We’re delighted to launch a limited series of backyard screenings to fundraise for the new UNDO LEAN-TO. A new structure we built to keep our programs running and our community connected.

To kick things off, we are revisiting some of our most powerful programs and conversations we’ve had here over the years. First up, William Greaves’ In The Company of Men screening on a very rare 16mm print!  First screened digitally at UnionDocs, on April 22nd 2016. For this updated program only, on celluloid,  we have the chance to revisit highlights from a fascinating conversation that took place here that night.

Seats are extremely limited, socially-distanced and slotted for pairs or groups of three in shared quarantine pods. The max number outside will be 16, with groups all spaced at least six feet apart.

We’re so excited to be partnering with the amazing 1:1 Foods!  on this series. A social enterprise serving food insecure families and supporting local food businesses in Brooklyn. This group of creative and talented folks will be teaming up with us to serve some amazing savory dishes to keep things festive, and folks comfortably sated. 

Special thanks to William Greaves Productions for their participation and generosity to support this program!

William Greaves’ IN THE COMPANY OF MEN “uses psychodrama to help bridge the communication gap between a group of the so­-called ‘hard­-core unemployed’—largely Black and ‘underclass’—and the men who hire, train and supervise them—mostly white and middle class.” Originally commissioned by Newsweek and the recipient of many film festival awards, In the Company of Men is a management training tool, social documentary and absorbing experiment.”

Director, producer and writer William Greaves began his career as a featured actor on Broadway and in motion pictures. His work behind the camera has earned him over 70 international film festival awards including an Emmy and four Emmy nominations. In 1980 he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, and in the same year he was the recipient of a special homage at the first Black American Independent Film Festival in Paris. In 1986, he received an Indy — the special Life Achievement Award — from the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. He was recently honored by the National Black Theater and Film Festival with its first award for Lifelong Achievement in Film and for Contributions to Black Theater.

Greaves has produced and directed television, documentaries and feature films over the course of his career. For two years, he served as executive producer and co-host of the pioneering network television series BLACK JOURNAL, for which he was awarded an Emmy. His recent film, Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey, a 2 hour documentary which aired prime-time on PBS, was shown in competition at Sundance and has won a Gold Award from two International Film Festivals. Among his other outstanding documentary films are FROM THESE ROOTS, an in-depth study of the Harlem Renaissance which has won over 20 film festival awards and has become a classic in African American history studies and IDA B. WELLS: A PASSION FOR JUSTICE, which has won 19 film festival awards and was nominated for a 1990 NAACP Image Award. Greaves also served as Executive Producer of Universal Picturesí BUSTINí LOOSE, starring Richard Pryor and Cicely Tyson, and produced, wrote and directed three feature films — SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE; THE MARIJUANA AFFAIR; and ALI, THE FIGHTER, starring Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Retrospectives of William Greaves work have been held at the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

A long-time member of The Actors Studio in New York, William Greaves was honored by the Studio in 1980 as a recipient of its first Dusa award, together with Studio members Robert DeNiro, Jane Fonda, Marlon Brando, Arthur Penn, Sally Field, Rod Steiger, Al Pacino, Shelley Winters, Dustin Hoffman, Estelle Parsons, and Ellen Burstyn, among others. From 1969 to 1982, he taught acting for film and television for the late Lee Strasberg at the Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York, and on occasion, substituted for Mr. Strasberg as moderator of the Actors Studio sessions. He is currently a member of the Studio’s board of directors.