On the evening of State Patty’s Day 2025, while the better part of the student population stumbled along the streets, a different event was held. A much calmer event, one involving no property damage. In the State Theatre, on March 1, a documentary, “A Century After Nanook,” was having its premiere. The audience of nearly 500 abstained from the holiday to learn a little about our friends in the deep, deep north, the Inuit of Inukjuak.

Penn State professor Kirk French put together the film, working with co-producers Neal Hutcheson and Sarah Samisack, capturing both the historical significance and present-day realities of Inukjuak.

“A Century After Nanook” takes its name from a much older film, “Nanook of the North,” by Robert Flaherty. The film follows an Inuk man named Nanook and his family as they struggle through their lives. Despite criticism for staging and playing with the truth, “Nanook of the North” is considered one of the first documentaries, and it shined a light on the Inuit people that has rarely been revisited, until now. 

The new documentary takes a more objective approach, combining archival footage of Inukjuak in the 1920s with interviews of present-day residents of Inukjuak and climate change scientists to investigate the drastic cultural and environmental changes that have occurred in the past century. Besides the name, “A Century After Nanook” takes very little from the original film, focusing more on the people that the film represented than the film itself. 

Much of the film’s production was based around the homes of the folks French was featuring.

“I like taking older documentary films back to the location where they were filmed, hosting public screenings, and interviewing people afterward about the changes they have experienced in their community,” French said.

One of French’s previous projects, “Land and Water Revisited,” used a similar process, focusing on Teotihuacan Valley and changes that had occurred since the filming of the documentary “Land and Water,” released in 1962. When shopping through new ideas, French was met with the then-upcoming centennial for “Nanook of the North,” and work commenced. 

Production started in 2020, but COVID-19 forced the crew to pivot. Instead, it shipped film equipment to the Inukjuak community, allowing community members to film and conduct interviews themselves. 

Once pandemic-related problems were out of the way, French and the rest of the team traveled to Inukjuak to continue the production. French himself made six trips there, interviewing local leaders and hunters. Many other interviews were filmed by Samisack, an Inukjuak native. 

“This has allowed the Inuit to tell their story, from both sides of the lens, about the impact ‘Nanook of the North’ had on their community and the cultural shifts they have witnessed,” French said.

The crew also conducted interviews with climate scientists, who illustrated the environmental change of the Arctic over the past century. Inukjuak, located in the Arctic, experiences four times the warming than the global average, which is a clear danger to its inhabitants.

French said he hopes viewers learn more about what has happened to those featured in the film.

“I hope that people learn more about the traumas experienced by the Inuit of Inukjuak and be inspired by their resilience,” French said.

Through extensive research and interviews with scientists and Inukjuak locals, “A Century After Nanook” paints an unfiltered portrait of a community that has long been misrepresented. More than just a retrospective, the documentary highlights the Inuit’s perseverance in the face of drastic cultural and environmental shifts.

The film will air on PBS later this summer before being added to its streaming service. Viewing “Nanook of the North” is not required, and you won’t be lost without it.