Roots to Reality: The Films of William Greaves

The constructions of Black history, the complexities of modern life, and a desire to redefine their representation in film informed William Greaves’s expansive approach to nonfiction filmmaking. Greaves turned to filmmaking out of frustration with the stereotypical roles available to him as a Black theater actor. After training with the National Film Board of Canada, he returned to the United States in the 1960s and became involved with Black Journal, a public television program that covered issues relevant to Black communities across the country; Greaves earned an Emmy for his work on Black Journal in 1969. 

In tandem with the recent release of Once Upon a Time in Harlem, footage of Harlem Renaissance thinkers and creatives shot by Greaves in 1970 and completed after his death by his son, David Greaves, this series provides a snapshot into Greaves’s wide-ranging filmography, including lessons from the archives of Black history, observational studies of class and labor, and experimental manifestos on the nature of documentary filmmaking.  

Roots to Reality: The Films of William Greaves is presented in partnership with Trylon Cinema, which will screen Greaves’s 1972 film Nationtime on February 5 and 6.