Press Release
William Greaves Film Screening of
Ralph
Bunch: An American Odyssey
"I have a bias that leads me to believe in the essential goodness of my fellow man, which leads me to believe that no problem of human relations is ever insoluble." Ralph J. Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize, 1950
The Black Film Center/Archive and the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies present an evening with Emmy-award winning filmmaker William Greaves. Greaves will be on campus Sunday, October 19, 2003, at 3:00 p.m. in Fine Arts 102 for a screening of Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001), a documentary that focuses on the life of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1903, Bunche was the first person of African descent ever awarded the Nobel Prize. He was recognized with this prestigious honor for the successful negation of a late 1940s peace agreement between warring Arabs and Jews in Palestine. Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier narrates this film that is based upon the biography of Bunche written by Sir Brian Urquhart. The event will be held in Fine Arts, room 102, with a reception immediately following. The event is cosponsored by the Department of History, the Office of International Programs, and the Office of Multicultual Affairs.
The first African American to earn a doctorate in international relations from Harvard, Bunche was a specialist in African colonialism; served as a member of the "Black Cabinet," a U.S. presidential advisory committee on minority issues during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration; served as a member of the U.S. State Department; served with the United Nations as an international mediator, as U.N. Undersecretary for Special Political Affairs, and as U.N. Undersecretary General; and participated in the March on Washington as well as the Selma Montgomery march for black voting rights as part of the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Bunche was also a recipient of the NAACP Spingarn Prize, was a Howard University faculty member, received nearly 40 honorary degrees, and in 1963 was the recipient of the Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, presented to him by President John F. Kennedy. Scholar, statesman, and international diplomat, Ralph Bunche died in 1971.
William Greaves is executive producer of this two-hour award-winning documentary that was an entry in the 2001 Sundance Film Festival after the film first premiered on PBS. Greaves, who began his career as a professional actor, was also executive producer for the Richard Pryor/Cicely Tyson film, Bustin' Loose (1981) as well as Ali The Fighter (1972), and The Marijuana Affair. In addition to his work in feature films, film historian Donald Bogle describes Greaves as the "dean of the independents" citing the filmmaker's non-fictional works that include From These Roots (1974), Still a Brother (1968), Nation Time (1973), and The First World Festival of Negro Arts. Greaves' 1967 film, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, thrilled viewers with its avant-garde take on the filmmaking process itself. Also among Greaves body of work are televised productions that include Booker T. Washington: The Life and Legacy, Frederick Douglass: An American Life, and Black Power in America: Myth or Reality? Greaves received an Emmy nomination for the televised production of Still A Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class. He was also co-host and executive producer of Black Journal, an Emmy-award winning television series. As a professional actor Greaves has appeared on Broadway and played a major role in Lost Boundaries, the 1949 landmark film starring Mel Ferrer and Canada Lee. Inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, recognized at the first Black American Independent Film Festival in Paris, and the recipient of the Special Life Achievement Award of the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Greaves has produced over 200 documentary films which have been recognized with more than 70 international film festival awards, an Emmy, and four Emmy nominations.
Mr. Greaves' visit to Indiana University coincides with the official establishment of The William Greaves Collection at the BFC/A, which will be dedicated to collecting, preserving, and making available his films and related materials to scholars and researchers.
"We are thrilled to welcome William Greaves to Indiana University," says BFC/A Director Audrey T. McCluskey. "As a documentarian of black history, his body of work as a filmmaker is unmatched."
For additional information please access the Black Film Center/Archive website at http://www.indiana.edu/~bfca. This event is free and open to the public.
