Neon has partnered with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office to host four free screenings of Once Upon a Time in Harlem across New York City this October.
The screenings will happen on Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, at AMC Magic Johnson Harlem, Film Forum, and Film at Lincoln Center. See the full screening schedule below. You can RSVP for the screenings here.
SCREENING SCHEDULE:
Saturday, October 24
— 1:00 PM at AMC Magic Johnson Harlem, 2309 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10027
— 4:45 PM at Film Forum, 209 W Houston St, New York, NY 10014
Sunday, October 25
— 1:00 PM at AMC Magic Johnson Harlem, 2309 Frederick Douglass Blvd, New York, NY 10027
— 3:45 PM at Howard Gilman Theater, Film at Lincoln Center, 144 W 65th St, New York, NY 10023
“Once Upon a Time in Harlem brings the personalities, ideas, and debates behind the Harlem Renaissance to life for a new generation of New Yorkers,” Mayor Mamdani said of the film in a statement.
“We are proud to partner with the filmmaking team to offer free screenings to New Yorkers this weekend, ensuring that as many New Yorkers as possible get the chance to experience this film. Our city owes a debt of gratitude to the artists of the Harlem Renaissance whose enduring legacy is still felt in every jazz club, in every gallery, and in the movement for social justice that still continues to this day.”
The only film this year to screen at the Sundance, Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, and New York Film Festivals, Once Upon a Time in Harlem is nominated for five Critics Choice Documentary Awards, including Best Documentary. The film won the 2026 Library of Congress Lavine / Ken Burns Film Prize and the Maysles Film Center Albie Award.
Inventive in form, the film was conceived and filmed in 1972 by the late William Greaves. The film is shaped around a cocktail party Greaves hosted at Duke Ellington’s home in Harlem. Greaves invited every surviving creator of the Harlem Renaissance he could locate – 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.
The 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’s daughter, Liani Greaves, picked up the mantle. Film producer Anne de Mare oversaw the restoration and digitization of the footage used in the doc. We spoke with the team behind the film ahead of their world premiere at Sundance.
Neon picked up the film following the screening at Sundance, beating out Netflix and Mubi. The film was released earlier this month, in time for William Greaves’ centenary.