'Once Upon a Time in Harlem' opens in DC Friday

All right, welcome back into Good DDC. It is a film that is the talk of town. Once Upon a Time in Harlem transports us to a monumental moment in African-American history conceived by the late great filmmaker William Greaves. A documentary was shot in 1972 in Duke Ellington's home where some of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance gathered for one historic afternoon. For the first time, we were aware of so many creative people who were black. And all of them were aiming at the same thing, the struggle of the Negro, the rise of the Negro. Please welcome to Good Day, producer of Once Upon a Time in Harlem, Liani Greaves. It is so good to have you. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much. It's great to be here. This is so neat and even more the connection with your grandfather who sat down with so many luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. First, when you just think about that monumental moment and being able to capture some of that, do you get chills? how do you feel? Yes, I still get chills about it. Just that them being in the room, having this relationship with my grandfather now after all these years and being able to finally bring his vision to the world. Yeah, I'm still getting chills. And I'm sure hours and hours and hours of just archive footage is so much to sift through. Tell us about the film and how you were able to just find the right pieces to put it together. Yeah, there's 60,000 feet of film that they was that they shot um over a period of two days there was the party and then they had them come back the next day um in their same clothing to do some of the sit-down interviews and so yeah choosing what goes in was really a choice about i mean you know my my father describes it as a conversation that he'd had with my grandfather and several times in the editing room over the years which was to just really be conscious of any visceral feelings that you get about what you're seeing and when something you know affects you viscerally to that's that's the thing to keep in and so we whittle it down we wanted for people to get the history and also to see the sense of community that was happening between the people that were in the room yeah when we get a chance to sit down and see this film what what are we going to see what's the conversation about you're going to see people that had not seen each other in 50 some odd years first of all so that's the first thing, you know, they're coming into the door and seeing people that they hadn't seen in many years. And they were people that they, they were their old colleagues, people that they'd worked together, you know, been in relationship with, created art with, and so created this movement. And so you're going to hear them talk about, you know, the things that were important to them at the time, and that are still important to us now. Things about like identity, their sense of identity, who they are, um, the political movements, the other people, their, their colleagues, you know, their, their friends, um, you know, the people that are not in the room, but they're sort of their ghosts are in this space. Yeah. Yeah. One thing I think is interesting about the timing of this. I mean, we have a whole new generation. Gen Z now is coming up and the Harlem Renaissance may be a time period that many of them aren't familiar with, or even some of the legacy about African American history when it comes to this time period. What do you hope that even the younger generation is able to glean from seeing this when it comes especially to preserving a black history? Yeah, well I think first of all it's the history, right? It's that it exists and so they're going to be learning about that but beyond that, I think what I want for people to really come away with it, particularly young people, is to see the example. I talk about this film like it's a recipe for a renaissance or an awakening. And the things that we notice is that there was this intergenerational community. So you have the elders, the young people, they were all working together in these kinds of apprenticeships. And then you have this community that was happening. The artist was, you know, reading the poet, the poems for the poet and the poet was sitting for the sculptor and the sculptor was, you know, so they were all kind of working together and being in community, they were able they were debating each other they didn't always agree um but they but they loved each other they were in community they were fiercely um committed to being that and so i think it is a way to reflect on our ways of being in the world and um and yeah i think that young people are going to see it and say this is something that i can do this is you know remember kind of what we're capable of as a nation really yeah i love how you touch on something how this could be a teaching moment especially when you do disagree on something but being able to respect the differences just because you don't agree doesn't mean you can't get along is that also just one of the takeaways when it comes to just one thing that all of us can maybe learn about how you know challenges were confronted absolutely yeah and and not just you know we we disagree but we can still be in the same room but also we can learn from that disagreement so what is it that is is creating this um this conflict between us and we can become more curious about about that and and welcome that in even right so we're not kind of always in our own silo of yes that makes sense and you know we're all agreeing and that's good you know debate is important in the film there's a uh george Schuyler says you know that this is a sign of a civilized society and that's what that's what that is it's being respectful with each other yeah and that is a lesson that never goes out style. Leoni, I wish we had more time. This is going to be a fabulous film. Be sure to check out more information about it once upon a time in harlemfilm.com, and also give them a follow on social media as well. Be sure to check out the film. It will be here in the D.C. area. We'll have more information on fox5dc.com. Leoni, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for having me. You're welcome. I appreciate it. All right, Julie, over to you. All right, thank you. Well, when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit about the weather. We know it was gorgeous this weekend. How long is that weather going to last as we are kicking off the work week. And when it comes to trick-or-treating on Halloween, what can you expect? Rain? Cold weather?