Editing Man of Aran (section)

==Release and initial reception==
On 25 April 1934, ''Man of Aran'' premiered at the New Gallery in London. The screening had been preceded by a major publicity drive. A stuffed basking shark was put on display in the window of Gaumont British in Wardour Street, and Irish Guards played Irish folk music in the theater foyer on the first night. The islanders were brought over from Aran and paraded before the press and public in their simple homespun island garb. ''Man of Aran'' won top prize for the best foreign film at the [[2nd Venice International Film Festival]], the [[Mussolini Cup]].<ref>McLoone</ref> During the first six months of its release the film grossed about £50,000; many films had grossed more, but according to Michael Balcon it brought Gaumont British the prestige he wanted.<ref>Calder-Marshall</ref>

When it opened in [[Dublin]] on 6 May 1934, ''Man of Aran'' was a major political and cultural event to the nascent [[Irish Free State]] and was attended by the [[President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State|President of the Executive Council]], [[Éamon de Valera]].<ref>Blake, Martin: A Critical Study of the Implications of the Problem of Reality in the Documentary Film: University of Southern California, Dissertations Publishing, 1972.</ref> The Irish government saw it as confirmation of their social and economic policies and so enthusiastically received the film. ''Man of Aran'' suited [[Fianna Fáil]], as it encouraged an image of Ireland that was fiercely traditional, definitively rural, and resilient in the face of hardship.<ref>O'Brien</ref>

The film's depiction of man's courage and repudiation of the intellect also appealed to the Nazis, who raved over it during the Berlin Festival in 1935.<ref>McLoon</ref> As Luke Gibbons has written, this portrayal of the harsh life on the west coast of Ireland was often taken to heart by those who viewed it.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gibbons|first=Luke|title=Romanticism, Realism and Irish Cinema|journal=Cinema and Ireland}}</ref>

Some critics believed ''Man of Aran'' socially irrelevant. Instead of returning with a film about Island poverty and an indictment of the absentee landlord, they claim Flaherty brought back a film about dewy-eyed urchins.<ref>Corliss</ref> Grierson argues that Flaherty's '[[Rousseau|NeoRousseauism]]', the glorification of a simpler and more primitive way of life, meant he could not develop a form adequate to the more immediate material in the modern world.<ref>Tagg, John; The Disciplinary Frame: Photographic Truths and the Capture of Meaning UMP 2009</ref> Paul Rotha faulted ''Man of Aran'' for its alleged avoidance of economic and social reality.<ref>Barsam</ref> At the time of ''Man of Aran'''s release, socialist critic Ralph Bond commented “…we are more concerned with what Flaherty has left out than with what he has put in…Flaherty would have us believe that there is no class struggle on Aran despite ample evidence to the contrary".<ref>Bond, "Man of Aran Reviewed," Cinema Quarterly, II, No. 4 Summer, 1934</ref> It is claimed that Flaherty ignored the effects of such worldwide events as the depression of the 1930s, suggesting to the audience that the Aran Islands were isolated economically as they were geographically.<ref>Barsam</ref>