Robert Greene was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was a graduate of
Sun Valley High School (North Carolina). He received his bachelor's degree from
North Carolina State University in 2000, majoring in Communication and Multidisciplinary Film Studies. He received his M.F.A. in Media Arts Studies at
City College of New York. During his studies in New York, he worked at
Kim's Video. In 2002, Greene began working at 4th Row Films, starting as freelance editor. In 2004 he began working a full-time as a post-production supervisor. During this time, he worked with producers Douglas Tirola and Susan Bedusa on films including
All In: The Poker Movie (2008),
Making the Boys (2011), and
An Omar Broadway Film (2008). While he was at 4th Row, Greene directed and produced
Owning the Weather (2009) about humanity's attempts to control climate, and
Kati with an I (2010). In 2011 he released
Fake It So Real, his third feature as director, a documentary following a
Lincolnton, North Carolina independent wrestling group over the week leading up to a big show. In 2012 he left 4th Row Films to work on independent projects. In 2014 he directed
Actress, a documentary about actress
Brandy Burre as she attempts to return to her acting career after abandoning it to concentrate on raising a family. In 2016 he directed
Kate Plays Christine, a more experimental work depicting actress
Kate Lyn Sheil's preparations to portray the role of
Christine Chubbuck, a real-life news reporter who took her own life on national television in 1974. In 2021, Robert Greene premiered
Procession at the
Telluride Film Festival where it was acquired by
Netflix. Procession follows six men who suffered sexual abuse by Catholic priests band together to become a makeshift family, and find empowerment by creating fictional scenes depicting rituals of power in the church. The film was nominated for at the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature at the
Independent Spirit Awards and shortlisted by
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the for best documentary at the
94th Academy Awards. Robert Greene has worked with
Sean Price Williams and
Alex Ross Perry, having edited Perry's feature film
Listen Up Philip, as well as Amanda Rose Wilder's
Approaching the Elephant, Nick Berardini's
Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, and Robert Kolodny's
The Featherweight. In 2015 Greene was appointed filmmaker-in-chief at the new Jonathan B. Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. He is also an assistant professor in their Journalism and Film Studies programs. He is a writer, critic and reviewer, contributing regularly to
Sight & Sound as well as to other print and online publications including
Filmmaker,
Criterion, and
Criticwire.
Present Tense: Notes on American Nonfiction Cinema 1998-2013, his first book, was released by
The Critical Press in July 2015. ==Influences==