William Greaves
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- There was also a William M. H. Greaves who was Astronomer Royal for Scotland, 1938-1955.
William Greaves (born in New York City) is a documentary filmmaker and is considered by many to be the "Dean" of African-American filmmakers.
In New York he attended the elite Stuyvesant High School. Interested in drama he studied at The Actor's Studio and had a number of roles on Broadway and in motion pictures. He found that because of his race he was confined to marginal and often insulting roles. He decided the only way to rectify this was to move behind the camera, and he began to take directing classes at the City College of New York. Finding few opportunities in the United States he left for Canada in 1952.
There he accepted an editing position with the National Film Board of Canada, and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the leading members of the Board's renowned Unit B. He left the NFB in 1963, and returned to the United States where he was eager to document the Civil Rights movement. In 1968, after making films for the United Nations and the United States Information Agency, he established his own production company and for the next several decades his films were either produced independently, several for PBS. Between 1968 and 1970, he was Executive Producer and co-host of Black Journal, the first Black-produced news and public affairs series on network television.
His 1968 avant-garde film Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One was released theatrically in 2005 to critical acclaim and, together with its 2005 sequel Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2 executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, was awarded the 2005 Best Experimental film by the National Society of Film Critics.
He has won many awards during his career, including an Emmy for Black Journal.
