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Robert Flaherty

Robert Flaherty

Birthday: 1884-02-16 | Place of Birth: Iron Mountain, Michigan, USA

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.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2025
Cast of Shadows

as    self (archival)

2023
Monica in the South Seas

as    Self (archival footage)

2010
A Boatload of Wild Irishmen

as    Self (archive footage)

1942
The Land

as    Narrator (voice)