Learn More About This Event Below

Presented in partnership with Chimpanzee Productions

Description:

For the past 15 years, award-winning documentary filmmaker and artist, Thomas Allen Harris has been mining his family archive to create compelling narratives that engage, entertain and illuminate the intersections of personal family history with the historical sweep of our culture and times. History, according to Harris, is the collection of our individual stories into the meta-narrative. "Why leave your photographs stored in boxes when you can use them to educate and empower new generations about Who we are and Where we come from?"

Harlem Stage will host Harris' latest creation, Digital Diaspora Family Reunion - a new participatory multimedia initiative where audiences bring history to life through their photographic images and stories.  Bring your photo albums, pictures and mementos to Harlem Stage on February 23nd through 25th and share your family stories as part of the DDFR ROADSHOW. Then join us for a special Live Event at Harlem Stage on Sunday, February 27th to celebrate Harlem's Hidden History...YOURS!

This is a completely unique and innovative project, which engages communities in a very intimate way while connecting to a larger context of social engagement, legacy, history through the lens of the personal. As far as we know, no one else has or is doing anything like this. Harris’ relationship with Harlem Stage spans over a few years.  In 2008, his film Look At Me was presented on the Harlem Stage on Screen series and he has moderated several discussions with filmmakers from the Black Documentary Collective and NewFest.

For more info visit www.DDFR.tv

To watch a clip of DDFR process, click here.

Make your reservation to get your photos appraised: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call (212) 281-6002

Appointments available during the following dates and times:

Wednesday, February 23 (3:00 - 8:00 pm)

Thursday, February 24 (3:00 - 8:00 pm)

Friday, February 25 (3:00 - 8:00 pm)

DDFR Roadshow Grand Finale

On Sunday, February 27th at 3:00 pm, join us for the culminating multimedia presentation. It could be you family's story that reveals Harlem's hidden history!

Tickets to this screening are $10 for adults, and $5 for teens.

About the Artists

Thomas Allen Harris - Director/Producer/Writer

Raised in the Bronx and Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, Thomas Allen Harris is an award-winning filmmaker and cultural warrior, whose documentary films, installations, and experimental videos have been featured in venues across the international landscape on television, at festivals, museums, and galleries. For over 6 years, Harris produced for public television, which included two Emmy nominations (in 1991) for his work as a staff producer at WNET (New York¼s PBS affiliate) on The Eleventh Hour and Thirteen Live. His documentary programs CRISIS: Who Will Do Science? and CRISIS: Urban Education aired nationally on public television in 1989 and 1990 respectively.

Harris' most recent film Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela is the third film to make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was broadcast on POV/The American Documentary Series. The film made its theatrical premiere at the BAM Cinematech and won over five international awards and honors including the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award Nomination, Best Documentary Awards at the Pan African and Santa Cruz Film Festivals, and the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking from the Roxbury Film Festival.

Harris' 2001 documentary, É Minha Cara/That's My Face, premiered at the Toronto, Sundance, Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals and was broadcast on the Sundance Channel and ARTE. The film made its theatrical premiere at the BAM Cinematech and won seven international awards, including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury of Christian Churches at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival.

Harris' 1995 documentary feature, Vintage-Families of Value, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, won Best Documentary at the Atlanta Film and Video Festival, a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, was selected for Official Competition at FESPACO in 1997. Vintage was broadcast nationally on Free Speech TV in 1999.

Harris' short films include: Heaven, Earth and Hell, (selected for the Whitney Museum of American Art's 1995 Biennial); Black Body, and Splash. Additional projects include multimedia installations at Gwangju Biennial in Korea, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, New Langton Arts in San Francisco and the Long Beach Museum of Art.

A recent recipient of the United States Artist Award, Harris has received awards, grants and fellowships from such institutions as the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Paul Robeson Fund, and the Lannan Foundation. A Harvard graduate, Harris is presently a visiting professor at Sarah Lawrence College.

www.chimpanzeeproductions.com

Don Perry - Producer

Mr. Perry is Chief Operating Officer of Chimpanzee Productions, Inc. He was co-writer and co-producer of Thomas Allen Harris feature-length documentary E Minha / That's My Face. Mr. Perry is an experienced financial and management consultant with a wide ranging background in commercial finance. He is a Certified Insolvency & Restructuring Advisor and was Executive Vice President - Finance for Wyndhurst Associates, LLC, a boutique financial restructuring and turnaround management firm prior to his association with Chimpanzee Productions. Prior to joining Wyndhurst, Mr. Perry founded a strategic management consulting practice providing services to emerging growth companies focusing on business turnarounds; developing e-commerce strategies and services; mergers and acquisitions; business and process re-engineering; organizational design and development; and corporate finance. Mr. Perry holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Development Economics from Williams College. He received his Masters in Business Administration in Strategic Management from the Peter F. Drucker Center, Claremont Graduate University.

Presented in partnership with Chimpanzee Productions