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Robert J. Flaherty

American documentary filmmaker (1884-1951) · United States · On the map · Directors · Died at 67

Robert Joseph Flaherty was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, Nanook of the North (1922).

Robert J. Flaherty is read about 107 times a day, in 37 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 10 November 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 112 days, one point a day.

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A life in dates

1951Died23 July 19511950The Titan: Story of MichelangeloFilm, Director, Producer1949GuernicaFilm, Director1948Louisiana StoryFilm, Director, Writer1937Elephant BoyFilm, Director1935A Night of StorytellingFilm, Director1934Man of AranFilm, Director, Writer1933The English PotterFilm, Director1928White Shadows in the South SeasFilm, Director1927Twenty-Four Dollar IslandFilm, Director, Producer1926MoanaFilm, Director, Writer1922Nanook of the NorthFilm, Director, Writer1916The EskimoFilm, Director1884Born16 February 1884
  • Man of Aran 1934
  • Tabu: A Story of the South Seas 1931
  • Nanook of the North 1922
  • Louisiana Story 1948

People around Robert

Filmography 19

48 credits on file

Awards

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

About this person

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.

Country
United States
Category
Directors
Type
Movie Director
Status
Deceased
Dates
Lived 1884 to 1951 · aged 67

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