Neon, in partnership with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the New York City Office of the Mayor, is offering four free screenings of documentary Once Upon A Time In Harlem at AMC Magic Johnson Harlem, Film Forum, and Film at Lincoln Center this coming weekend – Oct. 24 and 25.
The highly acclaimed documentary, filmed and conceived by pioneering New York filmmaker William Greaves and directed by his son David Greaves, celebrates the enduring legacy of the Harlem Renaissance and the power of art, culture, and creativity. It connects New Yorkers to the artists, stories, and ideas that shaped the city and left an indelible mark on American culture.
The unique film, 50 years in the making, had a terrific limited theatrical opening last weekend on two screens.
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,” said Mamdani. “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 5 Critics Choice Documentary Awards including Best Documentary, and was the winner of the 2026 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Film Prize, and the Maysles Film Center Albie Award in Harlem.
It brings together three generations – William Greaves, who passed away in 2014, David Greaves, and producer Liani Greaves – in the preservation of history. William’s wife, Louise Archambault Greaves, also worked on the film until her death in 2023.
“William Greaves believed deeply in the power of art to preserve history as well as inspire audiences and future generations. We know it would have meant so much to him to see Mayor Mamdani and the Office of the Mayor champion this film and help bring it to New Yorkers and especially back to Harlem where he was born and raised,” said David Greaves and Liani Greaves.
In 1972, William Greaves brought together an extraordinary gathering of surviving artists, writers, and cultural luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance at Duke Ellington’s townhouse for an afternoon of debate, reflection, laughter, and exchange. Among those gathered were Aaron Douglas, Romare Bearden, Gerri Major, Arna Bontemps, Richard Bruce Nugent, James Van Der Zee, and Ida Mae Cullen, widow of poet Countee Cullen. Captured on 16mm film, the doc is a time capsule offering a seat at the table with the visionaries who helped shape a movement.
In an era of renewed discourse over whose histories are preserved, taught, and remembered, the film makes the case for protecting Black cultural history as an essential part of the American story.