But “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” It’s a startlingly documented event, and it has a strange relationship with the past. This incident happened on a day in 1972, almost half a century ago. It’s about remembering the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, jumping another half century in time.

In this way, “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” spans more than a century. It doesn’t just revive the Harlem Renaissance. It’s more about the task of reviving the Harlem Renaissance: it needs to be remembered, debated, and cherished. The film is less an act of conservation than a vibrant and moving reminder that history is an ever-unfolding continuum.

It’s also just a cocktail party – a really, really wonderful cocktail party. In August 1972, filmmaker William Greaves invited veterans of the Harlem Renaissance to gather at Duke Ellington’s townhouse and contemplate its legacy. Greaves planned to shoot the program on 16 mm for a film titled “From These Roots” with a small camera crew, including his son David.

But Greaves eventually remade that 1974 documentary largely with archival photographs. He spent several years debating what to do with the footage of the townhouse in 1972, but he never found a home for it. Following Greaves’ death in 2014 at the age of 87, his widow, Louise Archambault Greaves, pledged to restore the footage. David Greaves stepped up to take the project across the finish line.

“Once Upon a Time in Harlem” is a Marvel film, so it has an intoxicating time-capsule feel, like a ’70s documentary classic that was somehow forgotten at the time. We occasionally hear Greaves’ voice from behind the camera or catch him in the mirror. But the film is largely observational, floating among conversations as attendees discuss the meaning and nature of the intellectual, artistic and cultural movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.

On a surface level, there is a lot to see. Experienced but beautiful faces. The vibe of stuffy townhouse rooms. Turtlenecks and cocktail dresses.

But the conversation is inspiring and energetic. What exactly was the Harlem Renaissance? There is no clear answer for those gathered this day. Remembering this requires debating where to place the greatest emphasis. Is it a case of recalling certain individuals, and if so, who? Or was it thriving because of something more communal and difficult to define? Author George Schuyler calls it “the awakening of the people who write and think.” Poet Erna Bontemps has called it “a prism reflecting all black experiences from the beginning to the present.”

The definition of bontemps shares the spirit of “Once Upon a Time in Harlem”. The film could hardly be set more specifically in a single day. In dialogue and detail, the documentary spans the years leading up to the Harlem Renaissance and reflects both the contemporary ’70s and today, when black history is under great threat. The final images of the film are of children on the street outside, a different look that takes “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” into the future.

Some of the attendees included Ida Mae Cullen, widow of poet Countee Cullen; writer-artist Richard Bruce Nugent; painter Aaron Douglas; Socialist and bookstore owner Richard B. Moore; Lee Whipper, actor and founder of the Negro Actors Guild; pianist Eubie Blake; and scholar John Henry Clarke.

“Once Upon a Time in Harlem” is most poignant when the party crowd steps back momentarily and excerpts from poets and writers including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Cullen speak with a depth of meaning that the free-flowing conversation of the gathering — for all its thoughtfulness — cannot match. The same is true of Whipper, an imposing and eloquent presence in the mid-90s, who eagerly recites, from memory, his speech from the 1943 film “Mission to Moscow.”

It is in these moments that any definition between past and present disappears. In “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” a documentary shared by father and son, the collective spirit and enduring sound of the Harlem Renaissance comes roaring back.

The Neon movie “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” released Friday in select theaters, has been given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association for some disturbing images, strong racial language, smoking and brief partial nudity. Running time: 100 minutes. Four out of four stars.

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