Nanook of the North

THE PELORUS TRUST MEDIAGALLERY PRESENTS

Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922)
Thursday July 10, 7pm
performance by Sarah Jane Parton
music by Henderson/Beban/Crewdson
$8 / $6

In conjunction with her exhibition Bright Light Sarah Jane Parton presents Nanook of the North, Robert Flaherty's classic 1922 film with live performance by herself and musical accompaniment by local jazz improvisors Jeff Henderson, Dan Beban and Gerard Crewdson.

"Long nights – the wail of the wind – snow smoking fields of sea and plain – the brass ball of sun a mockery in the sky..." Nanook of the North is often cited as the first feature-length documentary. Locked in a perpetual struggle against the elements, Nanook and his family show remarkable fortitude in the face of an unending life-and-death struggle, capturing wild animals, travelling five people in a one-person canoe amidst the frozen ice and snow. Filmed by surveyor and prospector Robert Flaherty, the film was based on 16 months Flaherty spent living with the Inuit. Several years after the film’s release a voice over narration was added to make a soundtrack which has provided the inspiration for Parton's performance.

Meanwhile her exhibition Bright Light continues until August 9. "Bright Light combines video works, stage sets, tropical plant life and a warped, post-arctic sensibility, as Parton, like the director of a film too ambitious for the screen, assembles a strange, unsteady lens through which we may see ourselves briefly."

ENDS

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