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Robert Greenwald
Robert Greenwald (born August 28, 1945) is an United States|American film director, film producer, and political activist, noted in the 2000s for his documentary film|documentaries critical of Fox News and of the George W. Bush administration, as well as numerous award-winning television movies from the 1980s and 1990s.
Early life
Greenwald was born and raised in New York City, the son of Ruth and Harold Greenwald.[ ]
Television and feature film career
Greenwald then moved to Los Angeles, where he launched a successful 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 Munich massacre|massacre at the 1972 Olympics. His next Emmy nomination came in 1984 for directing ''The Burning Bed'', the critically-acclaimed television movie starring Farrah Fawcett about domestic abuse. 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".[ ]Years later, he returned to making features, producing and directing ''Breaking Up (film)|Breaking Up'' (1997), starring Salma Hayek and Russell Crowe, as well as ''Steal This Movie!'' (2000), the well-received biopic of 1960s and 1970s activist Abbie Hoffman.
Documentary work
After ''Steal This Movie!'', Greenwald turned toward making issues-oriented documentary films, most notably ''Outfoxed|Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism'' (2004). His 2006 full-length documentary, ''Iraq For Sale|Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers'', examines corporate business and profits behind the War in Iraq. Greenwald was also the director and producer of ''Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price'' (2005), about the impact the retail chain has had on American communities. Greenwald's approach has been to adapt the principles of guerrilla filmmaking to political documentaries, using small budgets and short shooting schedules to produce timely filmsVideos on 2008 presidential candidates
After producing theatrical and TV movies for several decades, Greenwald became interested in the potential of Internet videos, published on YouTube, to reach a global audience, with much lower production costs. Greenwald said:
We did have an a-ha moment. I’d finished the film ''Iraq for Sale'', which is about war profiteering. We took a little piece, based on an ad that Halliburton had out. We hacked their ad, changed it around, and used it to tell people to watch ''Iraq for Sale.'' We put it on this new thing called YouTube. In three days, there were 11,000 views. I was staggered. People found it, and we didn’t do anything.
During the United States presidential election, 2008|2008 U.S. presidential campaign, Greenwald has made a series of short viral videos, the first of which are "Fox Attacks: Obama" and "The Real McCain". The former video was seen 225,000 times on its first week on YouTube.[http://www.thedailyreel.com/news-opinion/news/when-fox-attacks-greenwald-fights-back-with-viral-politicking]
On September 4, 2007, he issued the first of four additional viral videos, called ''The REAL Rudy'', targeting what Greenwald claims are myths surrounding the reputation and record of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and his handling of the September 11, 2001 attacks.[http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ge9wD9CrNPF9ONZFl8tfr5H1x7Bg] The credits page offers "very special thanks" to activist Sally Regenhard, who is a mother of a New York firefighter killed in the September 11 attacks.[The REAL Rudy] Released installments include "The Real Rudy: Command Center"[http://therealrudy.org/blog/12023-the-real-rudy-command-center] and "The Real Rudy: Mistakes in 30 Seconds".[http://therealrudy.org/blog/11777-the-real-rudy-mistakes-in-30-seconds]
On May 18, 2008, he released The Real McCain 2. Within a week the video had attracted over 1.2 million views on youtube alone.
Greenwald has also made short videos on other subjects, such as 2007's "Fox Attacks: The Environment", which garnered 380,000 YouTube views in its first three weeks and was used as part of a campaign to get Home Depot to withdraw advertising from Fox News. Recognition and criticism
Greenwald's films have garnered 25 Emmy Award 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.
In 2008, Greenwald produced an ad for Brave New PAC and Democracy for America attacking Senator John McCain's refusal to release his medical records and pointing out the statistical probability of a reoccurrence of skin cancer and possible death. The ad aired on MSNBC September 25th and 26th 2008, before being pulled due to "viewer complaints" (according to Brave New PAC spokesperson Leighton Woodhouse) and after Bill O'Reilly unleashed an on-air tirade over the ad.[FOXNews.com - Is '24' Hurting Muslims? - Bill O’Reilly | The O’Reilly Factor] and "just to the right of Fidel Castro".[Eugene Weekly : News : 11.23.05]
Selected filmography
- ''21 Hours at Munich'' (1977) (producer)
- ''Xanadu (film)|Xanadu'' (1980) (director)
- ''The Burning Bed'' (1984) (director)
- ''Shattered Spirits'' (1986) (director)
- ''Sweet Hearts Dance'' (1988)
- ''Hear No Evil (film)|Hear No Evil'' (director)
- ''Breaking Up (film)|Breaking Up'' (1997) (director/producer)
- ''Steal This Movie'' (2000) (director/producer)
- ''Unprecedented: the 2000 Presidential Election'' (2002) (executive producer)
- ''Uncovered: The War on Iraq'' (2004) (director/producer)
- ''Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties'' (2004) (executive producer)
- ''Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism'' (2004) (director/producer)
- ''Beach Girls (TV miniseries)|Beach Girls'' (2005 Lifetime Television|Lifetime mini-series) (producer)
- ''Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price'' (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 Rudy'' (2007) (director)
- "Fox Attacks: Decency" (2007) (director)
- "Fox Attacks: The Environment" (2007) (director)
- "Rethink Afghanistan" (2009) (director)
- ''Sick for Profit'' (2009) (director)
References
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!''
Category:1945 births
Category:American anti-Iraq War activists
Category:American film producers
Category:American documentary filmmakers
Category:American media critics
Category:Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts alumni
Category:Harvard University people
Category:Living people
Category:People from New York City
Category:Viral videos
Category:Worst Director Golden Raspberry Award winners
Related Images- Promotional poster for ''Outfoxed'' (2004)
Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL
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