BFCA Member Profile

Greg Murray

Website:
http://www.vidkraft.com/ffvp
Biography:
In 1992, Greg Murray became the host and writer of Film Flicks & Video Pix, a weekly movie review program he co-created at OBC-TV for Program Director Patrick Mirucki and Video Kraftwerks. The show aired on the TCI (Ch 20) and Suburban (Ch 36) Cable Systems in Northeastern New Jersey. Greg continued to do what he had always done - watch movies, talk about them, and share his insights with other film fans. He recommended new movies and older films that were similar in theme, genre, writing, directing or pure entertainment value. The show also ran on Eastern Long Island�s LTV (Ch 20). In the mid-nineties, Film Flicks & Video Pix was syndicated by Channel America in twenty nine states and seen as far away as Trinidad. In 1997, Greg became a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Greg grew up in Brooklyn when it cost less than a quarter to see a first run movie. Saturday matinees featured recycled motion pictures from the dawn of the sound era through the fifties, three at a time, with five color cartoons. Greg saw movies like �Dracula,� �Gunga Din,� and �Fort Apache� long before they were called classics. He discovered that the lasting quality of a movie was often measured by the talent of its writer and director. The idea of pursuing a job in film never entered Greg�s mind. Instead he earned a B.B.A. at the City College of New York. After a short lived accounting job, two years in the Army with a side trip to Viet Nam, Greg went to film school and studied production. He became fascinated by movie cameras and went into the hardware end of the movie business. Greg�s career in the rental business shifted focus from camera gear to stage, lighting, and grip equipment. He became a lighting rental manager and serviced movies like �Presumed Innocent� and �Glengarry Glen Ross� as well as TV shows like �The Cosby Show� and �The Life and Times of Molly Dodd.� While Greg watched movies being made through the years, he immersed himself in film theory and history. He realized that his lifelong interest in films had more to do with the results than the process. Film study and writing about movies became an avocation. When Greg was given the opportunity to write and host a cable TV show that allowed him to share his enthusiasm for movies and the muse that led him, Film Flicks & Video Pix was born. In 1995, Greg and producer Michael Doyle covered the Oscar Party at The House of Blues in Hollywood on behalf of spokesperson Linda Ann Watt and Women in Film. Greg was a contributing writer to The Hollywood Outsider, a fanzine distributed by Desert Moon Periodicals. In 2001, the BFCA published Greg�s essay on Julia Roberts, Best Actress for �Erin Brockovich� in 2000, in their program guide for The Critics� Choice Awards. Greg has been writing reviews for Patrick Mirucki and his Video Kraftwerks web group at www.vidkraft.com since 1998. His reviews can be accessed directly at www.filmflicks-videopix.com. Greg has been married for over thirty five years. He has two grown daughters and two grandsons one of whom, Greg thinks, is the real critic in the family! e-mail: GMFFVP@aol.com Tel/Fax: (212)866-3552