Neon has released a trailer for William and David Greaves’ documentary Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a film 50 years in the making.
In 1972, acclaimed documentary filmmaker William Greaves convened a party at Duke Ellington’s townhouse in Harlem, gathering together the surviving figures of the Harlem Renaissance, during which he shot the happenings of the party, but the film remained unfinished for 50 years.
Following William’s death in 2014, his son David revisited the footage and has since finished the project. The film had its world premiere this year at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as screening in the Directors’ Fortnight section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. It has received several rave reviews. Neon beat out Netflix, Sony Pictures Classics, MUBI, and the Criterion Collection for the distribution rights to the film.
The party includes figures such as Aaron Douglas, Richard Bruce Nugent, Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, James Van Der Zee and Eubie Blake. Greaves pulled together every surviving participant of the Renaissance he could locate, many of whom had not seen one another for decades.
Greaves’ most well-known work is the mind-blowing 1968 documentary Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, which follows Greaves himself shooting actor screen tests, only for another crew to be shooting him filming, and another one on top of that shooting the behind-the-scenes crew. It’s got to be seen to be believed. His other notable works include a 2005 sequel called Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½ and Nationtime from 1972.
The film will be released in US cinemas on October 16th; a UK release date is TBC.
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