American Cinematographer - January 1984 - 39

Rohama Lee

Robert

Flaherty: Free Spirit

A Centennial of the "Father of the

Documentary Film": 1884-1951

1 he life story of Robert Flaherty, American-born ge¬
ologist/mining engineer who became a legendary film¬
maker and began a whole new approach to the art of
the cinema has been recorded and analyzed in many
prestigious and scholarly works by classic screen histo¬
rians. He was known and loved by so many people in
so many places that his death, on July 23rd, 1951, was
lamented worldwide.
In

(May/June, 1976 issue),
publication of the Directors Guild of Amer¬
ica, the noted Hollywood producer-director, Fred Zinneman, remembered:
"I had the enormous good luck to
be Robert Flaherty's assistant for all of six months on a
picture in 1930. I was rather green and impressionable
then and very much in search of a hero I could look up
to; those few months were perhaps the most formative
experience of my life.
"How can one convey the magic of
Flaherty's personality in a few meager words? It wasn't
just that he looked like some people's idea of
God the silver hair atop an enormous head, the pale
blue eyes that would sparkle with sarcastic humor or
blaze with indignation, the smile that would disclose
two rows of discolored teeth (from his ever-present
cigarette). He had a pure Irish charm; someone once
called him 'an Irish poet with a movie camera'." Per¬
haps it is the best description of him.
On the several occasions I was priv¬
ileged to be in Flaherty's presence, 1 was always con¬
scious (perhaps imaginatively?) that there was a deep
sadness lurking behind the animated blue eyes. All the
same, he was the life of every gathering - and there was
always a gathering around Flaherty in whatever place
he happened to be. Few if any filmmakers were as liked
personally as this dynamic "yet simple folk-symbol of
action

the official

-

humble man."
At the
House Club in New

for

big, round table of the Coffee

York, his favorite place in that city

meeting people and for talk, talk, talk, there

much discussion

on

what the

camera

was

could do and

whether education through art was not more valuable
to mankind than the stress placed on science. Lillian
Gish

the

was frequently there, talking about Holywood in
early days of the "silents" when the eye was the

more

important factor in the enjoyment of the motion

picture.

The life of Nanook

Frances

in the wasteland

bound with tales of the Far North, the South Seas,
Indians of India, and of his boyhood. In another, ear¬
lier day and age, he might well have been a wandering
Irish teller of tales. One wonders if the tales he re¬

Huston and France's

Jean Renoir, there

as

were

John

above the Arctic
Circle began Robert
Flaherty's illustrious
career as

"father of

the

documentary
film." (Museum of
Modern Art Film

Stills Archives)

corded for the British Broadcasting Company in
London are still in the BBC's library!
The tale of his own life the saga of
the Robert Flaherty whom John Grierson called "the
father of the documentary film" - began on February
-

16th, 1884, in Iron Mountain, Michigan. His grand¬
come from Ireland via Quebec. There is
little record of the sizable Flaherty family. Of his six
brothers, David is best remembered as an able camera¬
man. After Bob's untimely death at 67, David Flaherty
worked with Mrs. Flaherty on activities to help pre¬
father had

serve

Along with such notables

January 1984

people and gifted women, including Bob's wife,
Flaherty, who worked beside him and who, as
a gifted photographer, discovered those unforgettable
principals: the boy for Man of Aran and the engaging
Cajun lad in Louisiana Story.
Bob Flaherty, a superb conversa¬
tionalist and raconteur, would keep his audience spell¬
young

his brother's memory

his rich

and

to pass

along

some

of

heritage.

always

American

Cinematographer

37
American Cinematographer - January 1984

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