Once Upon a Time in Harlem

Once Upon a Time in Harlem · 2026 ↗100 min

A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve: a trove of 16mm footage of a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. This extraordinary group—reunited after fifty years—reminisced, critiqued, argued, laughed and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. Newly restored and now directed by Greaves’ son David, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM is one of the year’s most critically acclaimed documentaries, offering a window into the heart of the critical mass of energy that defined 20th Century culture and its continued legacy. A NEON release.