This screening is followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.
THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE is a documentary about how African American communities have used the camera as a tool for social change from the invention of photography to the present. This epic tale poetically moves between the present and the past, through contemporary photographers and artists whose images and stories seek to reconcile legacies of pride and shame while giving voice to images long suppressed, forgotten, and hidden from sight.
* NAACP Image Award 2015 Nomination – Best Documentary (Theatrical)*
* Black Reel Awards 2015 Nomination – Outstanding Independent Documentary*
* Africa Movie Academy Award 2014 – Best Diaspora Documentary*
* 2014 National Media Market – Best of Show, Collegiate*
Sundance Film Festival, January 2014 – World Premiere
Santa Barbara International Film Festival, February 2014 – West Coast/California Premiere *Social Justice Award for Documentary Film*
Pan African Film Festival, February 2014 – *Festival Programmer’s Award – Documentary*
Berlin International Film Festival, February 2014 – International Premiere *TEDDY Nomination*
Documentary Fortnight 2014: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film, February 2014 – New York Premiere
Atlanta Film Festival, April 2014 – Atlanta Premiere
Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, April 2014 – North Carolina Premiere
30th Annual Boston LGBT Film Festival, April 2014 – Massachusetts Premiere
White River Indie Festival, April 2014 – Vermont Premiere
Montclair Film Festival, April 2014 – New Jersey Premiere
Off Plus Camera: International Festival of Independent Cinema, May 2014 – Poland Premiere
InsideOUT Toronto LGBT Film Festival, May 2014 – Canadian Premiere
Frameline38: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, June 2014 – San Francisco Bay Area Premiere
Pesaro Film Festival, June 2014 – Italy Premiere
Vancouver Queer Film Festival, August 2014 – ‘Metro’ Vancouver Premiere
Da Bounce Urban Film Festival, August 2014 – The Netherlands/Amsterdam Premiere
Festival do Rio: Rio de Janeiro Int’l Film Festival, October 2014 – Brazil Premiere
6th Annual Milwaukee Film Festival, October 2014 – Wisconsin Premiere
Melbourne Arts Festival, October 2014 – Australia Premiere
25th Annual New Orleans Film Festival, October 2014 – Louisiana Premiere
BronzeLens Film Festival, October 2014 – Georgia
17th United Nations Association Film Festival, October 2014 – California
Bermuda Docs, October 2014 – Bermuda Premiere
Indie Memphis Film Festival, October 2014 – Tennessee Premiere
Cairo Int’l Film Festival, November 2014 – Egypt Premiere
8th Athens Avant-Garde Film Festival, November 2014 – Greece Premiere
Houston Cinema Arts Festival, November 2014 – Texas Premiere
Whitaker St. Louis Int’l Film Festival, November 2014 – Missouri Premiere
Baltimore Int’l Black Film Festival, December 2014 – *Best Documentary Feature* Award
Toronto Black Film Festival, February 2015
Thomas Allen Harris is the founder and President Chimpanzee Productions, a company dedicated to producing unique audio-visual experiences that illuminate the Human Condition and the search for identity, family, and spirituality. Chimpanzee’s innovative and award-winning films have received critical acclaim at international film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, FESPACO, Outfest, and Cape Town; have been broadcast on PBS, the Sundance Channel, ARTE, CBC, Swedish broadcasting Network and New Zealand Television; and exhibited at the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, the Melbourne Arts Festival and MoMA.
Mr. Harris’ newly released film, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People, won the Fund for Santa Barbara 2014 Social Justice Award and a Best Diasporic Documentary Award from the Africa Movie Academy Awards in Nigeria. Called “Wise and Passionate” by the New York Times and “Extraordinary” by Time Magazine, Through A Lens Darkly is presently opening in theaters across the country, accompanied by its transmedia community engagement project Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (1world1family.me), an interactive forum that combines film, photography, social media and oral histories in a live touring event. Since 2009, Digital Diaspora has held 18 Roadshows in 9-cities, and received in excess of 10 million media impressions.
Harris is a recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a Tribeca Film Institute’s Nelson Mandela Award, and United States Artist, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller Fellowships. A graduate of Harvard College with a degree in Biology, Mr. Harris has taught as an Associate Professor of Media Arts at the University of California San Diego and a Visiting Artist at the International Center of Photography. A published photographer, curator, and writer, Mr. Harris lectures widely on the use of media as a tool for social change.