Robert Flaherty

Robert Joseph Flaherty February 16 1884 July 23 1951 was an American filmmaker who directed and produced the first commercially successful featurelength 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 Irelands 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 19291968 included him in the pantheon of the 14 greatest film directors who had worked in the United States