*More than half a century after filmmaker William Greaves gathered surviving Harlem Renaissance luminaries for an extraordinary party in Harlem, the conversations he captured are finally headed to movie theaters in “Once Upon a Time in Harlem.”
The newly unveiled official trailer and poster offer another look at Greaves’ long-unfinished passion project, a 100-minute documentary built around a remarkable 1972 gathering of artists, writers, actors, musicians and intellectuals connected to one of the most consequential Black cultural movements of the 20th century.
As EURweb previously reported, Greaves brought the group together at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse. Many of the guests had not seen each other in decades.
For four hours, the cameras rolled as the luminaries drank, laughed, reminisced, disagreed and debated their own roles in the Harlem Renaissance and what the movement ultimately meant.
Among those captured were painter and writer Richard Bruce Nugent, journalist Gerri Major, actor Leigh Whipper, artist Aaron Douglas and photographer James Van Der Zee.
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The press notes describe Greaves’ ambition as something larger than recording famous names.
He wanted to explore how culture moves from one generation to another and the artist’s role in keeping that culture alive.
Greaves considered the footage among the most important material he ever captured. He continued working on the project for decades but died in 2014 without completing it.
That unfinished business eventually became a family mission.
His son, filmmaker David Greaves — who was just 26 when he served as one of four cameramen documenting the original gathering — ultimately stepped in as director. William’s granddaughter Liani Greaves became a producer.
“The film captured this time that was very important to him,” David says in the production notes. “He wanted to make sure folks understood what the Harlem Renaissance was. He didn’t want it to just disappear into time.”
Liani remembers knowing that her grandfather possessed something extraordinary.
“They were constantly working on Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” she says of William and his late wife and creative partner, Louise Greaves. “This film really is 50 years in the making.”
The documentary has already traveled through the festival circuit and will screen at the New York Film Festival Sept. 29 and 30. Distributor NEON has set the theatrical release for Oct. 16.
What audiences will finally see isn’t simply an account of the Harlem Renaissance. It is the movement’s surviving voices talking to one another — remembering, challenging and occasionally disagreeing about history while Greaves’ cameras preserved it for a generation they could not yet see coming.
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