William Greaves

And we also have-- there's a lot of-- I think if you're into kind of-- been looking at the festivals, there's been, um, a film that premiered at Sundance, um, earlier this year in January, was Once Upon a Time in Harlem.

It's filmed by William Greaves and completed by his son David, um, more than 50 years later.

But it's a rapturous love letter to the Harlem Renaissance.

So we're seeing some really interesting work around kind of really using archives.

There are movies that might make one festival, might not make another festival.

There's a movie, though, by William Greaves called Once Upon a Time in Harlem.

It's a documentary film.

that was filmed in the 1970s but never actually shown until now never actually finished until now and it's about all of the different figures of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 30s writers musicians artists who all got together at the end of their career at the end of really of their lives to have a dinner and to talk and they filmed that conversation it is one of the most acclaimed films of the year it's played at every major film festival so far and making its Canadian premiere at TIFF

And one of the movies that is there this year is called Once Upon a Time in Harlem.

In Harlem in 1972, acclaimed filmmaker William Greaves hosted a cocktail party for artists and intellectuals, the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance at the home of Duke Ellington.

This was the final recorded gathering representing one of the greatest creative movements in history.

which is a, you know what, let me start by reading the synopsis from TIFF.

Conceived in 1972 by legendary filmmaker William Greaves and completed 50 years later by his son David, Once Upon a Time in Harlem is an essential work of living archive, documenting a lively gathering of luminaries from the Harlem Renaissance during a cocktail party at Duke Ellington's home.

So this is, it's, the idea is that a filmmaker named William Greaves, he invited all of these living legends at the time from the Harlem Renaissance to, you know, one cocktail party and then just interviewed them as much as he could.

To get their thoughts on art, on black art, on Harlem, on the Harlem Renaissance.

And, you know, get them in conversation with each other.

The start of September means the Toronto International Film Festival is just around the corner.

One week from tonight, filmmakers, stars and audiences will gather along King Street for the start of the 51st edition of the festival.

The opening night film is Being Human, a historical drama telling the story of U.S. accessibility advocate Judy Heumann.

That's just one of the nearly 300 titles on the official schedule, along with special events and talks with stars.

And so I just ended up being like, I was like, I know that we kind of laud like it's like whether it's like erotic fiction or like fanfiction as these like female forward texts that are so much better than porn because they're not misogynistic or whatever.

But I'm like, I'm seeing the same like themes and like um like misguidances coming up except that there's except that there's like something almost even more pervasive about it because like it's not just like watching a video that gives you an image it's like you're indulging in like the inner psychology of like imagining yourself to be in a certain kind of position that then like trains you to expect a certain response from yourself or something and so the thesis of the film just ended up being like okay like but then i keep coming back to being like but it's not real like if it's all fantasy like what it's like what is the how could it be dangerous if it's not real and then i was like but i i think it still could be and so that question is kind of what what i entered into the film with of like that i was like i don't know that there's like an answer to that question i'm just kind of fantasy i'm just kind of fascinated like it's so funny because again i'm like i used to have this so down pack but i haven't talked about the film in so long it's like i'm there's like it's distilled like into like one line in the film that's like basically the distillation of the thesis of the film was like was like what is the harm if it's all if it's all fantasy and then again like I was in this moment especially in school where like I was really interested in this history of like it's like William Greaves meta cinema kind of imagination of like in a way like reenactment and like fantasy like indulgent in terms of indulgence in terms of like but it's like it even felt very formal I love things that are like formally interwoven like modern in that way of like that it's like okay like the form should follow the function so like the approach to the film like I was like I love that there's this aspect of like it's inherent to performance because you're talking about performance and relationship performance in terms of like sexuality and then also performance in terms of like an actor in the film as we are like making this film um

the most meta no literally where it's like

so all of it is like so intertwined i'm like okay so like i thought there was something so there was there was something so good there about this idea that it's like well actually in the same way that like It's like when you're putting on a performance as an actor and you like take yourself somewhere and you internalize something from that.

I'll take in Wildcard, um, Once Upon a Time in Harlem.

Now, this is William Greaves and David Greaves, set in 1972.

It's this, this, this old historic footage they found, seemingly excavated from God knows where, of all the surviving, um, Harlem Renaissance legends, and they reunite in, like, Duke Ellington's apartment, and it is such an amazing...

The kind of thing not dissimilar to this documentary-

Bill Stewart of the National League at first base.

Bill Greaves of the American League at second base.

George Barr of the National League will be at third base.

The left field foul umpire will be Dave Canelli of the National League staff.