Body of Work: Thomas Allen Harris

For over 30 years Thomas Allen Harris has been creating deeply personal films that re-interpret the idea of documentary, autobiography, and personal archive.

This Body of Work will showcase two documentaries – Vintage: Families of Value and Family Pictures USA – featuring rarely-seen footage. As a Black queer artist, Thomas Allen Harris’ digital archive from the 1980s and 90’s captures themes of identity, community, and self-actualization. Through the personal documentation of himself, his family, and his community, Thomas examines the full range of the human condition while preserving the present moment.

February 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Vintage: Families of Value by Thomas Allen Harris (USA, 1995, 72 minutes)

Vintage is a meditative and reflexive look at black families through the eyes of black lesbian and gay siblings. Contrasting traditional documentaries, Vintage places the camera in the hands of family members to construct a collective autobiographical presentation of the family. Interweaving conversations among family members, verite documentary footage, dramatic portrayals, experimental recreations, visual abstractions, music television strategies, and archival photographs, Vintage is a mosaic of extended black families.

Thomas Allen Harris is a critically acclaimed, interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and scholar whose work explores family, identity, and spirituality. Drawing from the rich canon of African American and African Diaspora literature and arts, he utilizes a wide range of media including video, photography, installations, film, and performance, as well as curation and written texts, to draw audiences into internal and external dialogues that transcend the artificial barriers – personal and social – which separate people from each other and themselves. Harris re-interprets concepts around identity, autobiography, and representation using a model of co-creative socially engaged practice that he has been developing for over three decades.

Darah Gaines Martin (she/they) is an NYC-based filmmaker and producer. She is the director of multiple short films and has created and collaborated on various creative projects working as a producer, creative director, videographer, and editor. She is a practitioner of joy and exploration, on a mission to activate deep levels of self-love and acceptance. She graduated from Delaware State University with a B.A. in Public Reltions and Advertising. Currently, Darah works as an associate producer at Little Light Productions under Independent Filmmaker, Luchina Fisher and as an associate producer on Thomas Allen Harris’ upcoming feature documentary film My Mom, The Scientist.

Host or Publisher Scribe Video Center