About William Greaves and Louise Greaves

The complex career of William Greaves (1926-2014) remains among the most productive and diverse in the annals of American cultural history. Growing up in a working-class West Indian immigrant family in Harlem as the cultural Renaissance of the 1920’s turned into the long Depression of the 1930’s, Greaves was able to defy social, racial and economic barriers to become one of the most prolific documentary filmmakers of his era.

His involvement in the arts began long before he picked up a camera for the first time. By the late 1940s, Greaves was a successful songwriter whose songs were being recorded by major recording artists, a dancer performing with Pearl Primus at Carnegie Hall, and an actor in hit Broadway productions. In 1948 he was accepted into the Actors Studio, where he studied under Daniel Mann, Elia Kazan, and Lee Strasberg. Greaves had featured roles in several of the last independent Black-cast “race movies” in the late 1940’s (The Fight Never Ends, Miracle in Harlem, and Souls of Sin), and in the Hollywood “problem picture,” Lost Boundaries.

As to why he made the transition to film production, the best explanation for that comes from Greaves himself:

“I think probably the central reason why I got involved in film production in general and documentary production in particular was that I had the very good fortune of studying African history. That wasn’t something most Black Americans were familiar with back in the 1950s and 1960s. I was fortunate to study with a wonderful teacher, William Leo Hansberry, a professor from Howard University. He was the ranking authority on African history in North America. I became very aware that there was a history of black people that pre-dates slavery. Slavery is the only history that had been taught in America pertaining to blacks; before that, it was assumed we were a bunch of savages running around in the jungle.

I became outraged at the fact that the African-American was misled by the American educational system, by the American media. I became outraged that white Americans were being misinformed about the true nature of who these people of color were. This was a very disturbing experience to me and I said to myself: ‘I should be on the other side of the camera. I should not be in front of the camera, acting and playing various roles, and speaking lines of various authors. Why don’t I get into the production area and tell the truth about people of color?’ I realized that the true story of people of color had not been told. Of course, the documentary was clearly a marvelous instrument by which this story could be conveyed. And I had the good fortune of having read John Grierson’s book, Grierson on Documentary, just about the time that all this ferment was taking place in my thinking, and I said, ‘My God, this is a wonderful, excellent way to pursue a method of consciousness raising, not only among black and white Americans, but among people of all kinds everywhere.’”

Unable to break through the racial barriers in the film industry in the United States, he left the country to train at the National Film Board of Canada. Greaves honed his craft by working in one capacity or another on any and every production he could join. He eventually became chief editor of Unit B, which produced the first cinéma-vérité documentaries in North America, while keeping his lifelong interest in the theater alive by conducting workshops in method acting technique for directors and actors.

After a decade of exile, the opportunity to return home came as racial barriers to employment in the media began to break down under pressure from the early Civil Rights movement. His years of training at the National Film Board of Canada meant that Greaves was well-prepared to capture the historic changes that were taking place across the country. In 1963, together with his wife and lifelong partner Louise Archambault, Greaves moved back to the United States, where they raised their family and he began his long and prolific career as an independent filmmaker.

Starting out as a staff producer for the United Nations television, he would then go on to independently produce, write, and direct dozens of award-winning films for public television, educational and governmental institutions and for socially progressive corporate and non-profit organizations, creating a body of work that explored many of the crucial events of the period as well as major figures in African-American history, culture, and politics. In 1970, Greaves was awarded an Emmy for his work as executive producer of NET’s pioneering television series, Black Journal, the first Black-produced series to be nationally broadcast on American television.

From the outset, Greaves was interested in making films that raised consciousness. As he would say later, “I’d rejected the idea of going out to Hollywood. It felt like working out there would be like working on a plantation: you had to answer to the Man for everything you did. We had a different mission.” Greaves did go to Hollywood to executive produce the Richard Pryor/Cecily Tyson comedy Bustin’ Loose. He also incorporated narrative into several of his films, including the Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass biographies, but he is known primarily for his documentary work and increasingly for his ground-breaking Symbiopsychotaxiplasm films.

