.920 --> 00:43:07.770 align:middle line:84%
to secure the word
\"documentary\" as a description

00:43:07.770 --> 00:43:11.730 align:middle line:84%
of the sort of
film Flaherty made.

00:43:11.730 --> 00:43:15.320 align:middle line:84%
In response to Moana, a
young Scottish film critic,

00:43:15.320 --> 00:43:18.720 align:middle line:84%
John Grierson, who was in
America on a scholarship,

00:43:18.720 --> 00:43:21.300 align:middle line:84%
noticed Moana\'s
documentary value

00:43:21.300 --> 00:43:24.070 align:middle line:90%
in a review in the New York Sun.

00:43:24.070 --> 00:43:27.860 align:middle line:84%
Finally, movies of
the travelogue kind,

00:43:27.860 --> 00:43:31.980 align:middle line:84%
and indeed, any film that
took real life and non-actors

00:43:31.980 --> 00:43:37.140 align:middle line:84%
as their subject, became
firmly documentaries.

00:43:37.140 --> 00:43:39.560 align:middle line:84%
Thanks to Grierson,
Flaherty was to be

00:43:39.560 --> 00:43:44.160 align:middle line:84%
credited with giving
birth to a genre.

00:43:44.160 --> 00:43:46.620 align:middle line:90%
But Hollywood wasn\'t impressed.

00:43:46.620 --> 00:43:49.620 align:middle line:84%
Cooper and Schoedsack
were better for business,

00:43:49.620 --> 00:43:54.860 align:middle line:84%
and in 1933, they to strike
pay dirt, still apparently

00:43:54.860 --> 00:43:58.005 align:middle line:84%
in far off lands,
with King Kong.

00:43:58.005 --> 00:44:12.050 align:middle line:90%

00:44:12.050 --> 00:44:15.400 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty was too undisciplined
and difficult to ever go

00:44:15.400 --> 00:44:16.610 align:middle line:90%
near Hollywood.

00:44:16.610 --> 00:44:20.190 align:middle line:90%
I mean, Moana drove Lasky crazy.

00:44:20.190 --> 00:44:23.050 align:middle line:84%
He sent a number
of cables saying,

00:44:23.050 --> 00:44:26.340 align:middle line:90%
stop shooting now or else.

00:44:26.340 --> 00:44:28.620 align:middle line:84%
Well, I think the
history of film

00:44:28.620 --> 00:44:30.550 align:middle line:84%
is there are dozens
of people who

00:44:30.550 --> 00:44:34.170 align:middle line:84%
had this love/hate ambivalent
relationship with the industry,

00:44:34.170 --> 00:44:36.890 align:middle line:84%
with Hollywood, and I think
Flaherty was one of these.

00:44:36.890 --> 00:44:39.431 align:middle line:84%
He couldn\'t live with them and
he couldn\'t live without them.

00:44:39.431 --> 00:44:41.520 align:middle line:90%

00:44:41.520 --> 00:44:44.950 align:middle line:84%
One after another, the
major Hollywood studios

00:44:44.950 --> 00:44:49.530 align:middle line:84%
sent him off on one project or
another, backwards and forwards

00:44:49.530 --> 00:44:53.800 align:middle line:84%
across the Pacific, into
the desert of New Mexico,

00:44:53.800 --> 00:44:56.970 align:middle line:90%
but no films emerged.

00:44:56.970 --> 00:45:00.390 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty was running
out of options.

00:45:00.390 --> 00:45:02.930 align:middle line:84%
There was nothing
for it but Europe.

00:45:02.930 --> 00:45:07.120 align:middle line:84%
There, his star
still shone brightly.

00:45:07.120 --> 00:45:10.160 align:middle line:84%
Frances was already in
Germany to settle the children

00:45:10.160 --> 00:45:11.660 align:middle line:90%
in school.

00:45:11.660 --> 00:45:13.335 align:middle line:90%
Bob followed her to Berlin.

00:45:13.335 --> 00:45:18.630 align:middle line:90%

00:45:18.630 --> 00:45:23.100 align:middle line:84%
By 1930, the young critic John
Grierson, back in Britain,

00:45:23.100 --> 00:45:25.890 align:middle line:84%
had turned himself
into a film producer,

00:45:25.890 --> 00:45:28.220 align:middle line:84%
establishing a full
scale filmmaking

00:45:28.220 --> 00:45:31.100 align:middle line:84%
unit funded by the
British government

00:45:31.100 --> 00:45:34.740 align:middle line:84%
to make exactly the sort of
films he determined Flaherty

00:45:34.740 --> 00:45:38.246 align:middle line:84%
had invented in Nanook
and Moana, documentaries.

00:45:38.246 --> 00:45:41.620 align:middle line:90%

00:45:41.620 --> 00:45:44.810 align:middle line:84%
The father of the form was
now knocking around Europe,

00:45:44.810 --> 00:45:48.520 align:middle line:84%
so Grierson involved him in
the sort of public education

00:45:48.520 --> 00:45:54.510 align:middle line:84%
project which was to become the
British documentary standard.

00:45:54.510 --> 00:45:59.360 align:middle line:84%
No exotic tribal first people,
no winsome family, and really

00:45:59.360 --> 00:46:03.560 align:middle line:84%
no experimental montage in the
style of Twenty-Four Dollar

00:46:03.560 --> 00:46:05.720 align:middle line:90%
Island.

00:46:05.720 --> 00:46:08.210 align:middle line:84%
This film was to be
about industrial Britain.

00:46:08.210 --> 00:46:11.200 align:middle line:90%

00:46:11.200 --> 00:46:14.060 align:middle line:84%
The interesting thing
was that Grierson

00:46:14.060 --> 00:46:17.740 align:middle line:84%
had joined forces with
Flaherty, not only out

00:46:17.740 --> 00:46:19.780 align:middle line:84%
of personal attraction
and friendship,

00:46:19.780 --> 00:46:22.290 align:middle line:84%
but [INAUDIBLE]
his own advantage

00:46:22.290 --> 00:46:24.460 align:middle line:84%
in his documentary
movement, which

00:46:24.460 --> 00:46:28.900 align:middle line:84%
was the documentary movement
founded in Great Britain,

00:46:28.900 --> 00:46:31.500 align:middle line:84%
with another documentary
movement, which

00:46:31.500 --> 00:46:36.570 align:middle line:84%
was the coverage of human
beings in primitive societies.

00:46:36.570 --> 00:46:38.600 align:middle line:84%
And of course, he
was right in that.

00:46:38.600 --> 00:46:40.520 align:middle line:90%
It worked extremely well.

00:46:40.520 --> 00:46:43.154 align:middle line:84%
They became Flaherty and
Grierson, both documentaries,

00:46:43.154 --> 00:46:44.570 align:middle line:84%
different branches
of documentary,

00:46:44.570 --> 00:46:48.400 align:middle line:90%
and they supported each other.

00:46:48.400 --> 00:46:52.590 align:middle line:84%
Grierson, in the name of his
British ministerial paymasters,

00:46:52.590 --> 00:46:54.610 align:middle line:90%
demanded a script.

00:46:54.610 --> 00:46:58.650 align:middle line:84%
The story is that Flaherty
gave him a thick pad.

00:46:58.650 --> 00:47:01.460 align:middle line:84%
The top sheet,
handwritten, proclaimed,

00:47:01.460 --> 00:47:05.540 align:middle line:84%
\"Industrial Britain, a
film about craftsmen.\"

00:47:05.540 --> 00:47:08.090 align:middle line:84%
The second sheet
read, \"A scenario,

00:47:08.090 --> 00:47:11.500 align:middle line:90%
scenes of industrial Britain.\"

00:47:11.500 --> 00:47:16.180 align:middle line:90%
The rest of the pad was blank.

