SubscribeLest we forget: Bud Greenspan
The legendary documentarian died this weekend at the age of 84.
I met Greenspan in 2007 at a program hosted by the Yogi Berra Museum for the premier of his last major project, Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story. He was already in failing health but wanted to be on hand out of respect for the late ballplayer — the second African-American to play in the Major Leagues — and his family, many of whom still lived in my town of Montclair.
Greenspan was famous for his spectacular Olympic films, especially — for Jewish fans — The 1972 Munich Olympic Games: Bud Greenspan Remembers, which commemorated the terrorist attacks that ended in the death of 11 members of the Israeli team. “I like making films that make people say, ‘Gee, I didn’t know that,’” Greenspan told me at the time.
Here’s an interview with Charlie Rose from 2001, and another from 1996.
I wonder how Greenspan would critique the videos made in his honor.
Great filmmaker.