Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 21) A 1948 DOCU-DRAMA, HAILED AS AN ARTISTIC SUCCESS, SEALED THE STEREOTYPICAL IMAGE OF CAJUN COUNTRY. The father of documentary film Robert “Bob” Flaherty considered himself “an explorer first and a film maker second.” Discovery, he claimed, was the essence of the docu-dramas that made him famous.He synthesized reality and fiction as he combed the globe probing farflung communities with the lens of his camera.Flaherty specialized in films about“primitive” peoples confronting the forces of modernization and progress. Critics applauded his first acclaimed feature film,Nanook of the North (1922),a fairy tale biography of an Eskimo named Nanook who lived in harmony with the frozen Canadian tundra. Nanook forever fixed the Eskimo stereotype in the American imagination. The film also helped create a cinematic vocabulary that became common parlance during the post-World War II documentary and cinéma vérité movements. Bob Flaherty’s last motion picture, Louisiana Story (1948), portrayed Cajun sin a similar light; a representation that continues to shape the nation’s perception of south Louisianians outside of New Orleans. Louisiana Story was directed by Robert J. Flaherty (right) and co-written with his wife, Frances (left). Richard Leacock (center) was the photographer. STANDARD OIL (NEW JERSEY) COLLECTION, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE Spring 2009/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 21
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.