Film Forum

A one-week retrospective commemorating the actor, documentarian and avant-garde filmmaker on the occasion of his centennial, including early acting appearances and feature films spanning documentary, narrative, and hybrid forms, with several new 4K restorations. Over the course of fifty-two years, William (“Bill”) Greaves (1926-2014) created an immense body of work as a producer, writer, director, cinematographer, and editor that documented, reflected on, and celebrated the Black experience. Of his transition from acting to producing and directing, Greaves said he became infuriated by the racially degrading stereotypes that white film producers put on American screens, and it became clear to him that unless Black people began producing their own information for screen and television, there would always be a distortion of the “Black image.”

“Bill was the consummate documentary filmmaker: insightful, thoughtful, probing, a master of diverse and unexpected topics, forever provocative, and forever illuminating.”
– Donale Bogle, award-winning author, film historian and friend of Greaves

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Curated by Ina Archer

Films in this Series