What's interesting is that "Nanook missed the hunting season because of assisting the filming of the director, which eventually caused the family/tribe to starve to death." This little-known text with a cruel background seems to only exist in the Chinese world. The opening intertitle stated that Nanook died of hunger due to a deer hunting failure two years after filming. This is often criticized as Flaherty's exaggeration of facts in the film.
In "Robert and Frances Flaherty: A Documentary Lifee, 1883–1922", the 388-page biography of the Flaherty couple records: After Flaherty left the local area, Bob Stewart (the merchant who sold fur in the film) once informed Flaherty about Attata ( The actor of Nanook) deteriorated health, and Attata's death was also recorded by the people of Hudson Bay Company-he died on May 26, 1923 after illness all winter. Some people think he died of tuberculosis.
Throughout his life, Flaherty maintained that within two years after his departure Nanook had died of starvation while on an inland caribouhunting trip. The story must be apocryphal, since there is no evidence that Allakariallak died in such a way. Bob Stewart kept Flaherty informed about Allakariallak's health, and in a letter of 28 January 1923 he informed him, "Attata is sick just now. In fact he's been in bed all fall and winter. He is just skin and bones and expect him to die any day. I'm surprised he has lived so long."^ This is a man whose condition would make crossing the room difficult, let alone enduring the rigors of a hunting expedition. Allakariallak died on 26 May 1923, an event recorded in the HBC journal for Port Harrison- an entry itself surprising,since it was not the custom of HBC men to record the births and deaths of Eskimo: "Allakaralook Sr. one of Revillons servants, who has been sick all winter, died yesterday afternoon and was buried shortly afterwards."J 5 That an HBC man would note the passing of a Revillon servant is an exemplary final playing of taps for a man who will remain vividly alive for us each time we view Nanook of the North.
Putting aside all kinds of criticisms of the film, this kind of contrast between the "brightness of the exterior and the darkness of the interior" often gets more attention, as if people must be wrapped in vulgarity or filth while calling for sacredness or cleanliness.
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