As Director, As Writer
Louisiana Story
1948
6.4
Robert Flaherty
Acting
Birth date
February 16, 1884
Birth place
Iron Mountain, Michigan, USA
Death date
July 23, 1951
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.
Featured in
As Actor, As Director, As Writer
The Land
1942
7.0
As Director
The Titan: Story of Michelangelo
1938
6.1
As Director
Elephant Boy
1937
6.6
As Director, As Writer
Man of Aran
1934
7.2
As Writer
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas
1931
7.1
As Director, As Writer
Moana
1926
6.6
As Director
The Pottery Maker
1925
6.0
As Director, As Writer
Nanook of the North
1922
7.1