Some filmmakers get a retrospective. A few get a reckoning. William Greaves, born in Harlem in 1926, spent a long career as actor, documentarian, television producer and experimental director, and his reputation has never quite matched the range of what he made. This centenary season at Barbican Cinema, which runs from 21 October to 28 November, is the most serious attempt London has made to fix that.
The centrepiece is Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, the experimental landmark that most people come to him through. Shot in New York's Central Park, it is a film about making a film, in which the crew starts to rebel against its own director while the camera keeps rolling. It remains funny, tense and strangely modern. It screens with an introduction on 27 October and a panel on 7 November, so there are two different ways in.
© William Greaves Productions
Then there is the rest of the picture. Souls of Sin and Miracle in Harlem screen on 35mm on 3 November, and that date deserves a place in the diary for anyone who cares about film as a physical object. The grain, the flicker and the slightly imperfect sound of a print are part of what these titles were made to be.
© William Greaves Productions
The season also shows Greaves from the other side of the camera. Lost Boundaries, from 1949, is a drama in which he acted. It sits well alongside an episode of Black Journal, the television series he helped steer. Taken together they show a man who moved between performance, journalism and formal experiment without treating any of them as a lesser calling.
© William Greaves Productions
Barbican Cinema is a good place for this kind of programme. The screens sit inside a building that gives you somewhere to go before and after: the foyers, the bars and the long concrete terraces are all part of the evening. Come early, have a drink, and leave time to talk afterwards, because Greaves invites argument.
© William Greaves Productions
For planning, pick one anchor date and build around it. The panel on 7 November suits anyone who wants context, and the 35mm evening on 3 November suits anyone who wants texture. If you can only manage one screening, make it Symbiopsychotaxiplasm. Watching it with an audience, in a room that is laughing in the right places, is quite different from watching it alone.
Best for Pick one night and stay for the talk.