00:47:16.180 --> 00:47:19.870 align:middle line:84%
But there was a totally
professional preliminary

00:47:19.870 --> 00:47:23.410 align:middle line:84%
scenario for the proposed
film, Craftsmanship,

00:47:23.410 --> 00:47:27.330 align:middle line:84%
subtitled British
Industry, a dozen pages

00:47:27.330 --> 00:47:30.250 align:middle line:90%
long and signed by Flaherty.

00:47:30.250 --> 00:47:33.380 align:middle line:84%
The story of the pad
is just that, a story.

00:47:33.380 --> 00:47:36.710 align:middle line:90%

00:47:36.710 --> 00:47:45.340 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty was in the process
of becoming his own myth,

00:47:45.340 --> 00:47:48.330 align:middle line:84%
a wandering Irishman
too wild and romantic

00:47:48.330 --> 00:47:51.320 align:middle line:84%
to be bound by everyday
filmmaking expectations

00:47:51.320 --> 00:47:54.770 align:middle line:84%
and responsibilities,
a wayward genius.

00:47:54.770 --> 00:47:58.810 align:middle line:90%

00:47:58.810 --> 00:48:02.030 align:middle line:84%
And the film starts,
as does the scenario,

00:48:02.030 --> 00:48:05.440 align:middle line:84%
with the arms of
an old windmill.

00:48:05.440 --> 00:48:09.100 align:middle line:84%
And, as the scenario
suggests would be the case,

00:48:09.100 --> 00:48:13.970 align:middle line:84%
the old was of far more
interest to Bob than the new.

00:48:13.970 --> 00:48:16.120 align:middle line:84%
But if you look
closely enough, you

00:48:16.120 --> 00:48:18.130 align:middle line:84%
will find that the
spirit of craftsmanship

00:48:18.130 --> 00:48:20.610 align:middle line:90%
has not disappeared.

00:48:20.610 --> 00:48:25.320 align:middle line:84%
William Davenport [INAUDIBLE],
whom you see working now,

00:48:25.320 --> 00:48:28.610 align:middle line:84%
is a young man of 26,
but he\'s working exactly

00:48:28.610 --> 00:48:30.780 align:middle line:84%
as the Greek potters
worked, making

00:48:30.780 --> 00:48:36.410 align:middle line:84%
the same beautiful things,
using the same simple tools.

00:48:36.410 --> 00:48:39.783 align:middle line:84%
Modern industrial Britain was
still just an afterthought.

00:48:39.783 --> 00:48:43.860 align:middle line:90%

00:48:43.860 --> 00:48:45.138 align:middle line:90%
Look at those hands.

00:48:45.138 --> 00:48:51.830 align:middle line:90%

00:48:51.830 --> 00:48:54.750 align:middle line:84%
Grierson caught up with
Flaherty in a hotel restaurant

00:48:54.750 --> 00:48:58.970 align:middle line:84%
in Birmingham to tell him
he only had 300 pounds left

00:48:58.970 --> 00:49:03.030 align:middle line:84%
and his government paymasters
were halting production.

00:49:03.030 --> 00:49:06.980 align:middle line:84%
But Flaherty asked for
a further 7,500 pounds

00:49:06.980 --> 00:49:10.440 align:middle line:84%
and said he had only
been making tests.

00:49:10.440 --> 00:49:14.440 align:middle line:84%
Don\'t they know who
I am, he demanded.

00:49:14.440 --> 00:49:17.410 align:middle line:84%
They think you\'re just a
bloody beach photographer,

00:49:17.410 --> 00:49:20.010 align:middle line:90%
Grierson replied.

00:49:20.010 --> 00:49:22.230 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty, at the
top of his voice,

00:49:22.230 --> 00:49:25.605 align:middle line:84%
bawled out a choice curse
word, and the whole party

00:49:25.605 --> 00:49:28.685 align:middle line:90%
was requested to leave.

00:49:28.685 --> 00:49:30.300 align:middle line:90%
They were boon companions.

00:49:30.300 --> 00:49:32.240 align:middle line:84%
They would go through
the night together,

00:49:32.240 --> 00:49:35.260 align:middle line:84%
moving from bar to
bar and from party

00:49:35.260 --> 00:49:38.030 align:middle line:84%
to party, always
sticking together,

00:49:38.030 --> 00:49:43.235 align:middle line:84%
and they did a sort of
double act, the Irishman

00:49:43.235 --> 00:49:45.300 align:middle line:90%
and the Scotsman.

00:49:45.300 --> 00:49:47.410 align:middle line:90%
Wasn\'t a very good double act.

00:49:47.410 --> 00:49:49.690 align:middle line:84%
This time, it is
a steel furnace.

00:49:49.690 --> 00:49:53.470 align:middle line:84%
And Flaherty, yet again, was
relieved of the production.

00:49:53.470 --> 00:49:58.410 align:middle line:84%
They call this great receptacle
a ladle in the steel world.

00:49:58.410 --> 00:50:02.830 align:middle line:84%
Modern industry was inserted
into the film by other hands,

00:50:02.830 --> 00:50:06.760 align:middle line:84%
but Grierson felt
guilty at this outcome.

00:50:06.760 --> 00:50:10.320 align:middle line:84%
He didn\'t take Flaherty\'s
name off the production,

00:50:10.320 --> 00:50:14.040 align:middle line:84%
but he knew how good Bob
was at pitching ideas,

00:50:14.040 --> 00:50:16.920 align:middle line:84%
so he set him up for
lunch with Michael Balcon,

00:50:16.920 --> 00:50:20.280 align:middle line:84%
the chief executive
of Gaumont British.

00:50:20.280 --> 00:50:23.000 align:middle line:84%
It seemed to be a
god given chance.

00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:28.070 align:middle line:84%
When I was introduced
to Flaherty by Grierson,

00:50:28.070 --> 00:50:34.830 align:middle line:84%
and Flaherty put
this proposal to me,

00:50:34.830 --> 00:50:39.060 align:middle line:84%
and it was to cost a very
modest amount of money,

00:50:39.060 --> 00:50:42.287 align:middle line:84%
and quite frankly, I
took a chance on it.

00:50:42.287 --> 00:50:47.060 align:middle line:90%

00:50:47.060 --> 00:50:51.160 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty pitched Balcon the
idea of a film about Aran

00:50:51.160 --> 00:50:53.330 align:middle line:84%
because he had heard of
the island\'s appalling

00:50:53.330 --> 00:50:55.880 align:middle line:84%
poverty from an Irish
fellow passenger

00:50:55.880 --> 00:50:57.250 align:middle line:90%
when crossing the Atlantic.

00:50:57.250 --> 00:51:02.600 align:middle line:90%

00:51:02.600 --> 00:51:39.274 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IRISH]

00:51:39.274 --> 00:51:39.774 align:middle line:90%
[INAUDIBLE]

00:51:39.774 --> 00:51:54.680 align:middle line:90%

00:51:54.680 --> 00:52:19.370 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IRISH]

00:52:19.370 --> 00:52:23.310 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty certainly
left his mark on Aran.

00:52:23.310 --> 00:52:26.345 align:middle line:84%
Whole lives were
transformed, houses bought

00:52:26.345 --> 00:52:28.620 align:middle line:84%
and businesses
opened with the money

00:52:28.620 --> 00:52:30.316 align:middle line:90%
earned working for Flaherty.

00:52:30.316 --> 00:52:33.030 align:middle line:90%

00:52:33.030 --> 00:52:37.340 align:middle line:84%
Barbara Mullen was the daughter
of Flaherty\'s local fixer, Pat,

00:52:37.340 --> 00:52:39.612 align:middle line:84%
the firm\'s virtual
line producer.

