Frances Hubbard Flaherty
Flaherty, Frances Hubbard (1883-1972) and Robert Joseph (1884-1951), American film-makers, who contributed greatly to definitions of documentary and ethnographic film. Except for Nanook of the North, made by Robert alone between 1920 and 1922, the major films, Moana of the South Seas (1923-5), Man of Aran (1932-3), The Land (1939-41), and Louisiana Story (1946-8), were made collaboratively. Both Flahertys made still photographs in conjunction with these films.
Robert's Nanook images are true film stills, probably made to record the film-making process. Frances was principal still photographer in Samoa and Ireland, producing extensive studies of each community. These were used during filming as screen tests, storyboards, and illustrations and, later, as aesthetically accomplished and evocative images in their own right. Following Robert's death, Frances worked to establish him as the father of documentary film and the proponent of ‘non-preconceptionism’, a Zenlike state she deemed essential to cinematic creativity. She lectured extensively, published Odyssey of a Film Maker: Robert Flaherty's Story (1960), and established the Flaherty Film Seminars. Major photographic holdings are in MoMA, New York, the National Archives of Canada, and the Robert and Frances Flaherty Study Center, Claremont, California.
— Alison Nordström
Bibliography
- Rotha, P., Robert J. Flaherty (1984)
