Director

Robert Flaherty

Directing

Career Snapshot

Explained

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Directed credits

Active

Regular directing credits.

TMDB popularity

3.9

Moderate attention

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Directed movies: 14Directed series: 0All crew credits: 17

TMDB ID: 10092

IMDb ID: nm0280904

Known for: Directing

Born: February 16, 1884

Died: July 23, 1951

Age: 67

Place of birth: Iron Mountain, Michigan, USA

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1922 - 2025

Years active: 104

Average TMDB rating: 6.72

Wikidata: Q263148

Also known as

Robert Joseph Flaherty • R.J. Flaherty • Flaherty • Robert J. Flaherty

Frequent jobs

Director (9)Director of Photography (4)Co-Director (1)In Memory Of (1)Producer (1)Writer (1)

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Biography

Robert Joseph Flaherty (February 16, 1884 – July 23, 1951) was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, Nanook of the North (1922). The film made his reputation and nothing in his later life fully equaled its success, although he continued the development of this new genre of narrative documentary with Moana (1926), set in the South Seas, and Man of Aran (1934), filmed in Ireland's Aran Islands. Flaherty is considered the "father" of both the documentary and the ethnographic film. Andrew Sarris in his influential book of film criticism The American Cinema: Directors and Directions 1929–1968 included him in the "pantheon" of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States.

Movies