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An explorer for Sir William Mackenzie's Canadian railroad, he mined for ore and mapped areas in Hudson Bay, and founded Flaherty Island in the Belcher archipelago, some 70 km long and 40 km wide.

His documentary Nanook of the North (1922) was sponsored by French fur company Revillon Freres, which provided $50,000 for Flaherty's 16-month expedition halfway to the North Pole. Depsite being rejected by five distributors, the film opened in New York City in 1922, after its success in Paris and Berlin, and grossed well over $40,000 in its first week.

Tells the story of his making of his documentary Nanook of the North (1922) in his book "My Eskimo Friends" (1924).

Upon his death in 1951, poet E.E. Cummings called him "a god among man," and Orson Welles compared him to Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman, describing him as "one of the two or three greatest people who ever worked in the medium.".

Attended Upper Canada College in Toronto and the Michigan College of Mines back in his home state, where he met future wife Frances who shared his interest in music.