The pioneering Industrial Britain shows a wide range of labourers in Britain in the interwar period.

Industrial.Britain.1931.DVDRip.x264.AC3.1.0-OLDFLiX.mkv

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Runtime: 	20 min 23 s
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https://nitro.download/view/E9723765F9ABDBE/Industrial.Britain.1931.DVDRip.x264.AC3.1.0-OLDFLiX.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Robert J. Flaherty – Industrial Britain (1931) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
An alcoholic doctor on a Polynesian island, disgusted by white exploitation of the natives, finds himself marooned on a pristinely beautiful island.

White.Shadows.in.the.South.Seas.1928.DVDRip.x264.mkv

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Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 25 min
Size: 	1.78 GiB
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https://nitro.download/view/7A9AC5105B4C973/White.Shadows.in.the.South.Seas.1928.DVDRip.x264.mkv

Language(s):Silent
Subtitles:English Intertitles

The post W.S. Van Dyke & Robert J. Flaherty – White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

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.

Written by Brian Winston, A BOATLOAD OF WILD IRISHMEN is entertaining portrait of Flaherty that shrewdly looks beyond standard polemical positions to present a complex view of the man and his work.

DVD Extras included here:
JC, the Boy in ‘Louisiana Story’ (2017)
Richard Leacock in Conversation (2017)
Thoughts on Roberty Flahery and the Documentary (2017)

A Boatload Of Wild Irishmen - The Life Of Robert Flaherty (2011).mkv

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Runtime: 	1h 23mn
Size: 	1.21 GiB
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https://nitro.download/view/D592E1A2A7AE523/A_Boatload_Of_Wild_Irishmen_-_The_Life_Of_Robert_Flaherty_(2011).mkv https://nitro.download/view/0C9A705DA0A5C5A/JC,_the_Boy_in_’Louisiana_Story’_(2017).mkv https://nitro.download/view/0CF5D42FBD1972E/Richard_Leacock_in_Conversation_(2017).mkv https://nitro.download/view/F19FD73EC7EA070/Thoughts_on_Roberty_Flahery_and_the_Documentary_(2017).mkv

Language(s):English, Irish, Samoan
Subtitles:English

The post Mac Dara Ó’Curraidhín – A Boatload of Wild Irishmen: The Life of Robert Flaherty (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Robert Flahertys’ Nanook of the North is considered one of the greatest films of all time for a number of reasons. First off, because it’s one of the greatest films of all time. Flaherty both wielded and helped define the construct of cinema to make a film that is insightful, informative and a whole lot of fun. Also, it’s not quite as racist as you’d fear, which is not to say that it’s not racist at all. In addition, Nanook is generally credited with being the first feature-length documentary film, which is obviously noteworthy despite the semantic difficulty of referring to a work so filled with staged recreations as a documentary. What’s truly important about the film, though, is the way – in its straightforward and simple ability to translate a distant, remote culture to anyone in any other part of the world – it went a long way toward defining cinema as the most powerful mass medium until the proliferation of the internet the better part of a century later.

Shot mostly in 1920 and 1921, Nanook follows an Inuit (not named Nanook in real life) and his family as they live, hunt and trade in north Quebec the way their ancestors have for centuries. Flaherty originally shot a more expansive look at the community in 1914 and 1915 but, when an errant cigarette reportedly led to 30,00 feet of nitrate going up in flames, he decided to return and refocus on just one family. Flicker Alley’s two-disc Blu-ray not only features a beautiful presentation of the film but also a semi-fictional work from 1934 called The Wedding of Palo, in which director Friedrich Dalsheim employs non-professional Inuit actors against a stunning backdrop of nature cinematography. Additionally, the set collects numerous other anthropological and educational films about the time and region, as well as the indispensable “Nanook Revisited,” a 1988 return to the community that reflects not only on how the people have changed but on Flaherty himself.

Flaherty was a prospector who had never made a film before Nanook. He apparently just thought it would be interesting to bring a camera with him to the frozen north. Still, he shows a preternatural aptitude for not only composition but especially the assembly of images. He understands that one of the chief advantages of cinema over other forms of documentation is the ability to demonstrate process. Even The Wedding of Palo, from a more seasoned director, struggles to define itself as something more than a collection of breathtaking footage. Flaherty, in contrast, is not just documenting. He is telling a story (something which would afford him trouble; more on that later). For instance, in the section in which Nanook builds an igloo, the sequence is not just fascinating to watch. Flaherty is able to translate that this is both a mundane task for Nanook and also something vital to his very survival (In “Nanook Revisited,” Inuits ice the runners on their sleds in an instant simply by applying water to them; it’s freaking cold up there).

That igloo-building scene is presented elsewhere in the set as a standalone short film Flaherty reedited for schoolchildren to view in class. 1949’s “Eskimo Hunters of Northwest Alaska” and 1959’s “Face of the High Arctic” also are either created for or suited to that purpose. That these simple but vivid depictions were so available as teaching tools in a world that, fairly recently, made dissimilar cultures as distant as other planets makes a case for cinema as the dawn of the information age. That, in turn, more than makes the case for their inclusion on the Blu-ray.

