Once Upon a Time in Harlem - Director William & Producer Liani Greaves
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. That historic gathering is the basis for this remarkable documentary film, Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Director William Greaves and Producer Liani Greaves joins us to talk about their work. About the filmmaker - David Greaves is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. He worked as cinematographer and/or editor on many of his father William Greavesʼ films including the famed feature film, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 1. Significantly, he was one of the original cameramen during the 1972 shoot for Once Upon a Time in Harlem. In 1996 he founded DBG Media and the award-winning independent newspaper Our Time Press. As a journalist and writer, he has won numerous awards from the Independent Press Association and the New York Association of Black Journalists, including First Place awards for investigative reporting, in-depth reporting, and personal commentary, among them. About the filmmaker - Liani Greaves is an independent producer and Vice President of William Greaves Productions, continuing the cinematic legacy of her grandfather, pioneering filmmaker William Greaves. As a teenager, she worked in the office at William's production companv. She began her career at Columbia Pictures before moving into music video production as a director’s representative for Hype Williams. In 2005, she produced Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2½ alongside her grandfather and actor Steve Buscemi, the follow-up to Greaves’s critically acclaimed Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One. Her work also includes producing fundraising campaigns and events in the nonprofit sector.
