William Greaves<\/a>. As the talk flies and arguments re-emerge, a vital era of Black political and artistic liberation suddenly materializes in a packed living room \u2014 as if waiting to be evoked by a shared spirit. An extraordinary you-are-there creation, it\u2019s the documentary impulse at its most rewarding.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s also technically a new work. Greaves, who died in 2014, had envisioned a much larger project but never assembled his 16mm reunion footage. His widow Louise picked up the mantle and, following her death in 2023, their son David \u2014 who was also in the house that day as a young cameraman \u2014 has now edited the film to completion alongside his daughter Liani as producer. And since we catch a glimpse of William\u2019s own handwritten notes, hear his voice-over reciting Renaissance poems (and one of his own) and observe him on film tossing questions to his storied guests, \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Harlem\u201d also counts as a tribute to the late filmmaker. Most known for the 1971 meta-fictional classic \u201cSymbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One,\u201d Greaves believed in the beautiful chaos of humans seeking connection.<\/p>\n
And what an atmosphere we receive here, excited by the warmth and energy of the images \u2014 that camera team was busy \u2014 and the buzz of joyful disagreement. (Editors Lynn True and Anne De Mare find a miraculous pace.) The film is burnished throughout with split panels to accentuate the party\u2019s animated cross talk, peppered with excerpts from one-on-one interviews that William filmed later.<\/p>\n
The magic, though, is in how present we feel in this invoked past. As punch lubricates these elegantly attired VIPs (some in their 80s and 90s), the flow and force of their personalities acclimate us to who they are as keenly as do onscreen identifiers. Librarian Regina Andrews, known for her salons, exudes the dignified air of a beloved host, vividly describing the communal groundswell every young thinker and creative then could sense happening. The tale of the landmark musical \u201cShuffle Along\u201d gets told with convivial authority by its composer, Eubie Blake, along with a clarifying anecdote about his no-handshake encounter with Charles Lindbergh. And poet Countee Cullen\u2019s widow Ida Mae makes sure her husband\u2019s name and accomplishments are on everyone\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
Pan-African socialist Richard Moore, tall and voluble, gets suitably fired up when radicalism, politics and racial pride are the subjects. Yet other scholars, activists and intellectuals have their takes, too, on the Harlem Renaissance\u2019s many political movements and bids for Black self-determination. There\u2019s even a controversial conservative in their midst: essayist George Schuyler, who once argued against a \u201cNegro art,\u201d got righteous pushback from Langston Hughes and who doesn\u2019t seem entirely comfortable to be there. But he is.<\/p>\n
Many are conscious of their opportunity, via the camera, to speak to a younger generation, worried they\u2019ve been overlooked. The cultural notables in the room \u2014 including painters Richard Nugent and Romare Bearden, poet Arna Bontemps and theater impresario Abram Hill \u2014 speak up for art as the Renaissance\u2019s engine, remembering gifted colleagues no longer around. Then there\u2019s Leigh Whipper, co-founder of the Negro Actors Guild, quick to recite from memory a movie monologue and beaming with youth for someone who, at the time, was edging close to 100.<\/p>\n
David Greaves\u2019 \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Harlem\u201d is loving, indispensable history, unabashedly enjoyable. There\u2019s a lesson, too, in sync with the vitality of these men and women who persevered, who never let an insight go unchallenged, a name go unforgotten or a memory about the Renaissance lie unadorned. These greats built the mecca they needed and deserved, debating its contours, wanting it to last. If we follow their example, then maybe we\u2019ll all get the best party ever, surrounded by glorious, smart, funny, talented and ready-to-rumble peers.<\/p>\n
‘Once Upon a Time in Harlem’<\/p>\n
Rated: PG-13, for some disturbing images, strong racial language, smoking, and brief partial nudity<\/p>\n
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes<\/p>\n
Playing: Opens Friday, Oct. 23 at AMC Century City 15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text”> A record of a gathering that revived a golden age, \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Harlem\u201d is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[4502,787,294158,146,878,294159,79914,294157,85,46,294160,4607,397,76875,11852,1529,2100,762,101080],"class_list":["post-653769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-age","tag-art","tag-camera-team","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-greave","tag-harlem","tag-harlem-renaissance-luminary","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-many-political-movement","tag-memory","tag-movies","tag-name","tag-party","tag-review","tag-talk","tag-time","tag-william"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}