As alluded to above, Nanook is not without its share of troubles and controversies. In addition to the change of the subject’s name from Allakariallak to the more pronounceable moniker of the title, Flaherty staged many of the sequences depicted and even denied the Inuit within his frame the use of firearms or modern Western clothing that had already been introduced to the people. This condescension to an entire way of life in the interest of perceived authenticity is, to be sure, shameful. Yet, in his depiction of Inuit life the way it recently had been, the film remains edifying. “Nanook Revisited” proves essential to the understanding of the film in the way it discusses and illustrates the differences between Flaherty’s film and his realities. The woman who looks to be Nanook’s wife in the film was really one of Flaherty’s multiple Inuit lovers and the man’s blood still courses through the area in later generations. Yet the 1988 inhabitants don’t seem angry or talk about misrepresentation or opportunism. When they watch the famous scene of Nanook comically struggling with a rope that runs into the ice and ostensibly connects to a hooked seal, they are not irritated at the ruse (director Claude Massot recreates the trickery for us). They laugh uproariously. Despite the problematic issues of the man, the film still works, no matter who’s seeing it.

In some ways, that’s how the film – any film – should be viewed: as a self-contained object, divorced from the particulars of its creation. In other ways, though, it becomes easier to enjoy the rich importance of a film like Nanook of the North in the context of its time and theme. This Blu-ray release is worth owning not only because it showcases a great work but because, by providing that context, it is an important object in itself.

David Bax

1.79GB | 1h 18m | 788×576 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/4DA9A8278417F94/Nanook_of_the_North_(1922)_-_BluRay_576p.mkv

Language(s):English (intertitles)
Subtitles:None

The post Robert J. Flaherty – Nanook of the North (1922) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

In this silent predecessor to the modern documentary, film-maker Robert J. Flaherty spends one year following the lives of Nanook and his family, Inuit living in the Arctic Circle. (IMDb)

This docudrama, filmed in the frozen northern reaches of Canada and Russia, depicts some of the technical difficulties that filmmaker Robert Flaherty encountered when he staged scenes for his 1922 silent film Nanook of the north. It shows how he initially clashes with the Inuit culture, but eventually a friendship develops with the protagonist, Nanook, and the rest of the community.

3.67GB | 1h 18mn | 960×720 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/5F19EA307CE670F/Nanook.Of.The.North.1922.720p.BluRay.AVC-mfcorrea.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:English Intertitles

The post Robert J. Flaherty – Nanook of the North (1922) (HD) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

SPOILER

(from an imdb review)
“Ah, PROPOGANDA! See one of the early propaganda films–worth the viewing
Author: TheMrLee

Grierson set out to make “propaganda,” and this film–with it’s voice-over proclaiming the great value of the British industrial worker, without a hint of ambiguity or doubt–fits that category well. The authoritatarian narrator feels out-of-date and unsophisticated, but the footage is well shot and interesting, and the transparency of the propaganda aspect is almost a reflief at a time when so many films have hidden agendas. “

245MB | 20m 24sc | 640×480 | aviv

https://nitro.download/view/6F7E3AB7F648F56/Industrial_Britain_(Robert_J._Flaherty,_1933).avi

Language:English
Subtitles:None

The post Robert J. Flaherty – Industrial Britain (1933) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Unscrupulous trader Sebastian has little trouble cheating the inhabitants of the South Seas paradise and leading the natives to adopt some of the more unfortunate habits of “civilized” men. He has little opposition save Dr. Matthew Lloyd, once an educated and prominent physician but now smothered in the depths of alcoholic deterioration. When Lloyd goes too far in his attempts to thwart the success of the trader’s greedy plots, Sebastian sees to it that the doctor is framed for a crime and sentenced to be cast adrift tied to the wheel of a derelict ship.

His ship caught in a typhoon, Lloyd is shipwrecked–freed from the ship’s wheel–and washed ashore on another island as yet untouched by the “White Shadows.” He is rejuvenated by the pristine environment and the innocent people, who embrace him as a god. But the corruption of civilization is too close and the world too small for paradise to be eternal.

The New York Times critic wrote, “Whether it is dangerous to stress the white man’s failings and the nobleness of the savage in an age which no longer cares about such things remains to be seen…it is no longer the thing to point out that civilization is amiss, that the uncultivated and rough peoples in the far away corners of the earth have found a happiness–merely through their primitiveness–that the educated cannot reach.”

Variety observed, “For those who liked NANOOK, CHANG, MOANA, etc., WHITE SHADOWS is sure. For regular picture house audiences its opening wallop and the consistently high grade photography, plus the native customs, figure to make it a worthwhile transgression from the stereotyped clinch finish.”

693MB | 1:25:05 | 640×480 | avi

http://nitroflare.com/view/C30CCEBD18BAEDA/White_Shadows.avi

Language(s):Silent, English intertitles
Subtitles:None

The post W.S. Van Dyke & Robert J. Flaherty – White Shadows in the South Seas (1928) first appeared on Cinema of the World.