Director Robert Flaherty, a member of the Royal Geographical Society, was the leader of five Sir William Mackenzie expeditions that explored Canada’s North Hudson Bay region, as noted in the 8 May 1915 Motion Picture News, the 6 May 1922 Exhibitors Trade Review, and the Oct 1922 Educational Screen. Flaherty spent ten years creating scientific records and living among a small tribe of Inuits who inhabited the Ungava Peninsula of the Labrador Peninsula. Between 1913 and 1914, Flaherty apprenticed as a cameraman as part of the expedition, and “shot 30,000 feet of amateurish negative on [Inuit] life,” as stated in the Educational Screen. When the negatives were accidentally burned during editing, “it saved the public a poor film,” according to Flaherty. However, seeing the value of such a picture, Flaherty and his funder, Revillon Freres, a fur-trading company, prepared for a more elaborate reshoot. A fully outfitted expedition embarked in 1920 to begin production in Cape Dufferin.
       The picture was made over the course of two winters and two summers, as noted in the 3 Jun 1922 Exhibitors Herald.
       On 6 May 1922, Exhibitors Trade Review announced that Pathe had acquired the film for world distribution. Famed South Pole explorer, Captain Roald Amundson, was invited to attend a special screening, and agreed that Nanook of the North was a “wonderful picture.”
       Nanook of the North received praise from reviews, including the Aug 1922 Photodramatist, which deemed the film “a masterpiece.”
       Despite its groundbreaking contribution to the documentary genre, various modern sources, including the 1990 documentary Nanook Revisted, criticized Flaherty for reenacting most of the sequences. In addition, he fictionalized the characters, including “Nanook,” who was actually named Allakariallak, and his two wives. The women were reportedly Flaherty’s mistresses, and one of them, “Nyla,” whose real name was Maggie Nujarlutuk, bore him a son named Josephie, whom Flaherty never met. Josephie was eventually adopted by Paddy Aqiatusuk, a renowned soapstone sculptor who married Maggie Nujarlutuk. The production team of the 1990 documentary traveled to Inukjuak, Quebec, the village where Flaherty’s film was shot. Years later, Josphie’s daughter, Martha Flaherty, became the subject of a Canadian documentary film titled Martha of the North (2008), which examined the atrocities that her family suffered in 1953 when the Canadian government forced Paddy Aqiatusuk and eighty-seven Inuits to move further north to Ellesmere Island, where they struggled to survive in the inhospitable environment.
       Film Year Book 1922-1923 named Nanook of the North one of “The Ten Best” pictures of 1922. This film was re-issued in 1948 with a newly written narration by Ralph Schoolman, spoken by Berry Kroger, and with an original score by famed conductor Rudolf R. A. Schramm.