Robert Greenwald
Encyclopedia
Robert Greenwald is an American
film director
, film producer
, and political activist.
, the son of Ruth and Harold Greenwald. He attended the city's High School of Performing Arts
. He was active in New York theater, directing the plays Me and Bessie
(1975) and I Have a Dream (1976), a play based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
, with Billy Dee Williams
playing King.
, where he launched a career as a director for television. In 1977, he received his first of three Emmy Award
nominations for producing the television movie 21 Hours at Munich about the massacre at the 1972 Olympics
. His next Emmy nomination came in 1984 for directing The Burning Bed
. During this period he produced or directed many television movies; The New York Times
would later characterize this work as "commercially respectable B-list movies". Later, Greenwald would foray into film directing, including films such as Xanadu
(1980), Breaking Up
(1997) and Steal This Movie!
(2000).
. Greenwald has lectured at Harvard University
for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
and speaks frequently across the country about his work. Since May 2005, Greenwald has been a contributing blogger to The Huffington Post
.
(2002); Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War (2003), which Greenwald also directed; and Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties
.
Greenwald is the founder of Brave New Films
, a liberal
media company that has published documentary films such as Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
(2004), Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
(2006), The Big Buy: Tom Delay's Stolen Congress
, and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
. Greenwald's approach has been to adapt the principles of guerrilla filmmaking
to political documentaries, using small budgets and short shooting schedules to produce films and then distributing them on DVDs or the Internet in affiliation with politically sympathetic groups such as MoveOn.org.
nominations, four CableACE Award
nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award
, the Robert Wood Johnson Award, and eight Awards of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board
. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute
.
For his activism, Greenwald has been honored by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the Los Angeles
chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
, Physicians for Social Responsibility
, the New Roads School, Consumer Attorney’s Association of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the Office of the Americas. He is co-founder (with actor Mike Farrell
) of Artists for Winning Without War, whose purpose is to advance progressive causes and voice opposition to the Iraq War.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
, and political activist.
Early life
Greenwald was born and raised in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the son of Ruth and Harold Greenwald. He attended the city's High School of Performing Arts
High School of Performing Arts
The High School of Performing Arts, more formally known as The School of Performing Arts: A Division of the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, informally known as "PA", was a public alternative high school in New York, New York, USA that existed from 1948 through...
. He was active in New York theater, directing the plays Me and Bessie
Me And Bessie
Me and Bessie is a musical revue about the life and career of blues singer Bessie Smith. The basically one-woman show, conceived and written by Will Holt and Linda Hopkins and performed by Hopkins, features songs by Lil Green, Clarence Williams, Henry Creamer, Andy Razaf, and Jimmy Cox, among...
(1975) and I Have a Dream (1976), a play based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
, with Billy Dee Williams
Billy Dee Williams
William December "Billy Dee" Williams, Jr. is an American actor, artist, singer, and writer.-Early life:Williams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Loretta...
playing King.
Television and feature film career
Greenwald then moved to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where he launched a career as a director for television. In 1977, he received his first of three Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations for producing the television movie 21 Hours at Munich about the massacre at the 1972 Olympics
Munich massacre
The Munich massacre is an informal name for events that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September. Members of Black September...
. His next Emmy nomination came in 1984 for directing The Burning Bed
The Burning Bed
The Burning Bed is a non-fiction book by Faith McNulty about battered Dansville, Michigan, housewife Francine Hughes. It was adapted to a film with screenplay by Rose Leiman Goldemberg. After thirteen years of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, James Berlin Hughes, she set fire to the...
. During this period he produced or directed many television movies; The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
would later characterize this work as "commercially respectable B-list movies". Later, Greenwald would foray into film directing, including films such as Xanadu
Xanadu (film)
Xanadu is a 1980 romantic musical fantasy film written by Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province...
(1980), Breaking Up
Breaking Up (film)
Breaking Up is a 1997 direct-to-video film starring Russell Crowe and Salma Hayek as a couple whose relationship leads to an out of the blue marriage.-Plot:...
(1997) and Steal This Movie!
Steal This Movie!
Steal This Movie is a 2000 American biographical film of 1960s radical figure Abbie Hoffman. It was directed by Robert Greenwald and the screenplay was written by Bruce Graham...
