William Greaves, one of the most respected independents in the film and television production field, has enjoyed success within the full spectrum of the entertainment arts as, variously, a producer, director, writer, editor, cameraman, actor, dancer, drama teacher and song writer. Hailed as a "Renaissance man" and as "a thoroughly original multi-faceted American artist," Greaves has produced more than 200 documentary films, 8 of which have won more than 70 international film festival awards, an Emmy Award and four Emmy nominations. He is considered the dean of independent black American filmmakers and, through the years, has helped to launch the careers of many young African-American filmmakers.
Greaves' commitment to artistic excellence earned him induction into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1980; the coveted Emmy for his work as executive producer of the classic public affairs network TV series, "Black Journal"; a special "homage" from the first Black American Independent Film Festival in Paris and Joseph Papp's Public Theater in New York; an "Indy" - Special Lifetime Achievement Award - from the Association of independent Video and Filmmakers, in 1986; and special image awards from the NAACP and the National Urban League, among other organizations. In December of 2004, he was honored by the International Documentary Association with a Career Achievement Award, the organization's top award.
A longtime member of the Actors Studio in New York, Greaves was honored by the Studio with its first Dusa award, together with such well-known Studio alumnae as Robert DeNiro, Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Sally Field, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Steve McQueen and Ellen Burstyn, in 1980. From 1969 to 1982, he taught acting for film and television for the late Lee Strasberg at the Strasberg Theater Institute. During this period, Greaves, along with film directors Elia Kazan and Arthur Penn, and actors Lee Grant, Shelley Winters and Eli Wallach, occasionally substituted for Mr. Strasberg as moderator of the acting sessions at the Studio. Greaves has also conducted workshops for film directors and screen actors throughout the United States and abroad.
In addition to the ground-breaking feature film, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, Greaves has produced and directed the classic cinema verite fight movie, Ali The Fighter, starring Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and a 1970's blaxploitation feature, The Marijuana Affair, starring Calvin Lockhart. He was also executive producer of Universal Pictures' hit motion picture, Bustin Loose, starring Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson.
Greaves began his career as a featured actor on Broadway, in television and in films. He formed William Greaves Productions, Inc. in 1968. Among the many outstanding films the company has produced is From These Roots, on the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. The film has won more than 20 film festival awards and is recognized as a classic in African-American history studies. In addition to the production of documentaries, television programs and features, the company distributes its own library of films on video and DVD to universities, libraries, schools and cultural institutions throughout the US.
Many of Greaves' films explore the lives of extraordinary African-Americans, famous and forgotten. Prominent among them is the critically acclaimed, Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice, in which Toni Morrison reads from the diary and writings of the militant Black journalist. The film, which was shown primetime on the PBS network series,"The American Experience," has won more than 20 film festival awards. The award-winning biography, Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey , which Greaves produced, wrote and directed, also premiered primetime on PBS. The 2-hour TV special is narrated by Sidney Poitier. He recently completed a series of 14 short films on Dr. Bunche, the once legendary UN Under Secretary General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, which Mr. Poitier also narrates.
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 ½, Greaves latest film, is the sequel to the critically acclaimed Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, and the second of a series of five Symbio films, all of which were shot in Central Park in the summer of 1968. Additional scenes for the sequel were filmed in November 2003 - with the same lead actors playing the same characters 35 years later. Take 2 ½, which Greaves co-produced with Steven Soderbergh and Steve Buscemi, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2005 and has since been invited to a number of other prestigious international film festivals. Take One is being released theatrically by Janus films and will open at the IFC Center in October 2005.
