Once Upon a Time in Harlem

In many ways, William and David Greaves’ inviting and historical documentary, “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” is the stuff of legend. A vital reclamation of a precious history, the film was born from a night in 1972, when the elder Greaves invited the living titans of the…

Robert Daniels

Some guy in the Q&A was like “Listen I’m a filmmaker myself so I hate to do this but I have more of a comment, this was one of the most moving things I’ve ever seen…” while everyone rolled their eyes and then slowly realized it was Barry Jenkins

Ryan

Over 50 years in the making, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM is a cherished gift of cinema. A transportive, miracle of a film that turns decades-old memories into living history through nearly 60,000 feet of restored footage. David Greaves assembles and captures a vibrant…

Matt Neglia

such a vital time capsule of New York and, more specifically, the Harlem Renaissance which shows just how vibrant and eloquent those who made up the movement were — despite not being completed by William Greaves, it maintains the energy of his work, elliptical but never…

Justin LaLiberty

This best thing I've seen at Sundance so far by a mile. Doubt anything will top it. Greaves was a master. Sundance #11

Marya E. Gates

The same year (1972) that Roberto Rossellini revolutionized a modern look at history with The Age of the Medici, raising conversation and debate and non-acting to the level of scientific, verifiable art (“evidence”, as Godard and Sontag would call it), William Greaves was…

Carlos Valladares

The most jaw-dropping announcement of this year’s Sundance slate was Once Upon a Time in Harlem, the (to me, at least) heretofore unknown project that the late, great documentarian William Greaves shot (but never completed) well before his death in 2014. It seems that in…

Jason Bailey

From Sundance 2026 William Greaves, the late documentary filmmaker who died in 2014, drew from a multitude of inspirations in his day, from boxer Muhammad Ali in sports chronicle The Fighter (1974) to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in the experimental meta-movie…

SiddhantAdlakha

The archival producers did a fantastic job on this beautiful film.

Matt Hoffman