(2000).
Political orientation and career
Various sources have described Greenwald's political activism as left-wingLeft-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
. Greenwald has lectured at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
for the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
Nieman Foundation for Journalism
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in 1938 as the result of a $1 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of The Milwaukee Journal...
and speaks frequently across the country about his work. Since May 2005, Greenwald has been a contributing blogger to The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
.
Documentary work
After Steal This Movie!, Greenwald turned toward making issues-oriented documentary films, and he executive-produced three political documentaries known as "The Un Trilogy": Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential ElectionUnprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election is a 2002 47-minute documentary made by Richard Ray Pérez and Joan Sekler and narrated by Peter Coyote about the contested 2000 presidential election in Florida...
(2002); Uncovered: The Whole Truth About The Iraq War (2003), which Greenwald also directed; and Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties
Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties
Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties is a 2004 political documentary written, produced and directed by Nonny de la Peña and sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, which focuses on what the filmmaker contends is widespread abuse of civil liberties carried out in the wake of the...
.
Greenwald is the founder of Brave New Films
Brave New Films
Brave New Films is a media company founded by filmmaker Robert Greenwald. Viral videos produced by Brave New Films have been widely circulated on the internet, during the 2008 United States presidential election campaign, and generally disparage Republican candidate John McCain and other prominent...
, a liberal
Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political philosophy centered on the unalienable rights of the individual. The fundamental liberal ideals of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion for all belief systems, and the separation of church and state, right to due process...
media company that has published documentary films such as Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism
Outfoxed
Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism is a 2004 documentary film by filmmaker Robert Greenwald that criticises the Fox News Channel, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, claiming that the channel is used to promote and advocate right-wing views...
(2004), Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers
Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is a 2006 documentary film made by Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films about the ongoing Iraq War and the behavior of companies with no-bid contracts working in Iraq....
(2006), The Big Buy: Tom Delay's Stolen Congress
The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress
The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress is a 2006 documentary by Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck that follows the rise of Tom DeLay from a Texas businessman to the Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives...
, and Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is a 2005 documentary film by director Robert Greenwald. The film presents an unfavorable picture of Wal-Mart's business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Wal-Mart executives...
. Greenwald's approach has been to adapt the principles of guerrilla filmmaking
Guerrilla filmmaking
Guerrilla filmmaking refers to a form of independent filmmaking characterized by low budgets, skeleton crews, and simple props using whatever is available...
to political documentaries, using small budgets and short shooting schedules to produce films and then distributing them on DVDs or the Internet in affiliation with politically sympathetic groups such as MoveOn.org.
Recognition
Greenwald's films have garnered 25 Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nominations, four CableACE Award
CableACE Award
The CableACE Award was an award that was given from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in American cable television programming...
nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
, the Robert Wood Johnson Award, and eight Awards of Excellence from the Film Advisory Board
Film Advisory Board
The Film Advisory Board, Inc. is a member-supported organization founded in 1975 by Elayne Blythe . The FAB's "Award of Excellence" was developed to award quality family-oriented and children's entertainment in both print and electronic media.The second division of FAB is the FAB Ratings System...
. He was awarded the 2002 Producer of the Year Award by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
.
For his activism, Greenwald has been honored by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
chapter of the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild is an advocacy group in the United States "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . ....
, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Physicians for Social Responsibility is the largest physician-led organization in the USA working to protect the public from the what they consider threats of nuclear proliferation, climate change, and environmental toxins...
, the New Roads School, Consumer Attorney’s Association of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and the Office of the Americas. He is co-founder (with actor Mike Farrell
Mike Farrell
Michael Joseph "Mike" Farrell is an American actor, best known for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series M*A*S*H . He is an activist for politically liberal causes....
) of Artists for Winning Without War, whose purpose is to advance progressive causes and voice opposition to the Iraq War.
Selected filmography
- 21 Hours at Munich (1977) (producer)
- XanaduXanadu (film)Xanadu is a 1980 romantic musical fantasy film written by Marc Reid Rubel and directed by Robert Greenwald. The title is a reference to the poem "Kubla Khan, or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is quoted in the film. Xanadu is the name of the Chinese province...
