FESTIVAL REVIEW
In 1972, William Greaves gathered surviving figures of the Harlem Renaissance at Duke Ellington’s townhouse in order to reflect on that movement, which during the 1920s and 1930s turned the New York neighborhood into the center of Black literature, music, and art in America. The footage was originally shot for William’s documentary From These Roots (1974), but when it proved an uneven fit with the period photographs he had collected, he cut the entire recording and built that film from stills alone. William considered the Harlem Renaissance footage his greatest work and spent much of his life trying to work out how to finish it. After William’s death in 2014, his widow Louise continued the work until her own death in 2023, when his son David, who had been one of the camera operators at the gathering, took over the project with his daughter Liani and completed it as Once Upon a Time in Harlem.
What makes Once Upon a Time in Harlem so moving is the opportunity to hear directly from the artists and intellectuals who helped create and shape the Harlem Renaissance. Their accomplishments become even more remarkable alongside their memories of the discrimination they faced. We hear firsthand about a Black man being elected to office only for the governor to refuse to recognize his new position, and a Black woman being spat on by a white man at a cabaret. Stories like these can be difficult to hear, but they are essential to understanding both the movement and the world in which it emerged.
I started the film knowing relatively little about many of the people gathered in that room and ended it enchanted by their stories and fascinated by what they accomplished. There is tremendous value in preserving these memories for younger generations, allowing them to understand how much of the world they inherited was built by people who created, challenged, and fought before them. Once Upon a Time in Harlem is a remarkable historical document, preserving painful memories of discrimination while also celebrating the extraordinary Black artists and intellectuals who helped transform American culture.
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- Where to watch
- Out of Theaters
- Where to watch
- Coming soon
Play trailer
- Original title
- Once Upon a Time in Harlem
- Director
- David Greaves
- Genre
- Documentary
- Cast
- Aaron Douglas, Richard Bruce Nugent, Ernest Crichlow, Eubie Blake, Leigh Whipper, Arna Bontemps, William Greaves, James Van Der Zee
- Rated
- PG-13
- Composer
- Tamar-kali
- Cinematography
- David Greaves
- Editor
- Lynn True, Anne de Mare
- Country
- Language
- English