Moana With Sound

Robert J. Flaherty is often called the father of the documentary because of his groundbreaking 1922 film Nanook of the North. Flaherty traveled with his wife, Frances, and their children to the Samoan island of Savai'i in 1924 to make his second film: a coming-of-age tale seen within the context of traditional village life. The story centers on the titular boy and culminates with an initiation ritual of manhood that, among other things, involves a painful tattooing. Although it was released as a silent film in 1926 to critical acclaim but public indifference, Flaherty's daughter Monica returned to Savai'i a half-century later and recorded ambient sounds, songs, and dialogue which she then added to the original. Her version premiered in 1981, but the visual quality was poor. This release, however, features a 2K digital restoration by Bruce Posner of Filmmakers Showcase and director Sami van Ingen: the black-and-white footage is lustrous, and while the dubbing is not perfect, it does add powerful immediacy to the images. Flaherty's pioneering films raised issues that have bedeviled nonfiction filmmaking ever since. As in Nanook, Flaherty staged many of the sequences in Moana; indeed, his fabrication was even more intrusive, since the Samoans had been largely Westernized by 1924. In order to create his vision of a Polynesian paradise, he chose unrelated individuals to act the part of the native family, wearing long-abandoned styles of dress, and engaging in activities—such as the initiation rite—that were no longer practiced. While untrue to “the facts,” Flaherty's Moana nevertheless remains an important film in cinematic history. Extras include filmed commentaries by Posner and film historian Enrico Camporesi, a retrospective documentary, a restoration featurette, an experimental short by Flaherty, Flaherty family home movies, and an interview with Frances Flaherty. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)