Nanook of the North

Director: Robert Flaherty
Year Released: 1922
Rating: 4.0

Remarkable documentary by Flaherty about struggling to survive (in Nanook's case, a few days without food could spell death), and features one great scene after another: Nanook fishing, bartering for candy and supplies, killing a walrus, making an igloo and feeding the huskies. Flaherty said that he felt the Eskimo people were the 'happiest' he'd ever met, which is amazing, considering the circumstances; his images of the arctic surroundings are simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.