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Roger Graef OBE | |
|---|---|
| Born | Roger Arthur Graef (1936-04-18)18 April 1936 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | 2 March 2022(2022-03-02) (aged 85) |
| Occupation(s) | Theatre director,filmmaker |
Roger Arthur GraefOBE (18 April 1936 – 2 March 2022) was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigating previously closed institutions, including Government ministries and court buildings.[1][2]
Graef was born inNew York City, and started directing plays atHarvard University, staging the New England premiere ofVirgil Thomson andGertrude Stein's operaThe Mother of Us All in 1956, and the premiere ofRobert Penn Warren'sBrother to Dragons in 1957.[3][4]
He directed 24 plays in theatres along the East Coast, and was chosen byCBS for its new TV drama directors' program.[5] He directed two network dramas for CBS, includingThe Seven who were Hanged, a one-hour special adapted and produced byRobert Herridge from theLeonid Andreyevnovel of the same name.[citation needed]
Graef moved to Britain in 1962 and directedTennessee Williams'Period of Adjustment at theRoyal Court andWyndham's Theatre in theWest End of London.[citation needed]
His first film wasOne of Them is Brett for the Society of Thalidomide Children, to demonstrate to headteachers of primary schools that the physical handicaps of the children did not stop them from being active mentally. It won the Silver Dragon Prize inKraków, Poland, and was broadcast by theBBC,CBC, andABC Scope in the U.S., as well as being added to medical school curricula. Graef commented in a BBC interview in 2014 that "nobody had ever seen them as people, they had only seen them as cases and it entered medical school curricula immediately because doctors had never seen them at home".[6]
Graef's filmThe Life and Times of John Huston, Esq for the BBC, CBC, and NET in the US, was one of the first documentary co-productions for television.[citation needed] He subsequently produced the 13-part seriesWho Is on artists, architects, writers, and composers for BBC, CBC, NET, andBayerischer Rundfunk, also directing the episodes onJacques Lipchitz,Pierre Boulez,Walter Gropius, andMaurice Béjart.
In 1968, he made a film calledWhy SaveFlorence? (BBC/BR/NET), about the poor state of the city's defences against flooding. His 1970 filmIn the Name of Allah: the life cycle of a Muslim community (filmed inFez, Morocco) for BBC/BR/NET was the first long documentary onIslam shown in the West.[citation needed] Working with his collaborator cameraman Charles Stewart, Graef made the first "fly-on-the wall" purely observational seriesThe Space between Words in 1972 for the BBC and PBS, includingPolitics, the first documentary filmed inside theU.S. Senate, andDiplomacy, the first unstaged film inside theUnited Nations.
Graef then made a series of films forGranada Television with unprecedented access to various institutions. Working withNorma Percy andBrian Lapping, he made the first film inside the UK Government:State of the Nation: A Law in the Making, and in 1976 the first film inside the European Union:Inside the Brussels HQ. His three-part seriesDecision followed top-level decision-making insideOccidental Petroleum,Hammersmith Council, andBritish Steel. The steel film was adapted as a short course byHarvard andLondon Business Schools.
His 1978 seriesDecision; British Communism followed the evolution of a manifesto over several years. It won theRoyal Television Society Award for Best Current Affairs Documentary.
In 1973, Graef became a member of the board of theInstitute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, and founded and chaired its Architectural Forum. He also became a part-time tutor at the Architectural Association. In 1975, he was appointed to the Development Control Review of Planning Law, chaired byGeorge Dobry, and he chaired the Sub-Group on Public Involvement in Planning. He promoted the early publication of planning officers' recommendations for approval or refusal of applications before the meeting, which is now standard practice. He was also on the three-man Inquiry into Control of Demolition. In 1976, he was made a member of the board ofLondon Transport. He subsequently co-designed the London Bus Map with Andrew Holmes.[7] His BBC film,Is this the Way to Save a City? co-directed byMike Dibb forOmnibus, delayed the redevelopment ofCardiff.[citation needed] Together withSimon Jenkins, he made a film forArena which revealed that a Grade II listed building was demolished every day during Save Britain's Heritage Year. In 2015 he was part of the four-personRoyal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Commission on the Future of Housing, chaired byJohn Banham. In the subsequent RIBA reportBuilding the Homes and Communities Britain Needs he wrote the chapter on design. In 2016 he was made an Honorary Fellow of RIBA.
In 1982, Graef made an observational documentary titledPolice about theThames Valley Police. The reaction to the programme's portrayal of insensitive police handling of a rape victim changed the way in which the UK police handled rape cases.[8] In a BBC interview in 2014, Graef said, "we showed [the film] to [the police] but they regarded themselves as being nice to her. First of allThatcher talked about it in parliament, it was on CBS news in America and also inSweden and other places. Our film came after three very controversial rape cases the week before and the police quietly changed the way they handled rape".[6] He directed the films/TV specials of the first threeAmnesty International comedy galas in 1976, 1977, and 1979 – the last of which was the firstSecret Policeman's Ball film. In 1984 he co-produced the firstComic Relief withRichard Curtis, andLook at the State We're In (BBC), a series of short satirical films on constitutional reform, withJohn Cleese,Hugh Laurie,Dawn French, andAnthony Sher. In 2005 he producedRemember the Secret Policeman's Ball forBBC Arena, directed byMargy Kinmonth. In 2015 he andJames Rogan madeMonty Python: the Meaning of Live, foruktv following the final stage performances atThe O2 Arena with archive of their earlier stage work. In 2016 It was shown at theTribeca and Toronto Documentary Festivals.
