Films A to Z
Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
- Runtime:
- 92' min.
- Year of Production:
- 2014
- Country:
- USA
- Director:
- Production Company:
- Through A Lens Darkly, LLC
- Berlinale Section:
- Panorama
- Berlinale Category:
- Documentary Film
In his impressive and artistically versatile documentary, Thomas Allen Harris chronicles the history of photography from an Afro-American perspective. With the aid of countless archive photographs he makes apparent how, from the beginnings of photography to the present day, the black community used the camera as a tool for social change. If photography’s story has until now largely been told through the work of white photographers, Harris enables Afro- American photographers, collectors and historians to have their say and analyse and re-read their history in terms of representations of ‘blackness’ by others as opposed to self-representation. Making use of photographic arrangements, some of which are collage-like and others animated, the film introduces us to photographers of arthistorical importance like Roy De Carvava and Deborah Willis who have influenced subsequent artists and inspired them with their powerful depiction of everyday life. As he did in his film E minha cara which screened at the Berlinale in 2002, Harris once again makes use of personal material depicting his own family in order to reflect upon the emergence of a sense of photographic identity among African Americans in the USA.
BIOGRAFIE Thomas Allen Harris
Born in New York in 1962, he grew up in the Bronx and in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania. A biology graduate from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his documentaries, installations and experimental videos have been presented at numerous international festivals. His film É MINHA CARA screened in the Berlinale Forum in 2001. He also works as a TV producer and has founded a film production company, Chimpanzee Productions.
FILMOGRAFIE Thomas Allen Harris (selection)
2014 Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
2011 Marriage Equality: Byron Rushing and the Fight for Fairness
2009 Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow
2005 Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela
2001 É Minha Cara/That’s My Face
1999 Blue Baby
1996 Encounter at Intergalactic Café
1995 Families of Value
1995 VINTAGE
1994 All In the Family
1994 Math, Science & Community
1993 Heaven, Earth & Hell
1992 Black body
1991 Splash
1989 Crisis: Who will do Science
1988 65-C Codman Park
Thomas Allen Harris @IMDb
Trailer