"The first documentary I saw as a child was Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North (1922) broadcast one Sunday afternoon. Nanook enchanted me by his courage to smile in a frozen wasteland, and by the simple fact that he wore a fur coat rather than a military uniform: this gentle hunter wasn’t a conqueror. Later, I understood how great Flaherty was: he told a timeless story without using commentary or pedagogues, and he didn’t interview Nanook like a celebrity or an aggressive talk-show host. He remained off-screen, observing and listening to create that exceptional complicity we feel in this documentary that eschews didacticism. The emotion of life found its counterpart in the emotion of art - a rare and precious achievement in a genre that is often limited to the emotion of the informational narrative."
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Film directors from the United StatesScreenwriters from the United StatesProducers from the United StatesPeople from QuebecFilm directors from Canada
Original Language: English
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On documentary influences, Sundance Channel Interview (July 2004)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Damian_Pettigrew
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Damian Pettigrew
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