Revisiting Robert Flaherty

When we were in Salem, visiting Roger and Bonnie Hull, we learned some interesting news: The Claremont School of Theology, which  since 1957 has been located in Claremont, CA, is pretty seriously considering relocating in Salem and merging with Willamette University there. Roger wasn't sure just how definite this proposal is, or what the timing of it would be if it does happen, but it is definitely under consideration. He even pointed out  to us the building which will house CST if it happens, which is just across the street from the Hallie Ford Museum. Checking the CST website, I discovered that this idea is no secret, and that evidently the prospect has led to litigation between CST and the Claremont Graduate Union (of which CST has been a part), presumably over the rightful ownership of some of CST's resources. Since both CST and WU have an historic United Methodist affiliation, the prospect of a merger makes some sense. Roger did indicate that WU has been experiencing declining enrollments; presumably CST has been too. There are a lot of things happening in higher education today that are putting both smaller liberal arts colleges and seminaries at risk. Perhaps it is felt that a merger would be to the advantage of both institutions.

The first thing that came to my mind on hearing this news was: the Robert Flaherty film archive. Robert Flaherty is, of course, the famous "Father of the Documentary Film," best known for his Nanook of the North. The Flaherty place in Dummerston is sort of next door to our home. We used to regularly walk a loop starting at our house that took us through what we called the Flaherty field (and up until a few years ago, by the graves of both Robert and Frances - since relocated) in view of the Flaherty house and barn where back in the 1950s and 60s we on occasion were invited to see a Flaherty film by Robert's wife and collaborator, Frances Flaherty. The projectionist was always my friend, Arnold Kirchheimer. Before she died (in 1972), Frances Flaherty  arranged to have the Flaherty film archive, including not only Robert Flaherty's films but 1000s of her own still photographs, located at the Claremont School of Theology, where it became the Robert J. and Frances H. Flaherty Study Center. I wondered: if CST merged with WU, would the Flaherty Study Center come to Salem? That would open up some interesting possibilities. It may take a long time to happen and I might not live long enough to see it, but I can't help but think about it!

I have been a fan of Flaherty films since those early screenings in the 1950's, and I feel a bit of a connection with the family.  I arrived in Dummerston 5 years after Robert Flaherty died, but I knew Frances very well; one of her daughters, Frances Rohr, was a teacher in the Dummerston Church Vacation Bible School that I organized in 1958, and just a few years ago, Hallowell went to the Flaherty place to sing for another daughter, Monica. I have long had fantasies about doing something with Flaherty films and that fantasy resurfaced in 2010 during the summer of the terrible Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which ravaged the Louisiana coast and brought into sharp relevance Flaherty's film Louisiana Story, and the more recent documentary, Revisiting Louisiana Story produced in 2006 at Louisiana State University (see my blog for August 25, 2010).

Going online today, I am amazed at what is there. YouTube has the entire films Nanook of the North, Men of Aran, and Louisiana Story free for the watching (and also a short film titled Twenty-four Dollar Island, about Manhattan).  I found the rarely seen The Land on a US Dept of Agriculture website. A DVD of the very controversial Moana of the South Seas seems to be for sale for $17. I learned that every year in June, a Flaherty Documentary Film Festival is held at Colgate U in New York, where new documentary films from all over the world are screened and discussed in honor and memory of Robert Flaherty - an event founded by Frances Flaherty after Robert's death and still going strong. It attracts hundreds of filmmakers and students of film (and costs a lot).

And there are scores of articles about Flaherty and his place in film history - a very controversial place it is - absolutely chock-a-block with irony, paradox, rants and raves. A recent article by Patricia Zimmerman, Prof. of  Film Studies at Ithaca College, puts it succinctly:

"The name Robert Flaherty conjures up a maelstrom of complex debates in documentary: representation of others, ethics, the role of the director, ideology, argument, the imperialist gaze, racialized bodies, gendered imagery, the blurring between fiction and non-fiction, manipulation of the pro-filmic world, collaboration, politics, deep immersion in the field, ethnography, amateurism, non-preconception, realistic or idealized cinematography, modes, community, voice, authenticity, filmmaker/subject relations, fantasy."

That just whets my appetite! What could be more interesting than to plunge into that maelstrom!  So I hope from time to time to do just that on this blog.

Left to right, Frances Flaherty, Richard  Leacock, and Robert Flaherty on location filming Louisiana Story

Frances Flaherty addressing a group of students at NYU

Prof.Jack Coogan, Claremont School of Theology

"Working with Frances Flaherty, (Prof. Coogan)  developed a Center to provide resources for the study of non-fiction film, which has since preserved and made accessible to the scholarly community thousands of still photographs, audio recordings, and films related to the production of NANOOK OF THE NORTH and the other Flaherty films. These pioneered a new use of the film medium, focused on cross-cultural communication, care of the earth through right relationship to it, and the moving image as a tool for the human spirit, to inspire and shape a better future for the earth and its peoples." (from the CST website)

A P. S.: One of Prof. Coogan's colleagues at CST was James A. Sanders, the New Testament scholar who championed my dissertation back in the 1970s.


 To be continued....