Robert Greene (filmmaker)

Last updated
Robert Greene
Robert Greene director.jpg
Born (1976-05-25) May 25, 1976 (age 48)
Charlotte, North Carolina
Occupation(s)Film director, Editor, Producer, Professor
Years active2002–present

Robert Greene (born May 25, 1976) is an American documentary filmmaker, editor, and writer. His documentaries include Procession , Bisbee '17 , Kate Plays Christine , Actress , and Fake It So Real . He was named one of the 10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2014 by The Independent , [1] and is "filmmaker-in-chief" at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri, beginning in 2015. [2]

Contents

Life and career

Robert Greene was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He received his bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University in 2000, majoring in Communication and Multidisciplinary Film Studies. He received his M.F.A. in Media Arts Studies at City College of New York. During his studies in New York, he worked at Kim's Video. In 2002, Robert Greene began working at 4th Row Films, starting as freelance editor. In 2004 he began working a full-time as a post-production supervisor. During this time, he worked with producers Douglas Tirola and Susan Bedusa on films including All In: The Poker Movie (2008), Making the Boys (2011), and An Omar Broadway Film (2008). While he was at 4th Row, Robert Greene directed and produced Owning the Weather (2009) and Kati with an I (2010).

In 2011 he released Fake It So Real, his third feature as director, a documentary following a Lincolnton, North Carolina independent wrestling group over the week leading up to a big show. [3] In 2012 he left 4th Row Films to work on independent projects. In 2014 he directed Actress , a documentary about actress Brandy Burre as she attempts to return to her acting career after abandoning it to concentrate on raising a family. [4] In 2016 he directed Kate Plays Christine , a more experimental work [5] depicting actress Kate Lyn Sheil's preparations to portray the role of Christine Chubbuck, a real-life news reporter who took her own life on national television in 1974.

In 2021, Robert Greene premiered Procession at the Telluride Film Festival where it was acquired by Netflix. Procession follows six men who suffered sexual abuse by Catholic priests band together to become a makeshift family, and find empowerment by creating fictional scenes depicting rituals of power in the church. The film was nominated for at the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature [6] at the Independent Spirit Awards and shortlisted by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the for best documentary at the 94th Academy Awards. [7]

Robert Greene has worked with Sean Price Williams and Alex Ross Perry, having edited Perry's feature film Listen Up Philip , [8] as well as Amanda Rose Wilder's Approaching the Elephant, [9] Nick Berardini's Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle , [10] and Robert Kolodny's The Featherweight . [11] In 2015 Robert Greene was appointed filmmaker-in-chief at the new Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. He is also an assistant professor in their Journalism and Film Studies programs.

He is a writer, critic and reviewer, contributing regularly to Sight & Sound [12] as well as to other print and online publications including Filmmaker , [13] Criterion, [14] and Criticwire . Present Tense: Notes on American Nonfiction Cinema 1998-2013, his first book, is slated for release by The Critical Press for July 2015. [15]

Influences

Robert Greene cites a variety of filmmakers and directors as influences for his work, including Frederick Wiseman, Albert and David Maysles, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jean-Luc Godard, John Cassavetes, and Kon Ichikawa. Robert Greene has called Peter Watkins' Edvard Munch his favorite film of all time. [16]

For Actress , Robert Greene was interested in Wiseman and Douglas Sirk for their mastery of visuals and definitive style, on how their influence could be incorporated in telling Burre's story. [17]

Filmography

As director

As editor

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Downey Sr.</span> American filmmaker and actor (1936–2021)

Robert John Downey Sr. was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He was known for writing and directing his underground film Putney Swope (1969), a satire on the New York Madison Avenue advertising world. According to film scholar Wheeler Winston Dixon, Downey's films during the 1960s were "strictly take-no-prisoners affairs, with minimal budgets and outrageous satire, effectively pushing forward the countercultural agenda of the day." He was the father of the renowned American movie superstar Robert Downey Jr.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lance Acord</span> American cinematographer (born 1964)

Lance Acord is an American cinematographer and film director. He is best known for his work on the films, Buffalo '66 (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Lost in Translation (2003).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Lyon</span> American photographer and filmmaker (born 1942)

Danny Lyon is an American photographer and filmmaker.

<i>Elephant Boy</i> (film) 1937 British film

Elephant Boy is a 1937 British adventure film starring Indian-born actor Sabu in his film debut. Documentary filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty, who produced some of the Indian footage, and supervising director Zoltan Korda, who completed the film, won the Best Director Award at the Venice Film Festival. The film was made at the London Films studios at Denham, and in Mysore, India, and is based on the story "Toomai of the Elephants" from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Gibney</span> American film director and producer (born 1953)

Philip Alexander Gibney is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time."

Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by ultra-low micro budgets, skeleton crews, and limited props using whatever resources, locations and equipment is available. The genre is named in reference to guerrilla warfare due to these techniques typically being used to shoot quickly in real locations without obtaining filming permits or providing any other sort of warning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neil Burger</span> American filmmaker

Neil Norman Burger is an American filmmaker. He is known for the fake-documentary Interview with the Assassin (2002), the period drama The Illusionist (2006), Limitless (2011), and the sci-fi action film Divergent (2014).

Brandy Burre is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Theresa D'Agostino on the HBO series The Wire.

The Principle is a 2014 American independent film produced by Rick DeLano and Robert Sungenis. It rejects the Copernican principle and supports the long-superseded notion and pseudoscientific principle that Earth is at the center of the universe. The film is narrated by Kate Mulgrew and features scientists such as Lawrence M. Krauss and Michio Kaku. Mulgrew and scientists who were interviewed in the film have repudiated the ideas advocated in the film and stated that their involvement was the result of being misled by the filmmaker.

