William Greaves Collection, 1968-2003
A Guide to his Holdings at the Black Film Center/Archive
Finding aid prepared by Mary Huelsbeck/Hannah
Caproon/Gabriel Gardner/Stacey Doyle
Summary Information
Repository
Black Film
Center/Archive
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library, Room 044
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-6041
Fax: 812-856-5832
Email: bfca@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/~bfca
Creator
William Greaves
TitleWilliam Greaves Collection, 1968-2003
Collection No.
Special Collection WG
Extent
1 box
Language
Materials are in English
Abstract
Writings, speeches, promotional
materials, clippings, and information about the documentary film pursuits of William
Greaves.
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research.
Biographical Note
The word multidimensional can be used to describe William Greaves, who has played the
role of executive producer, director, producer, writer, editor and sound technician,
cameraman, dancer, drama teacher, and Broadway actor.
Greaves was born on October 8, 1925 in Harlem.
Growing up in Harlem, Greaves took up drawing at the age of four. At the age of
fourteen he was considered one of the seventy-five best artists in the state of New
York and received a scholarship to study in a special art course at the Little Red
Schoolhouse in Greenwich Village. While Greaves attended Frederick Douglass Junior
High School he began composing songs and studying trumpet. Greaves' heart was set on
the music and the arts, but his more practical-minded father convinced him to go to
Stuyvesant High School, which was a prestigious science oriented school. While at
Stuyvesant, Greaves was on the varsity basketball team, an artist for the school
newspaper, a member of the scholastic honor society Arista, and in 1980 he was awarded the distinguished alumni achievement.
Greaves graduated in the top ten percent of his class and went on to City College.
Greaves studied engineering for a year and a half at City College and took up dance
while he was there. Greaves left City College in 1944 and
joined the African Dance Company of Sierre Leone. Next he was accepted into the
renowned Pearl Primus Dance Troupe, and then the American Negro Theater. Greaves'
first performance with the American Negro Theatre was in the role of Beles/Blues boy
in Owen Dodson's
Garden of Time. He received rave
reviews from New York critics for that performance. Greaves performed in other
Broadway plays and acted alongside Sidney Poitier and Anthony Quinn, and also won
membership into the Actors Studio.
In the 1950's Greaves became infuriated by the negative
stereotype of African Americans that was presented on television and Broadway so he
stepped away from acting and got behind the camera. Greaves studied film production
at the New Institute for Film with Hans Richter at the Film Institute of City
College. At the same time he studied African history at the Schomburg Center and the
Ethiopian Library with William Leo Hansberry. Greaves had trouble finding support at
this point until Louis De Rochemont, who directed him in
Lost
Boundaries
, gave him an apprenticeship. In 1961 Greaves was offered a position with the United Nations as Public
Information Officer with their International Civil Aviation Organization in Canada.
He left the United Nations in 1964 when the United States
Information Agency asked him to make a film for them. Also in 1964, Greaves started William Greaves Production Inc.
Greaves has produced over 200 documentary films, won more then 70 international film
festival awards, an Emmy award as executive producer of
Black
Journal
and received four Emmy nominations. Greaves is also the winner of
special image awards from the NAACP and the National Urban League as well as
recipient of an Indy Special Life Achievement Award from the Association of
Independent Video and Filmmakers. He was honored at The Actors Studio with the Dusa
Award along with Robert DeNiro, Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Sally Field, Rod Steiger,
Dustin Hoffman, Estelle Parsons and Ellyn Burstyn in 1980. Also in that year, he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of
Fame and received a special homage at the first Black American Independent Film
Festival in Paris.
Scope and Content Note
The William Greaves collection serves to capture the impact that William Greaves has
had on documentary filmmaking in the United States and covers the period of 1968-2003. The collection consists of
five series:
Black Journal, Clippings, Photographs,
Promotional Materials, and Writing and Speeches.
Black
Journal
contains information about the groundbreaking television series
produced and co-hosted by Greaves. Material in the Clippings series is arranged
chronologically and includes reviews and analyses of Greaves' films, interviews of
Greaves, and articles in general about the filmmaker and his works. The Photographs
series contains images of Greaves and promotional materials from his films
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
(1968) and
Ralph Bunche: An
American Odyssey
(2001). The
Promotional Materials series is arranged chronologically and consists of posters,
pamphlets, advertisements, press kits, and miscellaneous materials that promote
Greaves' body of work. The Writings and Speeches series is also arranged chronically
and is made up of articles Greaves has written about films and filmmaking as well as
transcripts and a program for speeches that he has given.
For a detailed inventory of each series, please ask the archives' staff.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The collection was donated in October 2003.
Usage Restrictions
Photocopying permitted only with permission of the Archivist.
Preferred Citation
[item], William Greaves Collection, Special Collection WG, Black Film
Center/Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Processing Information
Processed by BFC/A Staff.
Collection Inventory
Series:
Black Journal, 1968-1970
Folders
1-3
Series:
Clippings, 1970-2001 , undated
Folders
4-31
Series:
Photographs, 1969-2001 , undated
Folders
32-44
Series:
Promotional Materials, 1969-2001 , undated
Folders
45-54
Series:
Writings and Speeches, 1968-2001
Folders
55-65