Robert Flaherty

Robert Joseph Flaherty February 16 1884 July 23 1951 was an American filmmaker who made the first commercially successful featurelength documentary Nanook of the North 1922 which solidified his reputation and was never able to be equaled in its success although he continued 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 Flaherty was married to writer Frances Hubbard from 1914 until his death in 1951 Hubbard worked on several of her husbands films and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story for Louisiana Story 1948