{"id":855374,"date":"2026-06-09T15:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/855374\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:38:16","slug":"once-upon-a-time-in-harlem-teaser-william-greaves-opus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/855374\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Once Upon A Time In Harlem\u2019 Teaser: William Greaves\u2019 Opus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> Here\u2019s your first official look at Once Upon A Time In Harlem<\/a>, the decades-in-the-making documentary conceived and shot by William Greaves<\/a> and directed by his son, David Greaves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tNeon will release Once Upon A Time In Harlem in theaters on October 16. The film\u2019s theatrical release follows a series of buzzy debut screenings at Sundance and Cannes and arrives more than 50 years after the late filmmaker William Greaves completed production on the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tInventive in form, the film was conceived and filmed in 1972 by Greaves. The film is shaped around a cocktail party Greaves hosted at Duke Ellington\u2019s home in Harlem. Greaves invited every surviving creator of the Harlem Renaissance he could locate \u2013 many of whom had not seen one another in more than 50 years. For four hours, the group of artists laughed, drank, and debated their position in the rapidly shifting cultural landscape. Greaves filmed it all.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe footage was originally shot for a film about the Harlem Renaissance called From These Roots, which Greaves completed in 1974 using only archival materials. The interviews and discussions from the party were put to the side. However, Greaves, who went on to become a major figure of American independent cinema, completing over 70 films, including the now-seminal Symbiopsychotaxiplasm films, believed Once Upon a Time in Harlem was his greatest work. He spent much of the rest of his life wrestling with how to finish the film. He died in 2014, with the film incomplete. His widow, Louise Greaves, continued working on the project until she died in 2023, at which point his son, David Greaves, and David\u2019s daughter, Liani Greaves, picked up the mantle.\u00a0We spoke<\/a> with David and Liani ahead of the film\u2019s Sundance screening. <\/p>\n

\n\tFilm producer Anne de Mare oversaw the restoration and digitization of the footage used in the doc. Neon<\/a> picked up the film following the screening at Sundance, beating out Netflix and Mubi. The October 16 release date falls shortly after William Greaves\u2019 centenary on October 8.<\/p>\n

\n\tCheck out the teaser above and see the film\u2019s official poster below. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Here\u2019s your first official look at Once Upon A Time In Harlem, the decades-in-the-making documentary conceived and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":855375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,37096,239435,67,132,68,242978],"class_list":["post-855374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-neon","tag-once-upon-a-time-in-harlem","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-william-greaves"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116720902734570166","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}