Exclusive: Once Upon A Time In Harlem interviews with director David Greaves and producer Liani Greaves
Hitting theaters on October 16, 2026 from Neon is the amazing documentary Once Upon A Time In Harlem, directed by William Greaves and his son David Greaves. Produced by Liani Greaves and Anne de Mare, the film initially premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. The lively event took place at jazz maestro Duke Ellington's townhouse in NYC. For four hours, this extraordinary group – many of whom had not seen each other in fifty years – reminisced, critiqued, argued, laughed and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. Shot on 16mm film, freshly restored and now directed by Greaves' son David, this landmark film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance.
Among the participants in the film include
Aaron Douglas – Painter and muralist
Richard Bruce Nugent – Writer, artist, and bohemian intellectual
Arna Bontemps – Poet, novelist, and librarian
Eubie Blake – Composer and jazz/ragtime pianist
Noble Sissle – Jazz composer, singer, and bandleader
James Van Der Zee – Renowned photographer of Harlem life
Romare Bearden – Celebrated collage artist and painter
Ida Mae Cullen – Widow of poet Countee Cullen
Regina Andrews – Librarian, playwright, and community leader
Ernest Crichlow – Painter and illustrator
Leigh Whipper – Actor and civil rights activist
Louise Thompson Patterson – Activist and intellectual
George Schuyler – Journalist and satirist
Jean Blackwell Hutson – Curator of the Schomburg Center
Gerri Major – Journalist and society editor
Nathan Huggins – Historian
William Greaves' intent was not only to document these artists and intellectuals as they spoke about their lives and work but also to plumb the meaning of the extraordinary creative period in which they lived to help us better understand how culture has been passed on from one generation to another and the role that the artist plays in keeping it alive.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem is directed by both William Greaves and his son David Greaves. William Greaves was an American filmmaker who passed away in 2014. He directed by many iconic films in his era including Four Religions, Still a Brother: Inside the Negro Middle Class, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, The Fighters, That's Black Entertainment, and many others.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks to director David Greaves and producer Liani Greaves on the documentary Once Upon A Time In Harlem.
