I wonder if Discovery Channel would have approved an episode showing Bear Grylls clubbing baby seals as important public service information for those viewers who might one day be faced with starvation on an ice floe.
Speaking of starvation on an ice floe--I finally got around to watching the old classic silent film, "Nanook of the North" recently, as it was showing on the Turner Classic Movie channel as part of their "Native Americans in the Movies" month. For those who are unfamiliar with this gem of a documentary film made by Robert J. Flaherty in 1922, Nanook must provide for his family by living off the land. This includes some amazing footage of spearing fish through holes in the ice, catching and slaughtering a really large seal and also a HUGE walrus. The movie was controversial not for its depictions of catching, slaughtering and eating raw some "cute" polar mammals (including a beautiful arctic fox) but because Flaherty had depicted some staged events as reality, though this was a normal thing for "documentary" filmmakers to do at the time. He was forced to stage some (if not all) of the hunts due to limitations with the camera technology of the time. He had to work with cameras that were big and bulky, and his "interior" shots in the igloos were actually taken inside a 3-walled igloo to increase the light levels. Flaherty claimed that Nanook died of starvation two years after the filming, when in fact he probably died of tuberculosis (as did a lot of people in those days).
And despite knowing that a lot of the footage was staged--I was still thrilled to watch Nanook and his family build an igloo, kayak though the ice floes with grace and style, fish and hunt with great skill and gusto, and stomp around in icy waters wearing only sealskin boots on their feet. Obviously they were at home in this harsh environment and knew what sort of things they needed to do to survive. I doubt they would have hesitated to club and eat a baby seal for dinner if one came their way.
Diana * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Diana R. Tomchick Associate Professor University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Department of Biochemistry 5323 Harry Hines Blvd. Rm. ND10.214B Dallas, TX 75390-8816, U.S.A. Email: diana.tomch...@utsouthwestern.edu 214-645-6383 (phone) 214-645-6353 (fax) --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
