Nanook of the North

Nanook Of The North is considered on of the first films to be considered a true documentary. Made in 1922, the film follows a Inuit family and documents their daily lives. One controversial thing about the film however is that almost the whole thing was staged by Inuits. Even though the director Robert Flaherty was up front about it being fake, he backed up his claims saying that they were all real Inuit people that found his film interesting. Another controversial thing about the film is the change of Inuit weapons. By the time Flaherty arrived there to film, the Inuits have already switched from using harpoons to using rifles, which made them harder to depict as a "tribe." Flaherty was able to fix this however by having the Inuits stage different hunts, like a killing of a seal using harpoons. Without Nanook Of The North, documentaries wouldn't be where they are today.