NEON, the award-winning studio behind some of the most daring and celebrated films of the last nine years, announces that it acquired U.S. rights to Once Upon a Time in Harlem, conceived and filmed in 1972 by the late William Greaves and restored and directed by his son David Greaves. This monumental film premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it earned widespread critical acclaim. NEON is planning a theatrical release later this year.
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, this landmark film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance. William Greaves’ intent was not only to document these artists and intellectuals as they spoke about their lives and work but also to plumb the meaning of the extraordinary creative period in which they lived to help us better understand how culture has been passed on from one generation to another and the role that the artist plays in keeping it alive.
The film had an epic journey to completion. Over 50 years later, David Greaves, one of the original cameramen – who was guided by his father’s notes and workprints to create a new film that embodies William’s unique use of cinema. It is produced by his granddaughter, Liani Greaves. David and Liani serve as William Greaves Productions’s President and Vice President of Production, respectively. Louise Archambault Greaves, William’s wife and creative partner of 55 years, co-founded the company in 1963. Following his death in 2014, she worked tirelessly to restore his films and to ensure this landmark project would finally be realized. Producer Anne de Mare worked with Louise to preserve and digitize over 60,000 feet of previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Greaves in 1972. The preservation was overseen by multi-disciplinary artist and preservationist Bill Brand. Louise passed away in 2023. The deal was negotiated by Sarah Colvin, VP of Acquisitions for NEON and Jason Ishikawa and Isadora Johnson of Cinetic Media on behalf of the filmmakers.
Once Upon A Time In Harlem was one of the breakout films of the Sundance Film Festival. It was named as the Best Documentary at Sundance in the Indiewire Critics Poll and appeared in numerous best of the festival lists including The Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone and Variety. At the premiere, Academy Award ® winner Barry Jenkins was in the audience and commented during the Q&A that “It was one of the most moving things I’ve seen in my life. I’m going to tell everybody to see it.” The New Yorker’s Richard Brody touted it as “one of the greatest cinematic works of creative nonfiction that I’ve ever seen.” Bilge Ebiri called it “A masterpiece. A truly monumental work of art.” Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com wrote about it, “an intellectual fairytale whose occurrence remains incredible and whose existence feels like a miracle.”
