William Greaves is one of the most significant and compelling American filmmakers of the past century. Best known for his experimental film about its own making, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, Greaves was an influential independent documentary filmmaker who produced, directed, shot, and edited more than a hundred films on a variety of social issues and on key African American figures ranging from Muhammad Ali to Ralph Bunche to Ida B. Wells. A multitalented artist, his career also included stints as a songwriter, a member of the Actors Studio, and, during the late 1960s, a producer and cohost of Black Journal, the first national television show focused on African American culture and politics. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of Greaves’s remarkable career. It brings together a wide range of material, including a mix of incisive essays from critics and scholars, Greaves’s own writings, an extensive meta-interview with Greaves, conversations with his wife and collaborator Louise Archambault Greaves and his son David, and a critical dossier on Symbiopsychotaxiplasm. Together, they illuminate Greaves’s mission to use filmmaking as a tool for transforming the ways African Americans were perceived by others and the ways they saw themselves. This landmark book is an essential resource on Greaves’s work and his influence on independent cinema and African-American culture.

ウィリアム・グリーブスは、映像で社会の根底を揺さぶった革命家です。本書が描く彼の本質的な魅力は、実験的な手法を用いて「黒人のアイデンティティ」を再定義しようとする不屈の闘争心にあります。偏見を解体し、真実を掴み取ろうとするその執念は、人種や時代の枠を超えて読む者の魂を激しく揺さぶるでしょう。 傑作「シンバイオサイコタクシプラズム」等の映像作品と、本書の重厚な論考が織りなすシナジーは圧巻です。直感的な映像表現に対し、テキストは緻密な分析で思想的背景を補完し、彼の芸術が持つ多層的な美学を可視化しています。映像と活字の両輪でこそ到達できる、変革のための熱き哲学を鮮烈に体感できる一冊です。