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Tom Sturridge, background left, and Rhys Ifans star in “Pirate Radio,” a film about a clandestine radio station in a rusted ship off the English coast in the 1960s.

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“Nanook of the North,” presented with a live score, is at Space Gallery on Nov. 28. Doors open at 7:30 p.m., film at 8.

WHAT'S COMING UP WHERE

PATRIOT NICKELODEON

www.patriotcinemas.com

Nov. TBA: "The Road." First, this was advertised as opening on Nov. 25. Now, it's TBA. I don't know if that's the Weinstein Company or the Nickelodeon's doing, but it makes planning my movie schedule a real pain in the neck.

MOVIES AT THE MUSEUM

www.portlandmuseum.org

Nov. 20-22: "Trucker." Yes, this "irresponsible mother bonds with the son she never knew" drama is getting decent buzz, but here's why I'm wary – a friend of mine was a production assistant on it two years ago.

FRONTIER CAFE

www.explorefrontier.com

Nov. 21: "The Garden." An Oscar-nominated documentary about the community garden smack-dab in the middle of South Central Los Angeles.

EVENINGSTAR CINEMA

www.eveningstarcinema.com

Nov. 20: "Pirate Radio." Quick tip: Rent "Almost Famous" instead. It's somewhat less of a – what's the phrase – "crushing disappointment."

Thanksgiving looms right around the corner, and if you're like me, you're probably planning what movie to sneak out to that afternoon in order to avoid helping with Turkey Day preparations and cleanup. This, however, can be exacerbated by the relative dearth of selections in Portland. So, maybe it's time to bite the bullet and grab a turkey baster or a dish towel.

As a consolation prize, you can wait two days to catch a special screening of "Nanook of the North" the following Saturday (Nov. 28) at Space Gallery. The first anthropological documentary ever made, "Nanook" follows the Inuit people of the Arctic Circle, and it's just as fascinating now as it was in 1922.

In some ways, it's even more intriguing today. As it turns out, "Nanook" director Robert J. Flaherty wasn't entirely on the level in his quest for verisimilitude. Among other things, Flaherty cast a more photogenic actress as Nanook's wife, built camera-friendly igloos and arctic exteriors to stand in for Nanook's world, encouraged the Inuits to hunt on camera using primitive spears instead of guns to make them appear sufficiently pre-European, and staged pretty much everything else that happens in the film. (So much for anthropological documentarianism.)

In fact, he changed his lead subject's name from Allakariallak to the simpler-yet-wholly-non-Inuit monicker Nanook.

We may bemoan staging and reality dreck like "Survivor," "The Hills" or the moon landing, but many producers are following in the footsteps of a man who believed "a filmmaker must often distort a thing to catch its true spirit." In the words of a far wiser man than myself: "It's a pageant." The ethics of that mentality will forever be debated.

But this film remains a worthwhile and controversial historical document, and Space is presenting it with live accompaniment from a Maine music trio, the Summer McKane Group. They recorded a full 80-minute score as part of the 2008 "Local Score/Silent Film" series, and its inclusion is as impressive as the film itself. It's an event that promises to make up for the post-Thanksgiving doldrums.

Just remember to ask yourself, "Why does a dog wag its tail?" while you watch.

Josh Katz is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.