On a summer evening in 1972, a pivotal generation of Harlem Renaissance artists and intellectuals gathered at Duke Ellington’s townhouse.  For over three hours, this extraordinary group - many of whom had not seen each other in fifty years - reminisced, critiqued, argued, laughed, and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape.

Shot on 16mm film and newly restored, William Greaves’ historic, cinema verité footage is at the heart of a new documentary film that will explore the role of the artist, the value of art in society, and the divine alchemy that led to one of the most vibrant periods in modern cultural history, The Harlem Renaissance.

Directed by Greaves’ son David - one of three cameramen filming that day in 1972 - ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM features artists Aaron Douglas, Richard Bruce Nugent, Ernest Crichlow and Romare Bearden, composers Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, actor Leigh Whipper, poet Arna Bontemps, librarian Regina Andrews, activists Richard B. Moore and Louise Patterson, journalists Gerri Major and Ted Poston, historian John Henrik Clarke, theater impresarios Irvin C. Miller and Abram Hill, photographer James Van Der Zee, and more - as well as William Greaves himself.