(1980) (director) - The Burning BedThe Burning BedThe Burning Bed is a non-fiction book by Faith McNulty about battered Dansville, Michigan, housewife Francine Hughes. It was adapted to a film with screenplay by Rose Leiman Goldemberg. After thirteen years of domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, James Berlin Hughes, she set fire to the...
(1984) (director) - Shattered SpiritsShattered SpiritsShattered Spirits is a 1986 movie starring Martin Sheen. Sheen plays an alcoholic father who loses his family....
(1986) (director) - Sweet Hearts DanceSweet Hearts DanceSweet Hearts Dance is a 1988 American comedy drama film directed by Robert Greenwald. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson centers on two small town couples, one married for several years and the other at the beginning of their relationship....
(1988) - Hear No EvilHear No Evil (film)Hear No Evil is a 1993 thriller film about a deaf woman who falls foul of a corrupt police officer looking for a stolen coin that has been hidden in the woman's apartment. The film stars Marlee Matlin, D. B. Sweeney, Ice-T, and Martin Sheen. It was released by 20th Century Fox on March 26, 1993....
(director) - Breaking UpBreaking Up (film)Breaking Up is a 1997 direct-to-video film starring Russell Crowe and Salma Hayek as a couple whose relationship leads to an out of the blue marriage.-Plot:...
(1997) (director/producer) - Steal This Movie (2000) (director/producer)
- Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential ElectionUnprecedented: The 2000 Presidential ElectionUnprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election is a 2002 47-minute documentary made by Richard Ray Pérez and Joan Sekler and narrated by Peter Coyote about the contested 2000 presidential election in Florida...
(2002) (executive producer) - Uncovered: The War on IraqUncovered: The War on IraqUncovered: The War on Iraq is a 2004 documentary directed by Robert Greenwald that deals with the media treatment of the developing push for an invasion of Iraq in the early 2000s and the eventual 2003 Invasion of Iraq...
(2004) (director/producer) - Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil LibertiesUnconstitutional: The War on Our Civil LibertiesUnconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties is a 2004 political documentary written, produced and directed by Nonny de la Peña and sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union, which focuses on what the filmmaker contends is widespread abuse of civil liberties carried out in the wake of the...
(2004) (executive producer) - Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism (2004) (director/producer)
- Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low PriceWal-Mart: The High Cost of Low PriceWal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price is a 2005 documentary film by director Robert Greenwald. The film presents an unfavorable picture of Wal-Mart's business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Wal-Mart executives...
(2005) (director/producer) - Stop The Falsiness (2006) (executive producer)
- The Big Buy: Tom Delay's Stolen Congress (2006) (producer)
- Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (2006) (director/producer)
- "The Real McCain" (2007) (director/producer)
- "Fox Attacks: Black America" (2007) (director/producer)
- "Fox Attacks: Obama" (2007) (director/producer)
- "Fox Attacks: Iran" (2007) (director/producer)
- The REAL RudyThe REAL RudyThe REAL Rudy is a series of four viral videos by documentary film director and activist Robert Greenwald.The videos criticize former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's preparedness for, and handling of, the September 11, 2001 attacks. They were released on September 4 and September 6, 2007. ...
(2007) (director) - "Fox Attacks: DecencyFox Attacks: DecencyFox Attacks: Decency is a 2007 viral video produced by Robert Greenwald, a political documentary director. It was produced by Brave New Films.It attacks what it asserts is Fox News' gratuitous use of sexual images and topics on its shows...
" (2007) (director) - "Fox Attacks: The Environment" (2007) (director)
- "Rethink AfghanistanRethink AfghanistanRethink Afghanistan is a 2009 documentary about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. This full-length documentary campaign features experts from Afghanistan, the U.S., and Russia among others discussing critical issues like military escalation, how escalation will affect Pakistan and the surrounding...
" (2009) (director) - Sick for Profit (2009) (director)
External links
- Robert Greenwald official website
- Brave New Films official website
- Robert Greenwald's youtube account
- Robert Greenwald's site on Rudy Giuliani
- Brave New Film's Young Turks page
- Rethink Afghanistan official website
- Sick for Profit - video report by Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...