Neon Acquires U.S. On Documentary ‘Once Upon A Time In Harlem’ Following Sundance Premiere

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Neon has picked up U.S. rights to Once Upon a Time a Harlem, which was conceived and filmed in 1972 by the late William Greaves and restored and directed by his son, David Greaves. Neon beat out Netflix, Mubi and Criterion Collection for the documentary.

The pic, which captures the energy of the Harlem Renaissance, made its world premiere recently at Sundance. A theatrical release is planned for later this year.

In the docu shot in 16MM, William Greaves captured a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. For four hours, the group of artists and intellectuals – 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.

David Greaves, one of the original cameramen, was guided by his late father’s notes and workprints to create a new feature that embodies William’s use of cinema. The docu is produced by his granddaughter, Liani Greaves. David and Liani serve as William Greaves Productions’ President and Vice President of Production, respectively. Louise Archambault Greaves, William’s wife and creative partner of 55 years, co-founded the company in 1963. Following his death in 2014, she worked to restore his films so that his cinematic dream would be realized. Producer Anne de Mare worked with Louise to preserve and digitize over 60,000 feet of previously unseen 16mm footage shot by Greaves in 1972. The preservation was overseen by multi-disciplinary artist and preservationist Bill Brand. Louise passed away in 2023. The deal was negotiated by Sarah Colvin, VP of Acquisitions for Neon and Jason Ishikawa and Isadora Johnson of Cinetic Media on behalf of the filmmakers.

Neon also acquired out of Sundance the Adrian Chiarella horror movie Leviticus, as we first told you.