Once Upon a Time in Harlem

A decade post-death, filmmaker William Greaves reveals his final work: footage of a 1972 gathering he arranged with Harlem Renaissance legends, which he deemed his most significant capture.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem is a 2026 American documentary film directed by William Greaves and David Greaves, and produced by Liani Greaves and Anne de Mare.[2][3] It follows a gathering of the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance. Shot in 1972, it remained unfinished for fifty years, until David revisited the footage following his father's death. William Greaves presents footage of a 1972 party he convened at Duke Ellington’s townhouse in Harlem with living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, an event he regarded as the most important he captured on film. Greaves invited every surviving participant he could locate. Many had not seen one another for decades. They included the painter Aaron Douglas; the artist and writer Richard Bruce Nugent; the poet Arna Bontemps; the musicians Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle; the photographer James Van Der Zee; and Ida Mae Cullen, the widow of Countee Cullen.

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