The Star and Shadow are screening ‘Nanook’ with a live score conceived and performed by Edinburgh combo ‘Sink’.  Flaherty’s astonishing 1922 documentary ‘Nanook of the North’ stands as one of the great achievements of the silent film era.  

‘Sink’ last performed in 2015 at the Star and Shadow, together with Noize Choir they gave sound to Luis Bunuel’s, L’Age d’Or.  Those lucky enough to have been in the cinema that night had a truly memorable experience as Bunuel’s film in all its mordant sexy anti-clerical satire came to life with Sink’s live accompaniment – the way that ‘silent’ films were supposed to.

Flaherty’s ‘Nanook’ recaptures and revisions a way of life that was fast vanishing. It’s a story of indomitable human beings, undaunted by the most extreme conditions of existence, and able to carve out of the harsh tundra a life radiant with joy. Nanook and his family are protean environmentalists living only within their resources.

For this screening Sink’s live brilliant multi-instrumental score works to play up the defining features of Flaherty’s film, contrasting the harsh frozen land with the  humorous and resourceful spirits who live in it.  As the film progresses the mood is compounded in the score by use of heavier electronic elements underpinning the film’s grounding in the artic landscape and offset by ‘found sounds’ improvised using ice bone and leather the everyday materials of Nanook and his way of life.

Sink’s alive music will take us deeper into the grain of Flaherty’s vision.

for more about Sink: www.theplughole.org