00:52:39.612 --> 00:52:43.630 align:middle line:84%
She married a crew member,
became an actor in London,

00:52:43.630 --> 00:52:46.030 align:middle line:84%
and found fame
playing a Scotswoman

00:52:46.030 --> 00:52:50.670 align:middle line:84%
on British television
in the 1960s.

00:52:50.670 --> 00:52:53.300 align:middle line:84%
The boy, [INAUDIBLE],
Michael Dillane,

00:52:53.300 --> 00:52:57.900 align:middle line:84%
disappeared, unable to live
on Aran as a former film star.

00:52:57.900 --> 00:53:01.035 align:middle line:90%

00:53:01.035 --> 00:53:06.530 align:middle line:84%
The man of Aran himself,
Colman King, also left.

00:53:06.530 --> 00:53:07.038 align:middle line:90%
[INAUDIBLE]

00:53:07.038 --> 00:53:08.014 align:middle line:90%
Roll Two.

00:53:08.014 --> 00:53:09.970 align:middle line:90%
Roll Two, two, take one.

00:53:09.970 --> 00:53:15.490 align:middle line:84%
Found by Irish television in
1976 in retirement in England,

00:53:15.490 --> 00:53:19.840 align:middle line:84%
he retained a dim view
of the experience.

00:53:19.840 --> 00:54:05.220 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IRISH]

00:54:05.220 --> 00:54:07.560 align:middle line:84%
Would you like me to
show you some pictures?

00:54:07.560 --> 00:54:10.330 align:middle line:84%
I have lots over
here in the room.

00:54:10.330 --> 00:54:15.246 align:middle line:84%
I\'ll just get them now and
show them to you. [INAUDIBLE].

00:54:15.246 --> 00:54:18.600 align:middle line:90%
[HUMMING]

00:54:18.600 --> 00:54:20.540 align:middle line:90%
It made Maggie\'s life.

00:54:20.540 --> 00:54:24.660 align:middle line:84%
When the film was being made,
she\'d get up every morning

00:54:24.660 --> 00:54:29.030 align:middle line:84%
and she\'d go down
and clean the rooms.

00:54:29.030 --> 00:54:31.460 align:middle line:84%
And Mrs. Flaherty said, no,
no, no, you\'re the stars,

00:54:31.460 --> 00:54:33.680 align:middle line:90%
you\'re the stars.

00:54:33.680 --> 00:54:35.960 align:middle line:90%
You shouldn\'t be doing that.

00:54:35.960 --> 00:54:39.515 align:middle line:84%
And finally, she said
to Frances Flaherty,

00:54:39.515 --> 00:54:43.910 align:middle line:84%
you know, when you
leave, I want to be

00:54:43.910 --> 00:54:47.380 align:middle line:84%
able to work for
people of quality,

00:54:47.380 --> 00:54:51.210 align:middle line:84%
and I don\'t even know
how to make up a bed.

00:54:51.210 --> 00:54:55.478 align:middle line:84%
[INAUDIBLE] a picture
of myself, and that\'s

00:54:55.478 --> 00:54:59.570 align:middle line:84%
a picture of [INAUDIBLE] when
he was charting the sea route.

00:54:59.570 --> 00:55:00.905 align:middle line:90%
So they like that picture.

00:55:00.905 --> 00:55:02.784 align:middle line:90%
I don\'t know why.

00:55:02.784 --> 00:55:15.220 align:middle line:90%

00:55:15.220 --> 00:55:18.810 align:middle line:84%
She came from the
poorest of the poor,

00:55:18.810 --> 00:55:23.630 align:middle line:84%
and this was the opening
of a whole new world.

00:55:23.630 --> 00:55:27.910 align:middle line:84%
It was this man, Pat Mullen,
who made Flaherty\'s vision

00:55:27.910 --> 00:55:33.090 align:middle line:84%
possible, who persuaded
the islanders to cooperate

00:55:33.090 --> 00:55:36.440 align:middle line:84%
with the filmmakers, even
to put their lives at risk.

00:55:36.440 --> 00:55:39.850 align:middle line:90%

00:55:39.850 --> 00:55:43.460 align:middle line:84%
Pat Mullen is given
credit-- misspelled--

00:55:43.460 --> 00:55:46.160 align:middle line:84%
as assistant director
on Man of Aran,

00:55:46.160 --> 00:55:49.120 align:middle line:90%
but he was much, much more.

00:55:49.120 --> 00:55:50.930 align:middle line:90%
Pat Mullen, [SPEAKING IRISH].

00:55:50.930 --> 00:56:25.570 align:middle line:90%

00:56:25.570 --> 00:56:26.070 align:middle line:90%
[INAUDIBLE]

00:56:26.070 --> 00:56:26.992 align:middle line:90%
Another left.

00:56:26.992 --> 00:56:27.492 align:middle line:90%
Hey!

00:56:27.492 --> 00:56:27.966 align:middle line:90%
Here he is.

00:56:27.966 --> 00:56:28.440 align:middle line:90%
Here he is.

00:56:28.440 --> 00:56:28.940 align:middle line:90%
[INAUDIBLE]

00:56:28.940 --> 00:56:31.770 align:middle line:90%

00:56:31.770 --> 00:56:50.780 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IRISH]

00:56:50.780 --> 00:56:53.590 align:middle line:84%
Of course, neither Pat
Mullen nor the Flahertys

00:56:53.590 --> 00:56:56.570 align:middle line:84%
were sending the men
to certain death.

00:56:56.570 --> 00:56:59.270 align:middle line:84%
But equally, however
skilled and brave

00:56:59.270 --> 00:57:02.130 align:middle line:84%
the men were, the
film company\'s money,

00:57:02.130 --> 00:57:05.560 align:middle line:84%
five pounds each-- a
fortune in their eyes--

00:57:05.560 --> 00:57:08.110 align:middle line:84%
was a powerful
inducement, and there\'s

00:57:08.110 --> 00:57:13.800 align:middle line:84%
no way they would have put
out in this sea without it.

00:57:13.800 --> 00:57:16.900 align:middle line:84%
And by all accounts,
Flaherty the filmmaker

00:57:16.900 --> 00:57:19.160 align:middle line:90%
was a man obsessed.

00:57:19.160 --> 00:57:24.980 align:middle line:84%
He was a person of temperament,
temperament of the person who

00:57:24.980 --> 00:57:27.604 align:middle line:84%
is in an agony over what he\'s
doing, he\'s struggling over it,

00:57:27.604 --> 00:57:29.520 align:middle line:84%
he\'s fighting over it,
he\'s terrified he\'s not

00:57:29.520 --> 00:57:30.976 align:middle line:90%
going to get a film out of it.

00:57:30.976 --> 00:57:33.760 align:middle line:84%
He\'s terrified his ideas
aren\'t going to work.

00:57:33.760 --> 00:57:35.980 align:middle line:84%
He\'s fighting to get
the material together.

00:57:35.980 --> 00:57:38.224 align:middle line:84%
And this was
Flaherty on the job.

00:57:38.224 --> 00:57:41.430 align:middle line:84%
Well, things slowed
down to such an extent

00:57:41.430 --> 00:57:43.570 align:middle line:84%
that finally, I
had to say to Bob,

00:57:43.570 --> 00:57:48.090 align:middle line:84%
you know-- as I said in London,
it\'s time to recall this.

00:57:48.090 --> 00:57:51.640 align:middle line:84%
I did not tell Bob at
the time because he

00:57:51.640 --> 00:57:53.793 align:middle line:84%
would have gone on
for months more.

