More than fifty years after documentarian William Greaves filmed a cocktail party of Harlem Renaissance luminaries at Duke Ellington’s home, his unreleased opus Once Upon a Time in Harlem is making its long-awaited festival debut and arriving in theaters this October via NEON.
From a 1972 Harlem Gathering to the Big Screen
In 1972, pioneering documentarian William Greaves brought together some of the final living creators, writers, artists, and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance for a four-hour cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse. Many of the attendees had not seen one another in over half a century. Greaves filmed every moment as the group laughed, drank, debated their cultural standing, and reminisced about a transformative era in American history.
The guest list for that historic afternoon included a roster of cultural figures. Among the more than two dozen Harlemites captured on 16mm film were painter Aaron Douglas, artist and queer cultural pioneer Richard Bruce Nugent, artist Romare Bearden, painter and printmaker Ernest Crichlow, composer and pianist Eubie Blake, photographer James Van Der Zee, actor and activist Leigh Whipper, poet Arna Bontemps, and activist Louise Thompson Patterson. Notably absent was Duke Ellington himself. David Greaves, the director’s son, who worked on the original shoot in 1972 as a cameraman, recalled that he was apparently ill and could not attend.
Decades of Unfinished Work and Family Stewardship
While the footage was initially captured for a project about the Harlem Renaissance, the live-action party discussions were ultimately sidelined. Greaves instead used archival still photographs to complete the 1974 project From These Roots, which went on to win more than 20 film festival awards.
Yet Greaves always considered the footage from Ellington’s townhouse to be among the most important material he ever recorded. He spent decades wrestling with how to finish the film, but competing commercial contracts and the challenge of structuring such expansive footage kept the project in limbo. Greaves passed away in 2014 with the documentary still incomplete. His widow, Louise Greaves, continued working on the restoration before her death in 2023, after which their son, David Greaves, and granddaughter, Liani Greaves, took over the mantle to bring the project across the finish line.
Restoring Sixty Thousand Feet of 16mm Film
To complete the undertaking, producer Anne de Mare oversaw the restoration and digitization of the archive. In total, the team worked with over 60,000 feet of original 16mm film captured by Greaves and his camera crew.
David Greaves took the helm as director for this completed version, working alongside Liani Greaves and de Mare as producers, with editors Lynn True and Anne de Mare, and an original score composed by Tamar-Kali. Anticipation for the finished film surged late last year after New Yorker critic Richard Brody attended a screening in New York City, describing the project as one of the greatest cinematic works of creative nonfiction he had ever seen.
An Extensive Festival Run Leading to October Theatrical Release
Following unfinished works-in-progress screenings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in recent years, the fully realized documentary has embarked on a prominent festival journey. The film debuted at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival before screening in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Its international and domestic tour also includes Telluride, TIFF, the BFI London Film Festival, and the 64th New York Film Festival. During these stops, David Greaves, Liani Greaves, and de Mare have participated in audience Q&A sessions. Distributor NEON has officially set a theatrical release date of October 16 for the public premiere.
Unlocking More of Greaves’ Independent Archive
Beyond Once Upon a Time in Harlem, William Greaves cemented his legacy as a figure of independent cinema through more than 70 films, including the seminal 1968 experiment Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One and his work as a director-producer of Black Journal.
With the successful restoration and release of his long-neglected Harlem masterpiece, the Greaves family plans to delve even deeper into the director’s extensive archives. As Liani Greaves teased during interviews surrounding the festival debut, there is more, so much more yet to come from the filmmaker’s vault.