The 52-year filmmaking career of Greaves has resulted in an immense, multi-faceted body of work that includes From These Roots (1974), a poetic evocation of the Harlem Renaissance; Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class (1968), a 90 minute Emmy-nominated special for NET, The Fight (1971), the feature documentary about the championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier (a shorter version was released theatrically in 1974 as The Fighters); Nationtime – Gary (1973), the only in-depth documentation of the national Black political convention held in Gary, Indiana in 1972; Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice (1989), an homage to the pioneering African American journalist, anti-lynching crusader and leader in the women’s suffrage movement; Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001), an epic exploration of the contributions of Nobel Laureate Ralph Bunche; and Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One and Take 2 ½ (1971, 2005), two break through feature films that explore the creative process involved in filmmaking, acting and directing; and dozens more films, many of which garnered multiple awards from national and international film festival awards. In 2015, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One was one of the 25 films selected that year to be added to the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress, whose mission is “to ensure the survival, conservation, and increased public availability of America’s film heritage.”
–Adapted from the Preface by Scott MacDonald in William Greaves: Filmmaking as Mission (Columbia University Press, 2021)

In addition to awards for specific films, Greaves also received numerous other awards and honors, beginning with the Russwurm Award in 1970 from the National Association of Black Journalists. In 1980 he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and was also the recipient of a special homage at the first Black American Independent Film Festival in Paris. In 1986, Greaves received an “Indy”—the special Life Achievement Award—from the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. In 2001, he was honored by the National Black Theater and Film Festival with its first award for Lifelong Achievement in Film and for Contributions to Black Theater. That same year, Greaves also received the Distinguished Documentary Maker Award from the New York Film/Video Council and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Motion Picture and TV Producers. In 2004, the International Documentary Association awarded Greaves their Career Award, and in 2006, he was honored with the Africana Heritage Award from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

VIDEO & RADIO INTERVIEWS

Madeline Anderson Remembers Bill Greaves – Madeline Anderson remembers her friend and colleague William Greaves at a Memorial Tribute at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. April 30, 2015

Discovering William Greaves
A featurette about the making of the Symbiopsychotaxiplasm films. (Criterion Collection, 2006, 61 minutes)

William Greaves talks with NPR’s Tony Cox about the revival of Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (air date: January 26, 2005.) (No longer available.)

Soderbergh Takes ‘Sequel’ to Theaters : Listen to William Greaves, Steven Soderbergh and Steve Buscemi talk about Symbiopsychotaxiplasm on NPR’s All Things Considered with Pat Dowell (air date: January 23, 2005.)

The Collegium Forum: William Greaves & Audrey Henningham
A discussion with Greaves and actress Audrey Henningham, who appears in Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½. (Fountainhead, 2004, 59 minutes)

Speaking Freely: William Greaves
Greaves discusses his life and career with a focus on his decisions to make films about Ida B. Wells and Ralph Bunche. (Speaking Freely, 2002, 26 minutes)

The Black Experience in Cinema
A brief history of black cinema featuring interviews with Greaves and filmmaker Robert Townsend. (Turner Classic Movies, perhaps 2002, 6 minutes).

Television in America: An Autobiography – “William Greaves” was episode 8 of the PBS series produced and hosted by Steven Scheuer on PBS. Recorded December 16, 2002.
No longer available online.

Article and three short videos:
William Greaves discusses his film, ‘Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One’
William Greaves discusses his film ‘Voice of La Raza’ and his experience with actor Anthony Quinn
Short excerpts from an interview with Greaves
(The History Makers, perhaps around 2001, 4 minutes & 2 minutes)

African American Legends: William Greaves, Documentary Filmmaker
Greaves talks about his beginning as a filmmaker and his desire to show through images the struggle African Americas have endured. (CUNY TV, 1994, 29 minutes)

MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, 1991: “New Jack Cinema”
An episode of the ABC nightly news report with journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault interviewing several black directors about the so-called “New Jack Cinema.” Guests included William Greaves, Warrington Hudlin, Reginald Hudlin, Mario van Peebles, Neema Barnette and John Singleton. The show aired on August 16, 1991.