A new documentary, *Once Upon a Time in Harlem*, is screening at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, offering an intimate look at the Harlem Renaissance. The film is assembled from 28 hours of 16mm footage shot in 1972 by the late filmmaker William Greaves at Duke Ellington's home in Harlem, capturing a gathering of key figures from the movement. Greaves's son David, who was one of the original cameramen, completed the film after his father's death. The footage includes interviews and reflections from artists, writers, musicians, and activists such as Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, James Van Der Zee, Eubie Blake, and Arna Bontemps.
The documentary matters because it preserves rare, firsthand testimony from the actual participants of the Harlem Renaissance, offering a direct and unfiltered perspective on a pivotal period in African American cultural history. Greaves considered this footage the most important he ever shot, and the film serves as both a tribute to the movement and to his own prolific career as a documentary filmmaker. By bringing together voices that reflect on the meaning of the Renaissance—whether as an 'awakening' or a 'prism' of Black experience—the film provides a vital historical record and a nuanced counterpoint to later scholarly interpretations.