Page "Nanook of the North" Paragraph 6

Using a Bell & Howell camera, a portable developing and printing machine, and some lighting equipment, Flaherty spent 1914 and 1915 shooting hours of film of Eskimo life.

By 1916, Flaherty had enough footage that he began test screenings and was met with wide enthusiasm.

However, in 1916, Flaherty dropped a cigarette onto the original camera negative ( which was highly flammable nitrate stock ) and lost 30, 000 feet of film.

With his first attempt ruined, Flaherty decided to not only return for new footage, but also to refocus the film on one Eskimo family as he felt his earlier footage was too much of travelogue.

Spending four years raising money, Flaherty was eventually funded by French fur company Revillon Frères and returned to the North and shot from August 1920 to August 1921.

As a main character, Flaherty chose the celebrated hunter of the Itivimuit tribe, Nanook.

The full collaboration of the Eskimos was key to Flaherty's success as the Eskimos were his film crew and many of them knew his camera better than he did.