00:57:53.793 --> 00:57:56.120 align:middle line:84%
But the time had come when
we had got as much material

00:57:56.120 --> 00:57:57.120 align:middle line:90%
as we were going to get.

00:57:57.120 --> 00:58:00.150 align:middle line:90%

00:58:00.150 --> 00:58:03.630 align:middle line:84%
For Flaherty, the usual
agonies of filming

00:58:03.630 --> 00:58:06.200 align:middle line:84%
did not now stop
because this time,

00:58:06.200 --> 00:58:10.250 align:middle line:84%
he had to provide sound,
dramatic sound, not just

00:58:10.250 --> 00:58:15.060 align:middle line:84%
commentary, and he had spent
nearly two years shooting

00:58:15.060 --> 00:58:16.860 align:middle line:90%
silent.

00:58:16.860 --> 00:58:17.820 align:middle line:90%
Hey!

00:58:17.820 --> 00:58:18.780 align:middle line:90%
Hey!

00:58:18.780 --> 00:58:19.740 align:middle line:90%
Hold on, [INAUDIBLE].

00:58:19.740 --> 00:58:21.180 align:middle line:90%
Hold on, [INAUDIBLE].

00:58:21.180 --> 00:58:22.620 align:middle line:90%
Come on, [INAUDIBLE].

00:58:22.620 --> 00:58:26.480 align:middle line:90%

00:58:26.480 --> 00:58:30.230 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty was not alone among
his generation of silent film

00:58:30.230 --> 00:58:33.930 align:middle line:90%
directors to regret sync sound.

00:58:33.930 --> 00:58:38.700 align:middle line:84%
He shot Man of Aran as if
sound films had never happened,

00:58:38.700 --> 00:58:41.660 align:middle line:84%
and then had to take the
islanders over to London

00:58:41.660 --> 00:58:43.595 align:middle line:90%
to dub a sound track.

00:58:43.595 --> 00:58:44.585 align:middle line:90%
Hey!

00:58:44.585 --> 00:58:45.575 align:middle line:90%
Hey!

00:58:45.575 --> 00:58:46.565 align:middle line:90%
Hold on, [INAUDIBLE].

00:58:46.565 --> 00:58:48.050 align:middle line:90%
Hold on, [INAUDIBLE].

00:58:48.050 --> 00:58:50.030 align:middle line:90%
Come on, [INAUDIBLE].

00:58:50.030 --> 00:58:53.080 align:middle line:84%
But the irony is that
Flaherty had taken time out

00:58:53.080 --> 00:58:56.320 align:middle line:84%
to shoot The
Storyteller in Irish,

00:58:56.320 --> 00:59:01.590 align:middle line:84%
the first sound film made in
that language, but now lost.

00:59:01.590 --> 00:59:20.420 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IRISH]

00:59:20.420 --> 00:59:22.150 align:middle line:84%
So it is not that
the islanders had

00:59:22.150 --> 00:59:25.440 align:middle line:84%
ceased to hunt shark
a generation before,

00:59:25.440 --> 00:59:27.660 align:middle line:84%
for the oil the
fish once provided

00:59:27.660 --> 00:59:29.505 align:middle line:84%
could now be bought
in other forms.

00:59:29.505 --> 00:59:30.005 align:middle line:90%
[INAUDIBLE]

00:59:30.005 --> 00:59:34.160 align:middle line:90%

00:59:34.160 --> 00:59:38.620 align:middle line:84%
Nor is it that Tiger actually
spears a [INAUDIBLE],

00:59:38.620 --> 00:59:42.990 align:middle line:84%
or that the shark species
here is actually harmed.

00:59:42.990 --> 00:59:46.485 align:middle line:84%
The major problem is
that they talk English.

00:59:46.485 --> 00:59:49.280 align:middle line:84%
They are denied
their own tongue.

00:59:49.280 --> 00:59:54.930 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

00:59:54.930 --> 00:59:59.150 align:middle line:90%
Back away, back away, back away.

00:59:59.150 --> 01:00:01.930 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

01:00:01.930 --> 01:00:05.130 align:middle line:84%
In fact, Flaherty
avoided sync sound

01:00:05.130 --> 01:00:09.830 align:middle line:84%
as much as he possibly could
by still using the by then old

01:00:09.830 --> 01:00:14.560 align:middle line:84%
fashioned title cards
of the silent cinema.

01:00:14.560 --> 01:00:19.060 align:middle line:84%
He also avoided showing Aran\'s
good land owned by wealthier

01:00:19.060 --> 01:00:23.910 align:middle line:84%
farmers, nor did
he remotely explain

01:00:23.910 --> 01:00:27.660 align:middle line:84%
any of the social realities
of the island\'s economy,

01:00:27.660 --> 01:00:29.990 align:middle line:84%
just has he had ignored
the modern world

01:00:29.990 --> 01:00:32.156 align:middle line:84%
in Samoa and in the
Canadian Arctic.

01:00:32.156 --> 01:00:36.300 align:middle line:90%

01:00:36.300 --> 01:00:39.680 align:middle line:84%
But for all that he doesn\'t
explain its reasons,

01:00:39.680 --> 01:00:41.650 align:middle line:84%
the poverty and
the back breaking

01:00:41.650 --> 01:00:45.220 align:middle line:84%
toil he depicts
were real enough.

01:00:45.220 --> 01:00:48.510 align:middle line:84%
Many objected that he had
made the islands a symbol

01:00:48.510 --> 01:00:53.785 align:middle line:84%
of desperate poverty in
the eyes of the world.

01:00:53.785 --> 01:00:56.140 align:middle line:84%
But the government of
the Irish Republic,

01:00:56.140 --> 01:00:59.720 align:middle line:84%
recently independent of Britain,
thought the firm perfectly

01:00:59.720 --> 01:01:03.760 align:middle line:84%
illustrated the indomitability
of the Irish peasant\'s spirit.

01:01:03.760 --> 01:01:10.570 align:middle line:90%

01:01:10.570 --> 01:01:12.910 align:middle line:84%
But Man of Aran, like
its predecessors,

01:01:12.910 --> 01:01:18.130 align:middle line:84%
was romantic, epic, but at
the same time authentic enough

01:01:18.130 --> 01:01:21.450 align:middle line:84%
to wow the critics,
including a prize

01:01:21.450 --> 01:01:26.620 align:middle line:84%
as Best Film of the Year at
the Venice Film Festival.

01:01:26.620 --> 01:01:30.830 align:middle line:84%
This did not mean that
it found a mass audience.

01:01:30.830 --> 01:01:34.770 align:middle line:84%
The film disappointed
at the box office,

01:01:34.770 --> 01:01:38.320 align:middle line:84%
not that Flaherty, by now, and
with Frances\'s help, a master

01:01:38.320 --> 01:01:41.540 align:middle line:84%
publicist, didn\'t push
hard to attract audiences.

01:01:41.540 --> 01:01:44.310 align:middle line:90%

01:01:44.310 --> 01:01:46.900 align:middle line:84%
For Man of Aran, the
heart of his campaign

01:01:46.900 --> 01:01:50.710 align:middle line:84%
was to transport his stars, the
real, live, impoverished Aran

01:01:50.710 --> 01:01:54.790 align:middle line:84%
islanders, to the heart of
the West End and Broadway.

