Interview: David and Liani Greaves Reflect on ‘Once Upon a Time in Harlem’

If you’re paying close attention to the lineups at the major fall festivals, one documentary stands out as being a ubiquitous presence. Indeed, since its Sundance debut, Once Upon a Time in Harlem has made virtually every stop on the fall festival tour. But the mere existence of this highly-acclaimed film is almost a miracle. Restored from shelved footage of an awe-inspiring 1972 gathering of Harlem Renaissance figures, it took William’s Greaves‘ own son David and granddaughter Liani to bring it to fruition as co-director and producer respectively. It was therefore a special treat for Awards Radar to discuss the making of the film, in anticipation of the prestigious Albie Awards, where it was celebrated as one of the three honorees.

Shane Slater: This film has been in the works since 1972. What happened since then to finally get this, you know, final version released?

Liani Greaves: Yes, the filming started in 1972, and then my grandfather kept returning to the film throughout the 1980s, the 90s, the early 2000s. He kept returning to it and kind of not being able to figure out how to incorporate, how to move forward with it. He just wasn’t clear on on which way to move forward with it. And in 2023, around there, my grandmother Louise Greaves was able to secure a a return to the film.

My grandfather had already passed at this point and we returned to the film with a a grant via the Ford Foundation to do the restoration of the film footage. So she worked on that for about a year and a half, right before she passed away, and her initial plan was to just restore the film footage. There was 60,000 feet of film that was shot for this, so she had planned on just restoring it and then figuring out what to do with it after that. And after she passed away, we kind of decided to make a film out of it and have my dad direct it, and so that’s how we got to where we are today.

SS: How did you approach editing all that footage and putting your own perspective into it?

David Greaves: We went through the film, all of the footage. And then I made various selections, and in thinking about the selections, I said, you know, “Why did I pick these?” As I looked at it over and over, and people have commented, I said, “Gee, now why did I pick this?”

And I realized that each little scene that I pick resonated some way with something in my life, something that had happened, you know? Some information that I have over the years. For example, the middle passage, we have a newspaper. My wife and I have a newspaper, and the first article was on the middle passage, Tom Feelings’ book The Middle Passage. And its images are similar to those that are in in the film. And reading about Mayor Jimmy Walker when I was a kid, and reading about his problems with corruption, et cetera. So that when you see him in this film, you get a whole different look at him. And I said, “That was very interesting.”

I felt other things that were historically important. For example, Theodore Roosevelt being booed and and hissed in Harlem, or Irwin Miller talking about his relationship with Duke Ellington. So really, it was made up of those kinds of relationships and you know visceral reactions to to to the material.

SS: Did William share any memorable insights about his vision that stuck with you as you were putting the film together?

DG: Well, I’d read his concept, of course. The film was different than what he had put down on paper as a treatment because of that narration and some more contemporary footage in it. But I had screened it with him originally back in 1972. Working with him in the editing room over the years, and seeing the material, I feel that everything that’s in it, he would have said, “Yeah, that’s okay.” I don’t think he would have said, “Hey, why’d you put that in there?” No, I think he would have liked what we have come up with.

SS: A documentary about brilliant Black people sitting in a room talking isn’t the most commercial prospect, especially in our somewhat anti-intellectual climate. How did you get the support to get this off the ground?

LG: I think one of the things as a producer that was important for me was also to include some of my my grandfather’s own scholarship. So I was really happy to see that my dad included my grandfather’s writing in the in the work as well, and some of his kind of wisdom. It was definitely a challenge. The entire project was a challenge putting it together. Also, trying to create something that both of my grandparents would be proud of and happy about. This was sort of like always, constantly in the back of my mind. Like, “Are we doing the right thing?” And that just kept being an overwhelming yes, yes, yes.

But we did spend a lot of time reaching out for money and getting people involved. But what we also found was that the film found its people. Our funders just came to it. Everyone just sort of presented themselves.

SS: The film made me want to learn more about William, as this silent but important voice. In lieu of a documentary, what would you want to share about him and his scholarship?

DG: In looking through his books on Eastern philosophy, looking at the notes in his books, in the margins and the fly leaves, the underlining, even copious notes in his books, I don’t think they know the depth of his thinking in terms of philosophy. The relationship to that black history, you know? He was a very deep thinker, deeper than I had realized, because I’d never seen these writings before. Although he spoke about in the editing room. He spoke about his philosophy. Something would come up and he would say, “Davit, it is we who are enlightened who must always make sacrifices.”

People have to know the depth of thinking that goes into filmmaking. And in this film, particularly when he speaks about people being metaphors for the divine and creativity, these, folks, as far as he was concerned, were metaphors for the divine because they were naturally creative. So we learned a lot about him that we didn’t know previously going into this. At least I did not know.

LG: And there’s so much more to to to learn too. So that’s something that we’d like to work on soon. A documentary on my grandfather and his work, because that is a deep dive in and of itself. But as a character in the film, and just like all the characters in the film, you could just do a whole film on each of them because they’re all so interesting.