Thomas Allen Harris Read Bio Collapse
Thomas Allen Harris is an artist, filmmaker, and scholar whose work across film, video, photography, and performance illuminates the human condition and the search for identity, family, and spirituality. His mythopoetic films include Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014) and Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela: A Son’s Tribute to Unsung Heroes (2005). In 2009, Harris founded Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, LLC (DDFR) a socially engaged transmedia project that incorporates community organizing, performance, virtual gathering spaces, and storytelling into unique audio-visual events in over 75 cities in North and South America and Africa. The project culminated in the critically acclaimed PBS series Family Pictures USA, as well as the creation of the Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling which uses the family album as a vehicle to connect people across differences. Harris is currently in production on My Mom, The Scientist, an examination of the relationship between art, science, and spirituality. He is a Professor in the Practice at Yale University in African American Studies and Film & Media Studies.