01:01:54.790 --> 01:01:57.515 align:middle line:90%

01:01:57.515 --> 01:02:03.530 align:middle line:84%
He brought over Maggie and Tiger
King on a tour of the States,

01:02:03.530 --> 01:02:06.950 align:middle line:84%
and he insisted that
they be in native,

01:02:06.950 --> 01:02:10.000 align:middle line:84%
quote, unquote,
\"native costume.\"

01:02:10.000 --> 01:02:13.050 align:middle line:84%
And one night, the
captain invited

01:02:13.050 --> 01:02:16.780 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty to bring Maggie to
the captain\'s table, which

01:02:16.780 --> 01:02:19.070 align:middle line:90%
you know was a great honor.

01:02:19.070 --> 01:02:26.030 align:middle line:84%
And Maggie was sharing a
stateroom with someone else,

01:02:26.030 --> 01:02:29.720 align:middle line:84%
and she said, you can\'t
go dressed like that,

01:02:29.720 --> 01:02:31.900 align:middle line:84%
and you must have your
hair fixed like that.

01:02:31.900 --> 01:03:10.270 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING IRISH]

01:03:10.270 --> 01:03:13.600 align:middle line:84%
There\'s no doubt that
Flaherty\'s attitude towards them

01:03:13.600 --> 01:03:15.890 align:middle line:90%
was distinctly condescending.

01:03:15.890 --> 01:03:20.590 align:middle line:84%
Of course, they all believe
in fairies on the islands.

01:03:20.590 --> 01:03:23.200 align:middle line:84%
At Christmastime, the children
came over from England

01:03:23.200 --> 01:03:26.070 align:middle line:84%
for their vacation, and they
brought a Christmas tree over

01:03:26.070 --> 01:03:26.680 align:middle line:90%
from Galway.

01:03:26.680 --> 01:03:27.860 align:middle line:90%
The islands are treeless.

01:03:27.860 --> 01:03:29.630 align:middle line:90%
There are no trees whatsoever.

01:03:29.630 --> 01:03:31.880 align:middle line:84%
They smuggled this
Christmas tree over

01:03:31.880 --> 01:03:35.340 align:middle line:84%
on the boat, well covered,
and unknown to the cast,

01:03:35.340 --> 01:03:36.830 align:middle line:84%
we modeled the
tree Christmas Eve

01:03:36.830 --> 01:03:38.890 align:middle line:84%
in the cottage, the
stone cottage where

01:03:38.890 --> 01:03:43.490 align:middle line:84%
we did most of our interior
filming for the picture.

01:03:43.490 --> 01:03:45.970 align:middle line:84%
The next morning, we had it
all lit the next morning,

01:03:45.970 --> 01:03:47.620 align:middle line:84%
presents out and
that sort of thing,

01:03:47.620 --> 01:03:49.280 align:middle line:84%
and we invited the
people, friends

01:03:49.280 --> 01:03:53.667 align:middle line:84%
of Maggie\'s and the cast and
others to come in and see it.

01:03:53.667 --> 01:03:55.500 align:middle line:84%
When Maggie with her
three children came in,

01:03:55.500 --> 01:03:57.690 align:middle line:90%
she immediately crossed herself.

01:03:57.690 --> 01:03:59.720 align:middle line:90%
The children followed suit.

01:03:59.720 --> 01:04:02.800 align:middle line:84%
I found out that she
believed that this Christmas

01:04:02.800 --> 01:04:05.644 align:middle line:84%
tree, decorations and all, had
grown up through the cement

01:04:05.644 --> 01:04:06.310 align:middle line:90%
floor overnight.

01:04:06.310 --> 01:04:11.650 align:middle line:90%

01:04:11.650 --> 01:04:16.230 align:middle line:84%
Maggie went back to her shawls,
back to Inishmore, Tiger

01:04:16.230 --> 01:04:19.620 align:middle line:84%
and [? Michael ?]
disappeared, but Aran

01:04:19.620 --> 01:04:23.480 align:middle line:84%
began to live in the
shadow of a movie.

01:04:23.480 --> 01:04:27.140 align:middle line:90%
It is still in that shadow.

01:04:27.140 --> 01:04:30.770 align:middle line:84%
The internet now tells you
when the film is being shown,

01:04:30.770 --> 01:04:35.920 align:middle line:84%
six times a day, every
day of the tourist season.

01:04:35.920 --> 01:04:38.630 align:middle line:84%
You are assured that
a visit to the island

01:04:38.630 --> 01:04:42.390 align:middle line:84%
is not compete without
viewing this spectacular film.

01:04:42.390 --> 01:04:51.770 align:middle line:90%

01:04:51.770 --> 01:04:54.290 align:middle line:84%
As his daughters were still
attending boarding school

01:04:54.290 --> 01:04:57.730 align:middle line:84%
in England, so Flaherty
remained in London,

01:04:57.730 --> 01:05:00.630 align:middle line:84%
holding court at the
Cafe Royal, as he

01:05:00.630 --> 01:05:04.076 align:middle line:84%
had held court the previous
decade in New York.

01:05:04.076 --> 01:05:08.770 align:middle line:84%
He was a legend, an institution,
as one observer put it.

01:05:08.770 --> 01:05:12.500 align:middle line:90%

01:05:12.500 --> 01:05:16.860 align:middle line:84%
Eventually in 1936,
Flaherty was sent to India

01:05:16.860 --> 01:05:19.430 align:middle line:84%
by producer Alexander
Korda to make

01:05:19.430 --> 01:05:24.010 align:middle line:90%
a fiction film, Elephant Boy.

01:05:24.010 --> 01:05:25.450 align:middle line:90%
Mind the baby, [INAUDIBLE].

01:05:25.450 --> 01:05:28.625 align:middle line:90%
Mind the baby.

01:05:28.625 --> 01:05:31.160 align:middle line:84%
But Flaherty\'s usual
allergic reaction

01:05:31.160 --> 01:05:33.270 align:middle line:84%
to the disciplines
of film production

01:05:33.270 --> 01:05:36.380 align:middle line:90%
meant his footage did not work.

01:05:36.380 --> 01:05:40.290 align:middle line:84%
Elephant Boy became just another
picture he did not finish.

01:05:40.290 --> 01:05:55.850 align:middle line:90%

01:05:55.850 --> 01:05:58.990 align:middle line:84%
As war approached, Frances took
her two unmarried daughters

01:05:58.990 --> 01:06:01.850 align:middle line:84%
back to USA and
bought the family

01:06:01.850 --> 01:06:08.860 align:middle line:84%
a home in Vermont
in September, 1938.

01:06:08.860 --> 01:06:11.980 align:middle line:84%
When Frances bought the
farm, she moved there,

01:06:11.980 --> 01:06:18.260 align:middle line:84%
and he didn\'t like
that place, and perhaps

01:06:18.260 --> 01:06:21.110 align:middle line:84%
he only went there
when he was broke

01:06:21.110 --> 01:06:24.570 align:middle line:84%
because she had family
wealth, and he never

01:06:24.570 --> 01:06:26.390 align:middle line:90%
made a living from what he did.

01:06:26.390 --> 01:06:28.320 align:middle line:84%
He was economically
dependent on her.

01:06:28.320 --> 01:06:31.170 align:middle line:90%

01:06:31.170 --> 01:06:34.010 align:middle line:84%
Bob lasted another
year in Europe,

01:06:34.010 --> 01:06:37.040 align:middle line:84%
but weeks before the
outbreak of World War II,

01:06:37.040 --> 01:06:40.930 align:middle line:84%
he made it to Vermont, and
the search for work went on.

01:06:40.930 --> 01:06:45.810 align:middle line:84%
It takes good land to
raise a house like this.

01:06:45.810 --> 01:06:49.140 align:middle line:84%
It came with the help of
Frances and Grierson intriguing

01:06:49.140 --> 01:06:53.210 align:middle line:84%
behind the scenes, in
the form of a commission,

01:06:53.210 --> 01:06:56.270 align:middle line:84%
a commission from the US
Department of Agriculture,

01:06:56.270 --> 01:07:01.420 align:middle line:84%
sign that a war in Europe
broke out, September, 1939.