Graef became a UK citizen in 1995. He was a trustee and then a patron of theKoestler Trust for art in prisons, theRehabilitation for Addicted Prisoners Trust, the Irene Taylor Trust for Music in Prisons, the Voice of the Child in Care, Who Cares? Trust andPrisoners Abroad, a charity which supports Britons imprisoned outside the UK. He was a patron of theMulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire, the subject ofKim Longinotto'sHold Me Tight, Let Me Go for Films of Record. He was a patron of the charity Compassion In Care, which campaigns on abuse of the elderly.[9]
As a criminologist, he made more than 30 films on police and criminal justice issues, includingPolice,Operation Carter,In Search of Law and Order UK (Channel 4) andIn Search of Law and Order – USA (PBS and Channel 4) on positive ways to address youth offending, which influenced the National Youth Justice Board.[citation needed]Police 2001 (BBC) looked at how policing had changed since his 1982 series, andPanorama: Rape on Trial looked at how much had changed in the handling of rape since his 1982 film. His 1987 fiction filmClosing Ranks (ITV/Zenith) about domestic violence in the police was used in training for many years. Since 1995 he has been a Visiting Fellow and then Visiting Professor at the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at theLondon School of Economics. Since 2001, he has been a member of the Independent Advisory Group in Race for theMetropolitan Police. He has made many films on race and policing, includingMurder Blues, three films followingOperation Trident onblack-on-black gun crime for the BBC. ForChannel Four he madeRace Against Crime, andThe Siege of Scotland Yard around the run-up and publication of the Macpherson Report into themurder of Stephen Lawrence (2000). For Channel Four Dispatches, he madeNot Black and White on black v Asian conflicts. AndReady for A Riot on Met training for public order disturbances following the riots around the G20 summit in London. He also madeSearching for Madeleine (2007) on the mistakes of the original investigation into thedisappearance of Madeleine McCann in Portugal.
He has writtenTalking Blues: Police In Their Own Words (Harper Collins),Living Dangerously: young offenders in their own words (Harvill) andWhy Restorative Justice? (Gulbenkian).
He broadcast regularly on Radio 4 and 5 and wrote forThe Sunday Times,Daily Telegraph,Sunday Telegraph,Daily Mail,Mail on Sunday,The Observer andThe Guardian.[10] In 2017, he was a guest on John Lloyd's radio comedy showThe Museum of Curiosity alongside Phill Jupitus and Prue Leith.[11]
Graef was a founding board member ofChannel Four, News International Visiting Professor of Media and Communications atOxford University, and was on the Board of Trustees of theMedia Standards Trust. He was a patron ofPrisoners Abroad, a charity that supports the welfare of Britons imprisoned overseas and their families, as well as the Irene Taylor Trust for Music in Prisons.
He joined the charity board ofComplicité theatre company in 1997. He became the chair of the board and remained a trustee of the organisation until his death in 2022.
In 1979, Roger Graef founded Films of Record, a documentary production company that specialises in tackling difficult subjects,[clarification needed] and securing access to previously closed institutions. Films of Record worked in association with Hatchling Productions onCathy Henkel's feature-length documentary filmThe Burning Season (2008), which followed a young Australian entrepreneur to Indonesia on a mission to help stop deforestation and make money in the process. In the first months of 2010, Films of Record producedJulien Temple'sRequiem for Detroit? (BBC), Ricardo Pollack's three-part series on medical ethicsGreat Ormond Street (TV series) (BBC), and a series on family discord,Who Needs Fathers? (BBC). Other productions includeMurder Blues, following Operation Trident on black-on-black gun crime, the BAFTA-nominatedKids in Care, aPanorama Special,The Trouble with Pirates on the impact of Somali piracy; andAmnesty! When They Are All Free. Graef was Executive Producer on all these films.
The company's later output includesThe Truth About Adoption, which was BAFTA and BAFTA Craft nominated in 2012, and the second series ofGreat Ormond Street. Also the award winning series.[12] Films of Record is now part of factual media group Zinc Media. Graef left the company in February 2016 and founded Roger Graef Productions. He was working as Executive Producer with Rogan Productions and 72films on a number of projects in development and production.
Graef died from cancer on 2 March 2022, at the age of 85.[13][14]
In 2004 Graef was awarded aBAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement, the first documentary maker to receive this status. He was appointed anOBE in the2006 New Year Honours list for services to film-making and broadcasting. In 2013 BAFTA held a tribute evening to celebrate Graef's 50th year as a filmmaker. He was awarded the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award atSheffield Doc/Fest.[15] In 2015 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival.
