Robert Flaherty's personal experience.

1884 February 16, robert flaherty was born in Tieshan District, Michigan, USA, the eldest of seven children. From 65438 to 0896, Flahadi followed his father to collect gold in Yuhu, Canada. Later, his parents sent him to the Mining Institute in Michigan, but he failed to graduate. 195 1 died in Dunnaston, Vermont on July 23rd. 1910 ~1916 was employed by Sir W. Mackenzie, who filmed a 35,000-foot (10.05 million meters) film about Eskimos while prospecting in Hudson Bay, Canada. These films were destroyed by the fire. 1920 on-site printing with the support of French leather goods dealer Revillon Brothers. /kloc-in the middle of the 0/9th century, Flaherty's grandfather immigrated from Iceland. Here, Flaherty spent a happy childhood with his family, and then explored the world with his father. His father and himself are Irish Protestants, while his mother is a German Catholic. In such a family atmosphere, Flaherty was influenced by various cultures, and his liberal and democratic American personality flowed in his blood. Genvre Hardy saw the wonderful world outside the United States and gradually cultivated his pure personality of loving life and advocating nature. All the stories we have seen and heard about Flaherty today are presented as a documentary director. However, Flaherty's first film, Nanook in the North, was 38 years old when it was released. Previously, he had been exploring all over the world and was responsible for the mining of minerals. His first close contact with movies was also because of an opportunity to explore. In all his later films, the spirit of adventure is always carried out, and exploring the harmony and contradiction between human beings and nature is always his concern.

From 1907 to 19 10, Flaherty worked in a small mining company in a syndicate. He himself said, "Meeting Mr. William Mackenzie was an important turning point in my life. At that time, Mr. William was responsible for building a railway across Canada from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. I heard that there would be iron ore there, and he asked me if I would like to explore it and give him a report. The conditions there are very difficult. There is snow outside my tent, and some Indians are with me. I live with several Eskimos, and I can only speak a few of their languages. For example, is it cold, is it far, am I hungry, etc. " Close contact with Eskimos laid a good foundation for Flaherty to shoot Nanuk in the north in the future. The second mining trip lasted 19 months. Due to the lack of good equipment and bad weather, Flaherty failed to realize his wish. 19 12 years, at the suggestion of Mr. William, Flaherty started his third expedition with a camera. However, after reading the copies of his Eskimo movies, people think that they are scattered fragments with no connection and no clues. Flaherty and his wife thought for a long time, and finally they realized why the film was so bad. Francis recalled: "If we go back to the north, shoot some places and people who have lived for eight years, and shoot a typical Eskimo family, what can be more meaningful than a biography of people's lives? Shoot a race that lives in an isolated area and lacks resources than anyone else in the world. Their life is to fight the weather and hunger. " After eight years' hard work, 192 1 year, North Naruk was finally completed. In the following years, Flaherty wrote a series of articles on adventure travel for some magazines, and with the help of his wife, Francis Habinda, published the book Narook in the North in 1924. In his book, Flaherty recorded the daily life habits of Eskimos in the Arctic and all kinds of interesting things in the filming process.

After the film was finished, the first audience was the local Eskimos. Flaherty describes in the book: "They (Eskimos) keep looking back at the light source of the projector, just like looking at the screen. I didn't think this screening would succeed. Suddenly a man shouted, "Get him, get him." They think walruses will really run away. At that time, the family was in chaos. Eskimos saw themselves and their companions in the film, and they began to whisper to each other with mysterious smiles on their faces. Suddenly, they seemed to understand what I had done. "Cooperation is pleasant, of course, they also encountered many difficulties. His wife, Francis Habinda, recalled Flaherty's experience in filming: they left the station for eight weeks and walked more than 600 miles in order to capture a bear. On the way, two hounds starved to death because of lack of food. The trip was extremely unlucky, the weather was bad, and no prey was touched. As food for people and dogs, even no seals have been touched. Hungry and cold, they stopped to build an igloo ("iglou" in Eskimo). Bob (Flaherty's nickname) wrapped himself in a water bag, and the dogs huddled in the narrow passage of Iglu, with no room to move. Nanuk and his companions looked around for prey. As the days passed, they returned empty-handed every day, and even the seabirds flying in the air froze to death on the ice. Nanuk and others began to become listless. Every morning, Bob gives his things to everyone, but they never reach out once. Finally, one night, they came back from hunting with the "squeaky, squeaky" sound when the snow was crushed. Bob soon understood from the footsteps what they brought back: this is the seal they dreamed of, and it is a guy with a huge body and a magnificent front beard! Feed the dog first, then it's people's turn, eat enough and then fall asleep. According to Bob's words, that night, hot air emerged from the warm Nanaok people and turned into steam, swirling in the cold air. The next day, they recovered their strength and continued on their way.

