Tanzania / USA

Born in the Bronx and raised in New York City and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Thomas Allen Harris began his career as a photographer before producing for public television, for which he received several awards including two Emmy nominations (in 1991) for his work as a staff producer at WNET (New York’s PBS affiliate) on The Eleventh Hour. Harris is a recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including a 2015 NAACP Image Award, United States Artist Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, Rockefeller Fellowship, A Blade of Grass Fellow as well as a Tribeca Film Institute’s Nelson Mandela Award. Harris has taught, written and lectured widely on media. Harris is the founder and President of 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, Flaherty and Cape Town and have been broadcast on PBS, the Sundance Channel, ARTE, as well as CBC, Swedish Broadcasting Network and New Zealand Television. In addition, Harris’ videos and installations have been featured in museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Biennial, Corcoran Gallery, Reina Sophia, London Institute of the Arts and the Gwangju Biennale. He has held positions as Associate Professor of Media Arts at the University of California San Diego, and Visiting Professor of Film and New Media at Sarah Lawrence College. Harris also travels with his trans-media community engagement project called Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR) and received an NAACP Image Award for his feature documentary Through A Lens Darkly. Harris has brought DDFR to national TV with Family Pictures USA which airs on PBS. Biography Source

Filmography

Splash (1991)
Black Body (1992)
Heaven, Earth, and Hell (1993)
Vintage – Families of Value (1995)
É Minha Cara [That’s My Face] (2001)
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (2005)
Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness (2010)
hrough a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People (2014)
Family Pictures USA (2019)