Greg Tate
Acting
Biography
Gregory Stephen Tate (October 14, 1957 – December 7, 2021) was an American writer, musician, and producer. A long-time critic for The Village Voice, Tate focused particularly on African-American music and culture, helping to establish hip-hop as a genre worthy of music criticism. Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America (1992) collected 40 of his works for the Voice and he published a sequel, Flyboy 2, in 2016. A musician himself, he was a founding member of the Black Rock Coalition and the leader of Burnt Sugar. In 2024, Tate was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize, a Special Citation award.
Known For

After he's shot in 1968, Andy Warhol begins documenting his life and feelings. Those diaries, and this series, reveal the secrets behind his persona.
The Andy Warhol Diaries

This revealing documentary honors the legendary Sidney Poitier—iconic actor, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. Featuring interviews with Denzel Washington, Spike Lee, Halle Berry, and more.
Sidney

An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991).
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

The life story of Richard Pryor (1940-2005), the legendary performer and iconic social satirist who transcended racial and social barriers with his honest, irreverent and biting humor.
I Am Richard Pryor

This film tells Jean-Michel's story through exclusive interviews with his two sisters Lisane and Jeanine, who have never before agreed to be interviewed for a TV documentary. With striking candour, Basquiat's art dealers - including Larry Gagosian, Mary Boone and Bruno Bischofberger - as well as his most intimate friends, lovers and fellow artists, expose the cash, the drugs and the pernicious racism which Basquiat confronted on a daily basis. As historical tableaux, visual diaries of defiance or surfaces covered with hidden meanings, Basquiat's art remains the beating heart of this story.
Basquiat: Rage to Riches

Jacques Peretti goes back to Jackson’s beginnings, charting his rise and fall and seeking a fuller picture of this complex, contradictory character by exploring the clues that were missed.
The Real Michael Jackson

An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty Mabry Davis arrived on the scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion style and outrageous funk. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and The Commodores and married Miles Davis, turning him from jazz to funk and then went on to ignite stages in the 70s with her sassy sexed up mix of hard rock and bluesy funk, inspiring artists from Prince to Erykah Badu to Karen 0 and Peaches. Then she vanished…
Betty: They Say I’m Different

The Black Audio Film Collective’s seventh film envisioned the death and life of the African American revolutionary as a seven part study in iconography as narrated by novelist Toni Cade Bambara and actor Giancarlo Espesito. The stylized tableaux vivants that memorialise Malcolm’s life referenced the early 20th century funeral photography of James Van der Zee’s The Harlem Book of the Dead and the elemental static cinematography of Sergei Paradjanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates.
Seven Songs for Malcolm X

The search of several young, white men for blues singers who have been missing for decades coincides with the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi in the 1960s.
Two Trains Runnin'

An examination of the hitherto unexplored relationships between Pan-African culture, science fiction, intergalactic travel, and rapidly progressing computer technology.
The Last Angel of History

Vipal Monga's first feature-length documentary chronicles an unprecedented series of concerts performed in February 2005 by the legendary jazz composer Lawrence D. Butch Morris. The concerts were in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Conduction, Butch's revolutionary technique for live music-making. Butch put on 44 performances in 28 days with 85 musicians pulled from all across New York's musical community. Along with footage from these remarkable concerts that span a full range of musical styles from big band jazz to funk to electronic and symphonic works. The documentary features some of the leading lights of the New York creative-music community, including Henry Threadgill, JD Allen, Brandon Ross, Graham Haynes, Howard Mandel, and Greg Tate. Although the film provides unique insight into New York's vibrant avant-garde music scene,
Black February: Music Is an Open Door

The Drum Waltzes explores the life and music of legendary drummer, activist Max Roach, his creative peaks, personal struggles and re-inventions from the Jim Crow to Civil Rights eras, from heady days of post-war jazz to hip hop and beyond.
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes

Documentary about the struggle of black rockers musicians and the music industry. Musicians that feature this documentary; Angelo Moore, Questlove, Cody Chestnutt and other discussing why the music industry and black audiences don't care about their brand of opus.