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sed by new methods are recorded albeit in a re-produced way, dramatic licence, much relied upon for many years to come, propels and enables the narrative structure. With this early example of film based anthropology, current questions of authenticity and ethics were perhaps for the first time raised and struggled with. Nanook has been “discussed variously for its authenticity, its fakery, its romanticism” (MacDougall 1995: 229). It serves as both documentary evidence of a culture and also provides a narrative story and plot that draws the viewer in to a vicarious sharing of the Inuit’s, at times, perilous life. Flaherty’s approach, it could be argued is more respectful than some contemporary renderings of cultures, as his innovative technique offered up “an indigenous person as the hero of the film… [it] was not the usual fanciful portrayal of noble savagery” (MacDougall 1995: 230).
　　The question of vanishing cultures and the nature of change in all societies are pertinent to Flaherty’s work, he recorded a culture in the midst of technological change, as methods of hunting and providing shelter where adapting, and he managed to maintain, despite some carefully reconstructed scenes, a sense of respect. For the most part, although this is arguable, he avoided privileging spectacle over the individual in his filming; however, it is acknowledged that some scenes owed more to story telling than reality. “It is easy… to be critical of Flaherty’s manipulation of Nanook… but then that is the inevitability of the film idiom” (Singer 1992: 264). Despite such manipulations, “many of his scenes remain astonishingly beautiful… and, above all, his image of humanness… has had universal appeal” (Weinberger 1994: 6-7). Sensitivity and consideration for another’s life and values would appear to be axiomatic in producing not just interesting but ethically sound ethnographic films. Flaherty would show the day’s filming to the Inuit to check their own responses to the content of the film, “he was he first to screen the daily rushes for the principals for their comments” (Weinberger 1994: 6), and this directorial style gave the participants their own say in how the filming unfolded. This may not so readily be said of all ethnographic endeavours, the impulse to record in as unbiased and unobtrusive a way as possible may result in filmmakers attempting to be so invisible that they avoid any sense of reflexivity at all. This privileging of the camera and of looking, could be construed as another example of colonialism, the intrusion of the lens as an abuse of power that involves “the effacement of any marks of the presence of the photographer’s [own] culture” (Pinney 1992: 76). And the collecting of disappearing cultures on film may likewise be considered as a collecting of cultural data to be filed and consumed at will by Western intellectuals. For Flaherty as for present ethnographic filmmakers, there is a fine line between intrusiveness and genuine interest, between a hierarchical sense of ownership of the images and a democratic sprit of cooperation between filmmaker and those who are the film’s subjects. For people and cultures who do not have access to methods of recording themselves or others, such lack of access can lead to an imbalance of power. Further, they may not comprehend the broader field their images may be disseminated upon, “informants may be keen to collaborate without actually engaging fully with why a researcher would want to video本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。