Special Screening: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM (2026)

DCP | 2026 | Directed by William Greaves and David Greaves | United States | 100 minutes | English

Free admission. No registration required. Please arrive early to secure a seat.

Added to the Neon Advance Screening Series (Oct 7-Nov 18)! Winner of the 2026 Library of Congress Lavine / Ken Burns Film Prize

The only film this year to play at most of the world renowned film festivals including Sundance, NYFF, TIFF, and Telluride Film Festival! A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. For four hours, this extraordinary group – many of whom had not seen each other in fifty years – reminisced, critiqued, argued, laughed and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape.

Shot on 16mm film, newly restored and now directed by Greaves’ son David, this landmark film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance. William Greaves’ intent was not only to document these artists and intellectuals as they spoke about their lives and work but also to plumb the meaning of the extraordinary creative period in which they lived to help us better understand how culture has been passed on from one generation to another and the role that the artist plays in keeping it alive. A NEON release.

Sponsored by Yale Black Studies, Yale Film Society, and Neon. Part of the Neon Advance Screening Series (Oct 7-Nov 18).