ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM

Directed by David Greaves, Liani Greaves, William Greaves | USA | 2026 | 100m

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
TD NIAGARA JAZZ FESTIVAL
OAST HOUSE BREWERY

Special introduction by Juliet Dunn, Artistic Director of the Niagara Jazz Festival

A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. For four 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, newly restored and now directed by Greaves’ son David, this documentary is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance.