Gregory Burke

Film Maker, Writer, GS Advisor...

Gregory Burke, in addition to being one of the most reclusive people you'll never meet, teaches performance technique to dancers (Belly dancers included), actors, and performance artists. He is a script doctor and editing supervisor specializing in documentary and independent film. He is co-founder and a judge of the Giza Academy Awards Of Middle Eastern Video, now in its ninth year. He has made two Belly Dance Videos: the documentary, "Hiz Ya Wiz," and the performance video, "Nadia In America," starring Nadia Hamdi. He has written a number of screenplays and taught filmmaking at the college level. His film and video work is on permanent display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His visual work is in a majority of documentaries about Rock and Roll, as his early years were spent traveling with a camera throughout the world chronicling the less than remarkable activities of rock musicians. He was filming during every major event of the 60's, including Altamont. He was involved with award-winning films such as "Berkeley In The Sixties," and other documentaries with a political edge, concerning primarily Haiti, India and Tibet.

He was the night-shift at North Beach's legendary Discovery Bookstore during the Belly Dance-Punk rock 70's and played host to a group of emerging bands: The Beat, Devo, Per Ubu and others (mix North Beach's drunken poets with a band and you have a song). He showed us his warm side writing and singing in the Punk band, "Wolves From Hell." He collects New Guinea and Mexican Art, old Tibetan beads and silver, and Chinese Neolithic Jade. In prior years, he was an animal handler specializing in cougars and wolves. He is often followed by the shadow of a black cat. Currently he is working on a film noir screenplay.

Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Gregory Burke

11-17-09 Welcome to the Eleventh Giza Awards, Honoring the Dancers and Videographers of Middle Eastern Dance by Gregory Burke
Ever since the dark ages of 1997, the Giza Academy of Music and Legends of Dance has honored dancers and videographers who have explored the art of Middle Eastern dance through film and video. Documenting and sharing our dance provides opportunities for preservation, teaching and furthering our art. The following report was created from the notes for that night
11-23-07 Danza Del Vientre by Devorah Korek Book Review by Gregory Burke Translation by Amina Goodyear
Book is in Spanish. Once in a while an object of desire comes along, which is deemed important by its obscurity. Such could be the case with this hardcover, difficult to acquire tabletop adornment from Devorah Korek, an American-born Belly Dance teacher living and thriving in Spain
12-10-05 Articulating the Collective Dream: The Giza Awards, and why the legacy-making process is important to you. by Amina Goodyear and Gregory Burke.
"We embrace change however roughly it appears. With video we feel secure in the knowledge that the legacy of the past will never abandon us."
2-4-05 Comments On American Bellydancer Film Review by Gregory Burke
A documentary film or video is made up of "real" images constructed in such a way to reflect the point of view of its maker. So a documentary film is a fiction, especially when financed by its key subject..