William Greaves: Filmmaking as Mission, co-edited by Professor of Art History Scott MacDonald, was recently published by Columbia University Press.
William Greaves’ career spanned more than 50 years during which time he filmed, produced, directed, and wrote more than 100 films, many focused on social issues. His work also included a feature documentary about the championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and films about civil rights figures Ida B. Wells and Ralph Bunche. In 1969 Greaves earned an Emmy for his work as executive producer of National Educational Television’s Black Journal.
In addition to co-editing the book, MacDonald contributed several chapters — “Meta-interview with William Greaves (an Audiobiography),” “Interview with Louise Archambault Greaves,” “Interview with David Greaves,” and “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One Rediscovered: A Conversation with Dara Meyers-Kingsley.”
Assistant Professor of History Celeste Day Moore also contributed a chapter titled “Williams Greaves, Black Journal, and the Long Roots of Black Internationalism.”
MacDonald and his co-editor Jacqueline Najuma Stewart, a University of Chicago professor of cinema and media studies, discussed the book and Greaves’ remarkable work in a recent virtual event hosted by The Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago.