One night, the Nanook were building an igloo when it suddenly snowed heavily. The Nanook people had a hard time building the hut, and when Bob finally climbed in to take refuge with them, he was almost frozen. Recently, Nanook lit candles, and the water in the air froze because of excessive cold. In Bob's words, "the space in front of us is as beautiful and shiny as a diamond." This is Nanuk, bathed in beautiful light, appearing in front of Bob. Looking at Bob, he smiled and said proudly, "What's up, isn't it good?" No matter how good those white people's homes are, they are not so great! "

Shooting walruses is the most touching scene. Walruses are 25 miles from the coast where they live. Many walruses live there in summer. They waited for three days, and Flaherty said, "We saw 20 females being guarded by two males. I slowly pushed a close-up of a walrus. Only then did they notice. When we were ready to shoot, Nanuk led everyone to rush forward with harpoons. At night, our ship was full of walrus meat and ivory. Nanook has never caught so many walruses, and I have never photographed them like this on walrus island. We were all very excited that day. "

At the beginning of the 20th century, some people took cameras to explore, and they photographed many local conditions and customs around the world. Around the 1920s, adventure movies flourished. Andre bazan described the adventure movies at that time in the article "Movies and Adventures": After the First World War, the movie "Eternal Silence" showed the audience wonderful polar scenery. Then this kind of film came out one after another, and it was successful. Nanook in the North, written by Flaherty in 1922, has always been one of the representative works. At that time, American documentary workers filmed a large number of films praising western life and traveled to Africa and other parts of the world. In these adventure documentaries, freehand brushwork and realism coexist, and romance and documentary coexist. Flaherty has established his own unique artistic expression and personal pursuit among the creators of these adventure films: taking the relationship between man and nature as the theme and always taking man as the center of the film. Whether it is the glacier world in northern Canada, the beautiful Tahiti Island in the South Pacific, the prosperous British Empire, or the magical Louisiana in the southern United States, Flaherty's footprints are all over the world.

After Nanook in the North, Flaherty has successively filmed Ocean Romance, Alaman People and The Story of Louisiana. People put these films together and call them Flaherty's four "free" films. The similarity of these films lies in inheriting the tradition of finding "home" in Nanuk in the north.

Flaherty was born to tell stories. When filming in London, friends often gather in miscellaneous clubs to listen to his stories, and go to nearby restaurants after closing there; The restaurant was closed, so I changed to another bar and sat until dawn just to listen to Bob's story. In the process of telling the story, Flaherty sometimes smiles and sometimes laughs. "Hey, gentlemen, don't get me wrong. I made this up myself, but maybe it's true, um ... let's just say it's true. It's all the same thing anyway. I made up a story that happened to me, nothing more. "

In his later years, Flaherty became interested in camera "repairing" painting. 1949, Flaherty filmed Picasso's famous mural guernica. Until he 195 1 died, the film was still unfinished and became an expected "art of regret" in Flaherty's works. However, Flaherty's persistent ideals and beliefs about movies have always been admired and praised by us. Real artists always advocate their own beliefs and pursuits, and will not be influenced by public opinion and trends. Flaherty let us discover the excellent qualities of an artist from his films. He is a documentary director who works by feeling, replaces the exposure meter with eyes, and replaces the law of creation with intuition.