01:07:01.420 --> 01:07:03.350 align:middle line:84%
--of the solid old
stock that settled in--

01:07:03.350 --> 01:07:06.510 align:middle line:84%
The brief was to explain the
complexities of President

01:07:06.510 --> 01:07:10.450 align:middle line:84%
Roosevelt\'s New Deal
policies for agriculture,

01:07:10.450 --> 01:07:12.810 align:middle line:84%
but Bob never got
to grips with this.

01:07:12.810 --> 01:07:15.370 align:middle line:90%

01:07:15.370 --> 01:07:19.440 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty had come full
circle, back to Baffin Island

01:07:19.440 --> 01:07:22.545 align:middle line:84%
and scenes of this
and scenes of that,

01:07:22.545 --> 01:07:25.685 align:middle line:84%
and the romanticism that
came to him so easily.

01:07:25.685 --> 01:07:28.918 align:middle line:90%

01:07:28.918 --> 01:07:33.310 align:middle line:84%
The great fact of the land, the
land itself, and the people,

01:07:33.310 --> 01:07:36.726 align:middle line:90%
and the spirit of the people.

01:07:36.726 --> 01:07:40.653 align:middle line:90%

01:07:40.653 --> 01:07:42.220 align:middle line:90%
The Land was never released.

01:07:42.220 --> 01:07:44.830 align:middle line:90%

01:07:44.830 --> 01:07:48.170 align:middle line:84%
As America joined the
war, Bob was forgotten,

01:07:48.170 --> 01:07:53.220 align:middle line:84%
and his ideas for war
effort films ignored.

01:07:53.220 --> 01:07:56.770 align:middle line:90%
But this was not the end.

01:07:56.770 --> 01:07:59.580 align:middle line:84%
There might be few left
now who saw advantage

01:07:59.580 --> 01:08:03.780 align:middle line:84%
in an association with Flaherty,
certainly none in the film

01:08:03.780 --> 01:08:07.790 align:middle line:84%
industry or in government
filmmaking circles,

01:08:07.790 --> 01:08:09.695 align:middle line:84%
but there was still
commercial sponsorship.

01:08:09.695 --> 01:08:19.120 align:middle line:90%

01:08:19.120 --> 01:08:21.680 align:middle line:84%
Commercial sponsorship,
a fur company

01:08:21.680 --> 01:08:26.740 align:middle line:84%
had got Flaherty started
as a filmmaker with Nanook,

01:08:26.740 --> 01:08:30.399 align:middle line:84%
and in the aftermath of
the war, an oil company

01:08:30.399 --> 01:08:32.720 align:middle line:84%
would give his career
one final boost.

01:08:32.720 --> 01:08:35.910 align:middle line:90%

01:08:35.910 --> 01:08:40.070 align:middle line:84%
In 1946, Standard
Oil, Esso, sent him

01:08:40.070 --> 01:08:43.970 align:middle line:84%
and Frances to Louisiana to
tell the world of the benefits

01:08:43.970 --> 01:08:46.309 align:middle line:84%
of oil exploitation
in the Bayous.

01:08:46.309 --> 01:08:49.000 align:middle line:90%

01:08:49.000 --> 01:08:54.399 align:middle line:84%
I\'m in New York and I heard
that Mr. Flaherty was staying

01:08:54.399 --> 01:09:01.470 align:middle line:84%
at the Chelsea Hotel, so I
decided to go up and visit him.

01:09:01.470 --> 01:09:05.710 align:middle line:84%
And I went to the Chelsea
Hotel on 23rd Street,

01:09:05.710 --> 01:09:09.800 align:middle line:84%
and yes, he had a suite
on the second floor.

01:09:09.800 --> 01:09:10.424 align:middle line:90%
He [INAUDIBLE].

01:09:10.424 --> 01:09:12.960 align:middle line:90%

01:09:12.960 --> 01:09:19.279 align:middle line:84%
And I went up, and I had
a short visit with him,

01:09:19.279 --> 01:09:25.689 align:middle line:84%
and he hired me to be cameraman
on the Louisiana Story.

01:09:25.689 --> 01:09:28.574 align:middle line:84%
He didn\'t ask to
see what I had done.

01:09:28.574 --> 01:09:31.109 align:middle line:84%
It was purely on
the basis of having

01:09:31.109 --> 01:09:34.840 align:middle line:84%
seen Canary Bananas,
which is bananas.

01:09:34.840 --> 01:09:44.520 align:middle line:90%

01:09:44.520 --> 01:09:46.510 align:middle line:90%
But it wasn\'t really.

01:09:46.510 --> 01:09:49.890 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty might only have
Leacock\'s first effort,

01:09:49.890 --> 01:09:54.870 align:middle line:84%
a teenage home movie
entitled Canary Bananas.

01:09:54.870 --> 01:09:57.760 align:middle line:84%
Bob had seen it while
visiting his daughters

01:09:57.760 --> 01:10:02.110 align:middle line:84%
at the English public school
they had attended with Leacock,

01:10:02.110 --> 01:10:05.260 align:middle line:84%
but Leacock was destined to
become one of the cinema\'s best

01:10:05.260 --> 01:10:08.115 align:middle line:84%
and most influential
cinematographers,

01:10:08.115 --> 01:10:12.066 align:middle line:84%
as this, the opening sequence
of Louisiana Story, suggests.

01:10:12.066 --> 01:11:01.085 align:middle line:90%

01:11:01.085 --> 01:11:06.653 align:middle line:84%
His name is Alexander
Napoleon Ulysses Latour.

01:11:06.653 --> 01:11:11.870 align:middle line:90%

01:11:11.870 --> 01:11:14.580 align:middle line:84%
Mermaids, their
hair is green, he

01:11:14.580 --> 01:11:17.470 align:middle line:84%
says, swim up these
waters from the sea.

01:11:17.470 --> 01:11:20.640 align:middle line:90%

01:11:20.640 --> 01:11:22.495 align:middle line:90%
He\'s seen their bubbles often.

01:11:22.495 --> 01:11:36.581 align:middle line:90%

01:11:36.581 --> 01:11:42.349 align:middle line:84%
And werewolves, with long
noses and big red eyes,

01:11:42.349 --> 01:11:44.814 align:middle line:84%
come to dance on
moonless nights.

01:11:44.814 --> 01:11:51.720 align:middle line:90%

01:11:51.720 --> 01:11:56.480 align:middle line:84%
Mr. Flaherty had to write
more or less a script,

01:11:56.480 --> 01:12:01.310 align:middle line:84%
and the Standard
Oil lawyers made him

01:12:01.310 --> 01:12:05.840 align:middle line:84%
initial each page of
the script to make sure

01:12:05.840 --> 01:12:07.890 align:middle line:90%
that he didn\'t cheat.

01:12:07.890 --> 01:12:11.340 align:middle line:84%
When I read it, I thought
it was absolutely stupid.

01:12:11.340 --> 01:12:12.980 align:middle line:90%
He read it very well.

01:12:12.980 --> 01:12:16.388 align:middle line:84%
Nobody else could have gotten
away with that nonsense.

01:12:16.388 --> 01:12:24.710 align:middle line:90%
[LAUGHTER]

01:12:24.710 --> 01:12:28.010 align:middle line:84%
Leacock\'s dismissal of
Flaherty\'s way with commentary

01:12:28.010 --> 01:12:31.480 align:middle line:84%
was balanced by his admiration
for his unique and apparently

01:12:31.480 --> 01:12:34.290 align:middle line:90%
chaotic working method.

