“Once Upon a Time in Harlem” is a film 54 years in the making. When the late documentarian William Greaves set out to film a cocktail party he organized at Duke Ellington’s home in 1972, he wanted to capture history on film. This look at the Harlem Renaissance, as told by its participants, was a project he didn’t complete before his death in 2014.
Greaves’s son David, one of the cameramen at Ellington’s house in Harlem, restored and assembled the 16mm footage. The finished product is one of the most informative and important documentaries I’ve ever seen.
This isn’t just Black history — it’s American history. The notion that Black history is preserved most prominently through an oral tradition is proven by this documentary’s focus on the words of its subjects. You can attempt to erase our history from textbooks, and try to rewrite it through laws and lies, but you can’t remove it from the millions of Black folks who learned it firsthand from our ancestors.
The ancestors speak loudly and clearly here. William Greaves, who is often seen on camera, takes us back in time only to be brought further back in time. It’s a hot day on Aug. 6, 1972, and Ellington’s home is filled with luminaries itching to discuss events that happened decades prior. The general timeline of the Harlem Renaissance, the cultural movement centered around Black art, literature, politics, music, fashion, and scholarship, is between 1910 and 1930. None of the people we see in this film are still with us; most were senior citizens when they gathered to argue about the details, reminisce fondly of days past, and, most importantly, spill some tea about their friends and colleagues.
By allowing everyone to have their say in the room together, and also in one-on-one interviews, the cocktail party in “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” becomes equal parts barbershop banter, graduate school lecture, and the loosest moments at a cookout. The party is also a reminder that we are not a monolith; there are arguments about Marcus Garvey, socialism, and other topics. For example, conservative author George Schuyler recalls his battles with author and poet Langston Hughes about how Black artists should describe themselves.
Ellington is not present (he was sick at the time), but the attendees are a jaw-dropping slew of names across a wide variety of artistic achievements. Painter and queer cultural pioneer Richard Bruce Nugent is often seen wherever the camera is. Poet Arna Bontemps recites his poem, “The Daybreakers.” Noble Sissle sings some of the songs he wrote.
Composer Eubie Blake, who wrote the very popular 1921 all-Black Broadway musical “Shuffle Along” with Sissle, is also in attendance, as is 96-year old actor Leigh Whipper. The party’s elder statesman, Whipper calls the 85-year old Blake “young.” He was the first Black person to join Actors Equity, as well as the cofounder of the Negro Actors Guild of America.
Proving that he still had the memory of a much younger man, Whipper recites a very long monologue he performed as Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie in the 1943 film “Mission to Moscow.” It was so long that David Greaves could only include a portion of it in the finished film.
Photographer James Van Der Zee, who photographed many of his fellow party guests during the Renaissance, casually tickles the ivories on Ellington’s piano. “I haven’t played in years,” he tells Greaves, showcasing a talent viewers familiar with his photos might not have known he had. Greaves uses Van Der Zee’s photos to show his subjects in their heyday.
Women aren’t left out of the discussion or the party. People reminisce about author Zora Neale Hurston (“Their Eyes Were Watching God”) and sculptor Augusta Savage, both of whom had passed away by then. Society columnist Gerri Major remembers that she covered numerous gatherings like this during the Renaissance. “No matter whose party you went to, you met the same people,” she points out.
One of the most memorable attendees is Ida Mae Cullen, the widow of poet Countee Cullen. She makes sure her late husband is given the credit he deserves, and sternly affirms that “the Renaissance was in the ’20s,” not any earlier or later.
Everyone’s memory is sharp, even if there are debates on particular details. Some of the people at Ellington’s party hadn’t seen each other in decades, so there’s plenty of catching up to do. And the stories these people tell once the punch loosens them up will make you glad you were a fly on this particular wall.
One particular story recounts how Charles Lindbergh would not shake 20th Century-Fox musical star Bill “Bojangles” Robinson’s hand after landing in New York City — and how the city’s then mayor Jimmy Walker immediately offered his hand to Robinson instead. We’re also informed that Teddy Roosevelt was once booed in Harlem. There are so many more fascinating tales told in the 100-minute runtime that you’ll long for more footage.
“Young people will never get anywhere if they don’t know their history,” we’re told. “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” is a great place to start learning that history.
★★★★
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM
Directed by David Greaves. At Coolidge Corner. 100 minutes. PG-13 (a salty word here and there)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.