Man of Aran

Dramatised documentary about the rough life on the Aran Islands, located opposite Galway off the Irish west coast. Flaherty and his crew stayed on these three islands for almost two years to shoot Man of Aran. Later on the director of this film won a lot of praise for his camera work. Using special film lenses, Flaherty stood on the precipitous cliffs and followed the perilous manoeuvres of the small fishing boats on the massive waves, seven hundred metres off the coast. He added the sound afterwards. Because the dialogue almost got lost in the howling wind, this worked as an added sound effect. Just like in Nanook of the North Flaherty manipulated things in this film. For example, the islanders had not been hunting for giant whales anymore for decades. Flaherty brought an expert to the island to teach them to hunt with harpoons. This, too, resulted in a long and impressive film sequence.