01:12:34.290 --> 01:12:38.970 align:middle line:84%
Often, you would see
something beautiful,

01:12:38.970 --> 01:12:42.040 align:middle line:84%
that was ignored with
regular directors.

01:12:42.040 --> 01:12:45.365 align:middle line:90%

01:12:45.365 --> 01:12:53.040 align:middle line:84%
With Flaherty, we went to
shoot the boy and his pet

01:12:53.040 --> 01:13:01.360 align:middle line:84%
up in a tree, and we were all
set to shoot the sequence,

01:13:01.360 --> 01:13:06.910 align:middle line:84%
and Flaherty found a
spider making a cobweb.

01:13:06.910 --> 01:13:10.490 align:middle line:84%
And the light was
absolutely perfect,

01:13:10.490 --> 01:13:13.290 align:middle line:84%
and it was a
beautiful, perfect web,

01:13:13.290 --> 01:13:17.800 align:middle line:84%
and the spider moving
around it doing its work,

01:13:17.800 --> 01:13:21.010 align:middle line:84%
and we spent the whole
morning filming the cobweb.

01:13:21.010 --> 01:13:26.960 align:middle line:90%

01:13:26.960 --> 01:13:30.490 align:middle line:84%
His policy was if you saw
something beautiful, shoot it.

01:13:30.490 --> 01:13:42.810 align:middle line:90%

01:13:42.810 --> 01:13:46.380 align:middle line:84%
To collect what we had
in that first sequence

01:13:46.380 --> 01:13:50.270 align:middle line:84%
that we looked at,
the opening sequence,

01:13:50.270 --> 01:13:51.930 align:middle line:90%
took months and months.

01:13:51.930 --> 01:13:54.520 align:middle line:90%

01:13:54.520 --> 01:13:56.215 align:middle line:90%
First thing was to find a boy.

01:13:56.215 --> 01:14:00.700 align:middle line:90%

01:14:00.700 --> 01:14:05.260 align:middle line:84%
They told me, well, we\'ll
let you know something

01:14:05.260 --> 01:14:09.880 align:middle line:84%
and pretty sure you\'ll be a
star, so I went back home.

01:14:09.880 --> 01:14:12.590 align:middle line:84%
When I got home, I went
to my uncle\'s house.

01:14:12.590 --> 01:14:14.550 align:middle line:90%
I had long, pretty hair.

01:14:14.550 --> 01:14:18.220 align:middle line:84%
And he says, you know, they\'re
going to make a star out of you

01:14:18.220 --> 01:14:23.510 align:middle line:84%
for the movies, maybe we ought
to cut your hair, and he did.

01:14:23.510 --> 01:14:27.620 align:middle line:84%
And I guess you know when
Frances and Ricky Leacock come

01:14:27.620 --> 01:14:30.970 align:middle line:84%
got me, and I didn\'t
have but very little hair

01:14:30.970 --> 01:14:33.150 align:middle line:90%
left on my head.

01:14:33.150 --> 01:14:38.000 align:middle line:84%
So I took him back, and Mr.
Flaherty was furious with me.

01:14:38.000 --> 01:14:41.680 align:middle line:84%
Why didn\'t you tell him
not to cut his hair?

01:14:41.680 --> 01:14:46.100 align:middle line:84%
Robert about sprung
off of the chair,

01:14:46.100 --> 01:14:53.780 align:middle line:84%
and he went almost haywire,
but he got over it.

01:14:53.780 --> 01:14:56.030 align:middle line:84%
He said, we\'ll have to wait
about three or four months

01:14:56.030 --> 01:14:57.480 align:middle line:90%
and his hair will grow back.

01:14:57.480 --> 01:14:59.660 align:middle line:84%
I guess it won\'t hurt
to wait that long.

01:14:59.660 --> 01:15:01.915 align:middle line:84%
We\'ll take scenes
of other stuff.

01:15:01.915 --> 01:15:08.440 align:middle line:90%

01:15:08.440 --> 01:15:12.440 align:middle line:84%
For the climax of the film,
Flaherty envisaged a blow out

01:15:12.440 --> 01:15:12.940 align:middle line:90%
at a well.

01:15:12.940 --> 01:15:15.705 align:middle line:90%

01:15:15.705 --> 01:15:19.350 align:middle line:84%
He tried faking this,
but that didn\'t work,

01:15:19.350 --> 01:15:21.770 align:middle line:84%
and then a rig
nearby blew for real.

01:15:21.770 --> 01:15:28.110 align:middle line:90%

01:15:28.110 --> 01:15:30.770 align:middle line:84%
He rushed along with this
electrically driven [INAUDIBLE]

01:15:30.770 --> 01:15:33.200 align:middle line:84%
camera to film
it, but the oilmen

01:15:33.200 --> 01:15:35.810 align:middle line:84%
were appalled and
drove him away.

01:15:35.810 --> 01:15:40.180 align:middle line:84%
The camera\'s motor could
cause an explosion.

01:15:40.180 --> 01:15:43.740 align:middle line:84%
We had a camera that
we hardly used at all

01:15:43.740 --> 01:15:49.070 align:middle line:84%
that I had taken as a
precaution, a French Debrie

01:15:49.070 --> 01:15:54.320 align:middle line:84%
camera, which was originally
a hand cranked camera,

01:15:54.320 --> 01:15:56.540 align:middle line:90%
but it had an electric motor.

01:15:56.540 --> 01:15:59.870 align:middle line:84%
So he took off the
electric motor,

01:15:59.870 --> 01:16:04.176 align:middle line:84%
and he went back down with the
Debrie camera to hand crank it.

01:16:04.176 --> 01:16:07.520 align:middle line:90%

01:16:07.520 --> 01:16:15.360 align:middle line:90%
[SCREAMING]

01:16:15.360 --> 01:16:18.400 align:middle line:84%
A hand cranked
camera was designed

01:16:18.400 --> 01:16:25.350 align:middle line:84%
to shoot eight frames per turn,
and in the old silent film

01:16:25.350 --> 01:16:29.960 align:middle line:84%
days, you shot 16
frames a second.

01:16:29.960 --> 01:16:31.940 align:middle line:90%
That\'s two turns a second.

01:16:31.940 --> 01:16:33.730 align:middle line:90%
That\'s a nice speed, [HUMMING].

01:16:33.730 --> 01:16:36.740 align:middle line:90%

01:16:36.740 --> 01:16:39.140 align:middle line:90%
Now, we\'re into a new age.

01:16:39.140 --> 01:16:44.620 align:middle line:90%

01:16:44.620 --> 01:16:47.970 align:middle line:90%
24 frames a second.

01:16:47.970 --> 01:16:50.060 align:middle line:90%
Holy shit.

01:16:50.060 --> 01:16:52.920 align:middle line:90%
That\'s three turns per second.

01:16:52.920 --> 01:16:54.160 align:middle line:90%
Just try it.

01:16:54.160 --> 01:16:57.464 align:middle line:90%

01:16:57.464 --> 01:17:01.414 align:middle line:90%
[HUMMING] He did it.

01:17:01.414 --> 01:17:05.370 align:middle line:90%

01:17:05.370 --> 01:17:09.710 align:middle line:84%
All those shots in the
film of the exploding well,

01:17:09.710 --> 01:17:16.625 align:middle line:84%
he shot hand cranking, which I
find absolutely extraordinary.

01:17:16.625 --> 01:17:19.890 align:middle line:90%

01:17:19.890 --> 01:17:22.285 align:middle line:84%
And for once, so
did public opinion.

