Alan Greenberg (October 14, 1950January 27, 2015)
/ref> was an American

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

photographer A photographer (the Greek language, Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who makes photographs. Duties and types of photographe ...

, and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. Greenberg visited Jamaica from a young age, and was a friend of

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

. Following Marley's death, Marley's family asked Greenberg to make a film about Marley. In 1981, Greenberg filmed ''

Land of Look Behind ''Land of Look Behind'' is a 1982 documentary film about Jamaica. It was filmed in May and June of 1981 by Alan Greenberg, and was the director's first film. The film's cinematographer was Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, an associate of Werner Herzog. ...

'' (1982), a documentary film that includes footage of Marley's funeral as well as scenes filmed in Jamaica's remote

Cockpit Country Cockpit Country is an area in Trelawny and Saint Elizabeth, Saint James, Saint Ann, Manchester and the northern tip of Clarendon parishes in Jamaica. The land is marked by steep-sided hollows, as much as deep in places, which are separated ...

and the capital city of Kingston. The film ended up being more of a visionary portrait of the Jamaica of that period (focusing on the

Rastafari movement Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control o ...

and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

culture) than a film primarily about Marley. The film has won considerable critical acclaim, as well as winning the Gold Hugo Award for Best Documentary in the

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, the U.S.'s largest film competition. ''Land of Look Behind'' has also been honored as the best American documentary film of its era, and the legendary filmmaker

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...

says "'Land of Look Behind' has achieved things never seen before in cinema." Greenberg worked closely with Werner Herzog on many projects. He served as a special unit photographer on the films '' Cape Fear'' by

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

(1991), and ''1900'' by

Bernardo Bertolucci Bernardo Bertolucci (; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international ...

(1976). He also wrote twenty screenplays and three books. His book ''Heart of Glass'', about the making of the 1976 Werner Herzog masterwork of the same name, was called "The best book on the making of a film ever written" by ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine. A new and entirely revised edition of the book, entitled, "EVERY NIGHT THE TREES DISAPPEAR: Werner Herzog and the Making of 'Heart of Glass'" was published in hard cover by the Chicago Review Press. It featured Greenberg's previously unpublished photographs, which Herzog called "strange and beautiful." In 2012 Greenberg was going to write and produce a film based on his acclaimed screenplay "Love in Vain", a poetic account of the mysterious blues genius

Robert Johnson Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His landmark recordings in 1936 and 1937 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that has influenced later generati ...

. "Love in Vain" was also the first screenplay ever published by a major house ( Doubleday) as literature. Greenberg's latest screenplay, "Tutankhamun – Lord of Two Lands", a radically researched vision of the Boy King's murder intertwined with the intrigue surrounding his tomb's discovery in 1922, was to have been produced in 2013.

Films

As director

*1982 – ''

'' *1988 – ''Living Dreams''

Books

*Greenberg, Alan (1976). ''Heart of Glass''. Text and photos by A. Greenberg, scenario by W. Herzog, based on H. Achternbusch's ''Die Stunde des Todes''. Munich: Skellig. *Greenberg, Alan (1994). ''Love in Vain: A Vision of Robert Johnson''. 1st Da Capo Press ed. New foreword by Martin Scorsese; introduction by Stanley Crouch. Screenplay of an unproduced motion picture. New York: Da Capo Press. (Originally published: Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1983.) . *Greenberg, Alan (1983). ''Love in Vain: The Life and Legend of Robert Johnson''. 1st ed. A Dolphin book. Garden City, New York: Doubleday. . *Greenberg, Alan (2012). "Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of 'Heart of Glass'". Chicago: Chicago Review Press.

References

External links

*
Article from ''New York Press''
2000 {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Alan 1950 births 2015 deaths American documentary film directors American male screenwriters Writers from Portland, Oregon Screenwriters from Oregon