A supplement for TMA 114, Monday, September 10, 2012:
Nahanni (Canada, 1962)
Directed by Donald Wilder
Take that, Mr. Herzog. Let’s just pause to say that the old
trapper’s solitary journey is not quite, not exactly solitary, since that cameraman
is obviously with him the whole time. And yet this is more complicated than the camera game conundrum (see D.A. Pennebaker interview in Alan Rosenthal, 1971). And clearly when it gets you this kind of
stunningly elemental stuff it’s a price worth paying. Still, cameras are weird.
More importantly, my gosh! The NF Board’s anti-industrial approach to photography is starting to look more than just a healthy alternative to Hollywood. It’s looking like the difference between truth and error. Technician/artists, in perfect balance. And what a subject! Awesome landscapes, and this puny, plucky old guy in its midst. It’s like Jack London, but moreso. This water actually splashes you. The old prospector is made real and individual by the human particularities, the behavioural characteristics for which the best theatrical films strive, and which actual people have in unconscious abundance. Virginia Falls!! And the portage around it is Sisyphus and more. Futility, nobility, mystery.
Find it/see it here:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/nahanni
More importantly, my gosh! The NF Board’s anti-industrial approach to photography is starting to look more than just a healthy alternative to Hollywood. It’s looking like the difference between truth and error. Technician/artists, in perfect balance. And what a subject! Awesome landscapes, and this puny, plucky old guy in its midst. It’s like Jack London, but moreso. This water actually splashes you. The old prospector is made real and individual by the human particularities, the behavioural characteristics for which the best theatrical films strive, and which actual people have in unconscious abundance. Virginia Falls!! And the portage around it is Sisyphus and more. Futility, nobility, mystery.
Find it/see it here:
http://www.nfb.ca/film/nahanni
