{"id":68117,"date":"2014-02-07T15:43:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T15:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/0de2709a84.nxcli.net\/0-kjasnb\/2014\/02\/07\/thomas-allen-harris-talks-through-a-lens-darkly\/"},"modified":"2018-12-18T04:08:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T04:08:20","slug":"thomas-allen-harris-talks-through-a-lens-darkly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackfilm.com\/read\/thomas-allen-harris-talks-through-a-lens-darkly\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Allen Harris talks Through A Lens Darkly"},"content":{"rendered":"

PAFF 2014: Thomas Allen Harris talks Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People<\/strong>By Wilson Morales<\/p>\n

February 7, 2014<\/p>\n

\"Through<\/a>Thomas Allen Harris<\/strong> is well known filmmaker whose past work has included documentaries such as \u2018\u00c9 Minha Cara\/That\u2019s My Face\u2019<\/strong> and \u2018Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela.\u2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n

His latest project, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People<\/strong>, which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is \u201c a documentary about Black photographers and an interactive multi-platform project that provides a new look at the Black photographic archive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making a documentary is always a journey for any filmmaker. There is no script and one never knows a date when the project will be completed to be shown. For Harris, he\u2019s been through this process several times and will continue to go through it so long as he has a story that needs to be told.<\/p>\n

In speaking with Blackfilm,com as the film gets ready to make its festival run, Harris talks about \u2018Through A Lens Darkly\u2019 and the journey it\u2019s taken to get done and seen.<\/p>\n

\"Deborah<\/a>What led you to do this topic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thomas Allen Harris:<\/strong> Deborah Willis is the authority of African American photographers had finished and published a book called \u2018Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present.\u2019 I was in that book and she approached me about doing a film that was inspired by the book or doing a film version of the book. I had to figure out how does one do that? What does that look like? The book has a list of amazing photographers but what is our story and how do I put that in a film. Over the course of years, I realized that I had to put myself in the film to be able to unite a lot of different aspects of the narrative. We had interviewed over 50 different people and half of them are academic, but told the story of African Americans in terms of visual image. The other half were contemporary photographers and artists who had a lot of history in their work. I knew that I could back and forth between the present and the past. I also come from a family of photographers. My grandfather was a photographer and my brother is a contemporary photographer. In many ways, the film became about dealing with legacies of the stereotype. In some ways, the film is about revisiting the American family album.<\/p>\n

\"Through<\/a>Was everyone receptive to being part of the documentary?
\n<\/strong>
\nThomas Allen Harris:<\/strong> This is the first film that has talked about black photographers as a group. This is the very documentary, so we\u2019re making history. On the one hand, people are very willing. A lot of people know Deborah Willis and they were in her book. On the other hand, I\u2019m a photographer and an artist. I consider myself mostly an artist who works in the documentary and film world. There were people I knew personally or had followed their work over the years. Some of them were friends of Deborah and of my brother. Many black artists in this country were overlooked. There were interested in having their story told, especially we have similarities with the story and the narrative and the ethos and the book.<\/p>\n

\"Thomas<\/a>Whenever you start any documentary, which always requires time for research, do you give yourself and timeframe as to when you want to complete the project?
\n<\/strong>
\nThomas Allen Harris:<\/strong> Yes. I initially thought I would be done by 2009, but that did not happen. It took me about four or five years to edit. I started the editing in 2008 and the recession hit and at Sundance, we not only have a film, but we have a trans-media project. It was always going to be more than just a film, so when the funding for the fell, we were blessed to jump on the trans-media project, Digital Diaspora Family Reunion, which is helping people to understand the value of their family photographs. Not just the historical value, but the value of entertainment in the community. We worked on the Digital Diaspora project, which is here at Sundance as well in the New Frontier section. We worked on that for about two years and then the funding came through to edit the other film. We started editing in 2011 and unfortunately we ran out of money again. Some money had been promised and then it was delayed. We then got the money again. It was a back and forth process, which is similar to other documentaries, where the editing takes much longer because the story is unfolding. With narrative film, you can get the money to edit because you have a script and you know what story you\u2019re telling before you make the film. The nature making a documentary is a journey and even if you think you know, the film will reveal itself to you and that happens in the writing and it happens in the editing.<\/p>\n

\"Through<\/a>
\n
\nDoes the process ever get overwhelming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Through<\/a>Thomas Allen Harris:<\/strong> This is a marathon. Sometimes you have to run it like a sprint and sometimes you have to take a break and wait for things to get clear and wait for things to come through. You have to have a vision and you have to be committed. I\u2019ve been blessed not only with the energy to keep it going, but also have people to work with me and have a parallel vision, including some of my principle founders like the Ford Foundation and the National Black Programming Consortium, and Andy Warhol Foundation. When we got accepted to Sundance, we couldn\u2019t be able to afford to go there. At the last minute, a founder named Kimberly Stewart came onboard as our executive producer. We\u2019re really grateful to have someone who really appreciates the vision of this project. We\u2019ve been accepted to the Pan African Film Festival, the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and we will be debut the film in New York City at the Museum of Modern Arts.<\/p>\n

\"Through<\/a>Do you have an idea as to what\u2019s next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thomas Allen Harris:<\/strong> The goal is to do a theatrical release of the film, followed by a TV broadcast. We\u2019re in the process of lining both of those things up. We\u2019re also going to be touring the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion and started a campaign called \u2018One World, One Family.\u2019 We\u2019re urging people to be creative and engage in visual literacy, which is what the focuses on. We want people to understand the power of the camera and of our family photographs and being able to create family amongst people we don\u2019t know and finding humanity amongst each other. African Americans have fought hard for their freedom and to enjoy citizenship in this country. I want to keep spreading that message and encourage people to explore the work of contemporary black photographers, and fine art photographers and they all create history in this way.<\/p>\n

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