“Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” completed by his son David from extraordinary 1972 footage, opens Oct. 16 before Film Forum celebrates Greaves’ centennial.
*More than half a century after pioneering Black filmmaker William Greaves gathered legends of the Harlem Renaissance inside Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse and turned on his cameras, audiences are finally getting the chance to see the remarkable conversations he captured.
“Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” directed by David Greaves and conceived and filmed by his father, William Greaves, opens theatrically Oct. 16, including an engagement at New York’s Film Forum. One week later, Film Forum will turn the spotlight back on the elder Greaves with “William Greaves 100,” an Oct. 23-29 centennial celebration of the filmmaker’s work.
The pairing makes October a significant month for a filmmaker whose cameras chronicled Black American history while frequently challenging the boundaries of documentary filmmaking.
Harlem Renaissance Legends Gather in One Room
The story behind “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” begins in August 1972, when William Greaves organized a reunion of surviving Harlem Renaissance figures at Ellington’s St. Nicholas Avenue townhouse…