01:17:22.285 --> 01:17:25.340 align:middle line:90%

01:17:25.340 --> 01:17:29.720 align:middle line:84%
An excited report to Esso\'s
directors for the PR department

01:17:29.720 --> 01:17:33.050 align:middle line:84%
spoke of 30 million
people receiving

01:17:33.050 --> 01:17:38.740 align:middle line:84%
a favorable impression of the
oil industry and its employees,

01:17:38.740 --> 01:17:42.470 align:middle line:84%
and the company\'s foresighted
public relations policy

01:17:42.470 --> 01:17:43.810 align:middle line:90%
in commissioning the film.

01:17:43.810 --> 01:17:54.090 align:middle line:90%

01:17:54.090 --> 01:17:57.140 align:middle line:84%
I think Louisiana Story
had a big part in digging

01:17:57.140 --> 01:17:59.680 align:middle line:84%
these canals and
stuff, because look

01:17:59.680 --> 01:18:05.440 align:middle line:84%
how interesting this rig is,
and this 12-year-old boy sitting

01:18:05.440 --> 01:18:07.230 align:middle line:90%
on top of the Christmas tree.

01:18:07.230 --> 01:18:09.935 align:middle line:90%

01:18:09.935 --> 01:18:13.640 align:middle line:84%
You know, a lot of people say,
well, what [? one ?] is that?

01:18:13.640 --> 01:18:18.050 align:middle line:90%

01:18:18.050 --> 01:18:22.610 align:middle line:84%
Louisiana Story was the hit of
the Edinburgh Film Festival,

01:18:22.610 --> 01:18:25.870 align:middle line:84%
won the Best Documentary
of 1949 award

01:18:25.870 --> 01:18:30.110 align:middle line:84%
from the British Film
Academy, and even, at last,

01:18:30.110 --> 01:18:31.080 align:middle line:90%
an Oscar nomination.

01:18:31.080 --> 01:18:34.260 align:middle line:90%

01:18:34.260 --> 01:18:38.320 align:middle line:84%
Now 65, Flaherty was
never to complete

01:18:38.320 --> 01:18:42.300 align:middle line:84%
another film of his own,
not for want of trying,

01:18:42.300 --> 01:18:45.050 align:middle line:84%
because, although his health
was beginning to fail,

01:18:45.050 --> 01:18:49.030 align:middle line:90%
he was still pitching ideas.

01:18:49.030 --> 01:18:51.890 align:middle line:84%
One was for a short
on Picasso\'s painting

01:18:51.890 --> 01:18:56.750 align:middle line:84%
Guernica made for the
Museum of Modern Art.

01:18:56.750 --> 01:18:58.070 align:middle line:90%
It was never competed.

01:18:58.070 --> 01:19:03.430 align:middle line:90%

01:19:03.430 --> 01:19:08.080 align:middle line:84%
But he did have a further
unexpected success.

01:19:08.080 --> 01:19:12.260 align:middle line:84%
He acquired the rights to
a prewar German documentary

01:19:12.260 --> 01:19:15.647 align:middle line:84%
directed by Curt
Oertel, The Titan,

01:19:15.647 --> 01:19:16.730 align:middle line:90%
The Story of Michelangelo.

01:19:16.730 --> 01:19:19.690 align:middle line:90%

01:19:19.690 --> 01:19:24.520 align:middle line:84%
Flaherty repackaged it, put
his name prominently on it,

01:19:24.520 --> 01:19:29.280 align:middle line:84%
and not only made money,
but also acquired an Oscar

01:19:29.280 --> 01:19:34.190 align:middle line:84%
for the Best Documentary
of 1950, surely

01:19:34.190 --> 01:19:39.010 align:middle line:84%
a bittersweet accolade,
Hollywood\'s ultimate prize

01:19:39.010 --> 01:19:41.725 align:middle line:84%
for essentially
another man\'s work.

01:19:41.725 --> 01:19:45.372 align:middle line:90%

01:19:45.372 --> 01:19:50.660 align:middle line:84%
But by now, Bob was holed
up in the Chelsea, sick.

01:19:50.660 --> 01:19:53.710 align:middle line:84%
He was ready to work,
but his health undid him.

01:19:53.710 --> 01:19:58.814 align:middle line:90%

01:19:58.814 --> 01:20:04.540 align:middle line:84%
Robert Joseph Flaherty, still
wandering his old haunts,

01:20:04.540 --> 01:20:12.850 align:middle line:84%
was taken ill in the Chelsea and
died in hospital July 23, 1951.

01:20:12.850 --> 01:20:14.870 align:middle line:90%
He was 67.

01:20:14.870 --> 01:20:16.270 align:middle line:90%
The wandering was over.

01:20:16.270 --> 01:20:22.380 align:middle line:90%

01:20:22.380 --> 01:20:26.000 align:middle line:84%
His ashes were taken to Vermont,
to the home at Brattleboro

01:20:26.000 --> 01:20:28.690 align:middle line:84%
that Frances had
established, but which

01:20:28.690 --> 01:20:30.980 align:middle line:84%
had seldom contained
him for long.

01:20:30.980 --> 01:20:34.450 align:middle line:90%

01:20:34.450 --> 01:20:36.970 align:middle line:84%
His passing did not
still the arguments

01:20:36.970 --> 01:20:43.510 align:middle line:84%
about him, his achievements, and
his place in cinema\'s pantheon.

01:20:43.510 --> 01:20:46.490 align:middle line:84%
His reputation remains a
matter of deep dispute.

01:20:46.490 --> 01:20:51.510 align:middle line:90%

01:20:51.510 --> 01:20:56.770 align:middle line:84%
An undisciplined neo-colonial
romantic given to fakery

01:20:56.770 --> 01:20:59.920 align:middle line:84%
and careless of those
with whom he worked,

01:20:59.920 --> 01:21:03.850 align:middle line:84%
or a genius correctly
credited with the creation

01:21:03.850 --> 01:21:07.450 align:middle line:84%
of a whole different
way of making films,

01:21:07.450 --> 01:21:11.630 align:middle line:84%
one of the cinema\'s greatest
ever cinematographers,

01:21:11.630 --> 01:21:16.260 align:middle line:84%
an important, if accidental,
chronicler of vanished

01:21:16.260 --> 01:21:17.936 align:middle line:90%
or vanishing ways of life?

01:21:17.936 --> 01:21:24.140 align:middle line:90%

01:21:24.140 --> 01:21:26.300 align:middle line:90%
One thing is certain.

01:21:26.300 --> 01:21:30.840 align:middle line:84%
All the strengths and weaknesses
of the documentary, its ability

01:21:30.840 --> 01:21:35.520 align:middle line:84%
to show us life, to preserve
memory, to thrill, absorb,

01:21:35.520 --> 01:21:40.485 align:middle line:84%
and entertain, as well as the
dangers of it misrepresenting

01:21:40.485 --> 01:21:49.730 align:middle line:84%
people, the hazards for those
it focuses are being filmed,

01:21:49.730 --> 01:21:52.590 align:middle line:84%
the manipulations
needed to tell a story.

01:21:52.590 --> 01:21:55.260 align:middle line:90%

01:21:55.260 --> 01:21:59.548 align:middle line:84%
All these are to be found in
the cinema of Robert Flaherty.

01:21:59.548 --> 01:22:05.200 align:middle line:90%

01:22:05.200 --> 01:22:09.830 align:middle line:84%
All documentaries\' strengths
were first celebrated by him.

01:22:09.830 --> 01:22:15.320 align:middle line:84%
All documentaries\' dangers
were first demonstrated by him.

01:22:15.320 --> 01:22:21.200 align:middle line:84%
His is, for good or
ill, a living legacy.

01:22:21.200 --> 01:24:07.229 align:middle line:90%