Daniel Junge is an American documentary filmmaker. On February 26, 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film Saving Face, which he co-directed along with Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ArgoFilms</span> Documentary film company

ArgoFilms is a production company specializing in documentary filmmaking. Established in 1990, ArgoFilms has received six Emmy Awards, a duPont-Columbia Award for Journalism, four Genesis Awards, and over one hundred other awards internationally.

George Thengummoottil is an Indian filmmaker and editor. He has also DIT for the 2022 Academy award winning documentary The Elephant Whisperers. His films have been nominated for several film festivals like International Documentary and short-film festival of Kerala and CMS Vatavaran film festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Tirola</span> American film director

Douglas Tirola, also known as Doug Tirola, is an American filmmaker and writer who has worked as a director, executive producer and a producer. He is the owner and president of 4th Row Films, a movie and television production company. Tirola's work includes A Reason to Believe (1995), Hey Bartender (2013) and National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead (2015).

Actress is a 2014 American documentary film about actress Brandy Burre, directed, edited and photographed by Robert Greene. The film was produced by Douglas Tirola and Susan Bedusa, and is a 4th Row Films and Prewar Cinema production. It was distributed by The Cinema Guild.

Sean Price Williams is an American cinematographer and film director. Williams is known for his work as a cinematographer, frequently collaborating with Alex Ross Perry and the Safdie Brothers. He made his directorial feature film debut with The Sweet East (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Scott (director)</span> British filmmaker, painter, draughtsman and printmaker

James Scott is a British filmmaker, painter, draughtsman and printmaker.

<i>Kate Plays Christine</i> 2016 American film

Kate Plays Christine is a 2016 American documentary film written and directed by Robert Greene. It follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil's preparation for the role of Christine Chubbuck, a newscaster who committed suicide on live television in 1974, for a fictitious film. It is one of the two films about Chubbuck that premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, the other being Christine.

<i>Bisbee 17</i> 2018 film

Bisbee '17 is a 2018 American film directed by Robert Greene. Partially documentary and partially based on a true story Western, it reflects on the events of the 1917 Bisbee Deportation, 100 years later; it is set in Bisbee, Arizona, both in 1917 and 2017.

<i>Procession</i> (film) 2021 American documentary film

Procession is a 2021 American documentary film, directed and edited by Robert Greene. It follows six men, who suffered abuse by priests, looking for peace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Kolodny (filmmaker)</span> American filmmaker

Robert Kolodny is an American film director, writer and cinematographer. His 2023 debut feature film, The Featherweight, premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

References

  1. ↑ Archambault, Sara. "10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2014: Bobbie G - Independent Magazine." Independent Magazine. May 11, 2014.
  2. ↑ "University of Missouri School of Journalism." Noted Documentary Filmmaker Joins the Missouri School of Journalism Faculty. August 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Fake It So Real (2011) - IMDb". IMDb . Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Actress (2014) - IMDb". IMDb . Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  5. ↑ Hynes, Eric (July 2016). "Kate Plays Christine and the New Journalism". Film Comment . Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  6. ↑ "These are the 2022 Film Independent Spirit Awards Nominees". Film Independent. 2021-12-14.
  7. ↑ "94TH OSCARS® SHORTLISTS IN 10 AWARD CATEGORIES ANNOUNCED". Oscars.org. 2021-12-21.
  8. ↑ "Full Cast & Crew." IMDb.
  9. ↑ "Filmmakers | Approaching the Elephant." Approaching the Elephant.
  10. ↑ "Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle | Tribeca Film Festival."Tribeca.
  11. ↑ "Willie Pep Boxing Biopic Starring James Madio, Keir Gilchrist & Ron Livingston Set To Enter The Ring". deadline.com. 2021-09-29.
  12. ↑ "Bobbie G". Sight & Sound . Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  13. ↑ Greene, Robert. "Bobbie G | Filmmaker Magazine." Filmmaker Magazine.
  14. ↑ Greene, Robert. "Hoop Dreams: The Real Thing." Hoop Dreams: The Real Thing. March 15, 2015.
  15. ↑ Greene, Robert. Present Tense: Notes On American Nonfiction Cinema, 1998-2013. Drescher, PA: Criterion Press, 2015.
  16. ↑ Greene, Robert, and Joshua Handler. "Roboapocalypse: From the Mouths of Filmmakers: Bobbie G." Roboapocalypse. November 3, 2014.
  17. ↑ Greene, Robert, and Joshua Handler. "Roboapocalypse: From the Mouths of Filmmakers: Bobbie G." Roboapocalypse. November 3, 2014.
  18. ↑ Chang September 25, 2018, Justin. "Review: Bobbie G's 'Bisbee '17' hauntingly explores the memory of a small-town tragedy". Los Angeles Times . For all its teasing intellectual layers, "Bisbee '17" is fairly unambiguous about where it stands. Its most persuasive arguments frame the conflict as a case of human rights being devoured by an unholy maw of rapacious capitalism and undisguised xenophobia. ... Bobbie G frames his subjects with sly formal detachment, often keeping them at a visual distance and letting the camera run for several moments before or after someone has spoken. ... If that makes "Bisbee '17" sound like a curious, hyper-alliterative fusion of Bertolt Brecht and Busby Berkeley, its experimentation never feels forced or alienating. On the contrary, one of the pleasurable discoveries of this continually surprising movie is that artifice can be the most direct route to the truth.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.