David Greaves Presents Father's Film on 1972 Harlem Renaissance Gathering

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The restored 16mm film documents a four-hour reunion of Harlem Renaissance artists and intellectuals who hadn't seen each other in fifty years.

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM, a restored documentary capturing a four-hour 1972 reunion of Harlem Renaissance artists and intellectuals, opens in theaters October 16, including in New York at Film Forum and Film at Lincoln Center.

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A decade after his death, filmmaker William Greaves has one last work 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. 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, newly restored and now directed by Greaves' son David and produced by his granddaughter Liani, the film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance. 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 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 conceived and filmed by William Greaves and directed by David Greaves . Producers: Liani Greaves and Anne de Mare. Editors: Lynn True and Anne de Mare. Composer: Tamar-kali.

Featuring: Regina Andrews, Eubie Blake , Romare Bearden, Arna Bontemps , Ernest Chrichlow, John Henrik Clarke, Ida Mae Cullen, Aaron Douglas, Thomas Harvey, Abram Hill , Frank Horne, Nathan Huggins, Jean Blackwell Hutson, Gerri Major, Richard B. Moore, Richard Bruce Nugent, Louise Patterson, Mrs. J.B. Matthews, William Patterson , Ruth Hill, Irvin C. Miller , Theodore 'Ted' Poston, George Schuyler, Noble Sissle , James Van Der Zee, Leigh Whipper .

The film runs 100 minutes and is a NEON release.

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_Originally reported by [BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/ONCE-UPON-A-TIME-IN-HARLEM-to-Open-in-Theaters-20260929)._