Robert J. Flaherty is considered the father of documentary cinema, but he is also the great grandfather of Finnish experimental filmmaker Sami van Ingen. Although Nanook of the North (1922) and Moana (1926) are remembered as Flaherty’s films, other members of the Flaherty family took part in the creative process. In his film Cast of Shadows, van Ingen sheds light on these people left in the shadows by focusing especially on the story of Robert’s wife Frances Hubbard Flaherty. Letters and diary entries form a picture of Robert as an indulgent spender whose projects Frances was somehow able to keep together.
Van Ingen has inherited the vast archives of the Flahertys. The research based on these archives first brought us Monica in the South Seas (2023), which is now joined by Cast of Shadows that similarly blends personal and scientific approaches. While the film’s focus is on the historical material, van Ingen also thematizes his own relationship with that material and thus also the tradition of documentary cinema in general.
Ilpo Hirvonen