Shot in 1972 by filmmakers William and David Greaves, and remaining unfinished for over half-a-century, Once Upon A Time In Harlem features footage from a reunion of luminaries from America’s “Harlem Renaissance” — a flourishing of African-American art, literature, scholarship, music, dance, fashion, and culture which took place in New York City during the 20s and 30s.
William Greaves presents footage of a 1972 party he convened at Duke Ellington’s townhouse in Harlem — an event he regarded as the most important thing he ever captured on film — where he invited every surviving participant of the Renaissance he was able to track down and locate. Among those present were painter Aaron Douglas; artist/writer Richard Bruce Nugent; poet Arna Bontemps; musicians Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle; photographer James Van Der Zee; and Ida Mae Cullen, the widow of Harlem Renaissance alum Countee Cullen. The reunion was made all the more special because many of the attendees had not seen one another for decades!
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100 MIN
