Freeze Frame: Alaska Eskimos in the Movies

Abstract

Freeze Frame takes a penetrating, often humorous, look at how Eskimos have been portrayed in nearly a century of film, from the pioneering documentaries of missionaries and Arctic explorers to Eskimo Pie commercials of the 1990s. Some of these works are serious attempts to depict a culture; others are unabashed entertainment, featuring papier mache igloos and zebra-skin parkas. Even film-makers who sought authenticity were likely to build igloos in villages that had never seen one, and to hire non-Native actors to portray the Eskimo principals. groundbreaking film, Nanook of the North, released in 1922, solidified the popular impression of Eskimos and set the precedent for dozens of ethnographic docudramas to follow. Freeze Frame documents the ideas that motivate and lie behind this abundant generation of images. first study to look at the popular image of Alaska Eskimos, it makes an important contribution to our understanding of Native American stereotyping. Anthropologist, Ann Fienup-Riordan is the author of numerous books on the peoples of Alaska, including The Living Tradition of Yupik Masks: Agayuliyararput, Our Way of Making Prayer.