Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People is a two-hour film that will explore the role of photography, since its rudimentary beginnings in the 1840s, in shaping the identity, aspirations, and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present. Award winning filmmaker, journalist, artist,

Collage artist Ekua Holmes lovingly holds a large, framed black & white portrait she took of her grandfather Commodo Hendricks, at the DDFR road show in Boston, MA.  “I see love and compassion in his face,” she remarks to Thomas while describing one of several pictures from both Hendricks’ and her own personal collection against [...]

Dominique Smith was one of our volunteers at our second DDFR Roadshow at theSilverDocs Film Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland. We were impressed by her enthusiasm for the project during the three days in which she helped scan hundreds of family photographic archives from the local community. During the last day, we invited Dominique to [...]

Award-winning journalist, professor and author, Pamela Newkirk joined us for the DDFR Roadshow @ Brookyn Public Library, where she shared some of the photographs that have inspired her. Her father ran a small antiques shop,where he collected numerous photographs featuring Black subjects. Growing up, Pamela was always intrigued by the images from times long past [...]

The Harlem Stage Gatehouse was sold-out for the Grand Finale of the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion (DDFR) Road on Sunday, February 27th. The lively celebration hosted by Thomas Allen Harris was the concluding the Harlem edition of the national DDFR Roadshow.  During its week-long residency at Harlem Stage, the DDFR Roadshow conducted Family Photo Interviews with [...]

Author Tequila Minsky writes on the DDFR Roadshow Harlem Grand Finale for Caribbean LIfe. Tequila’s article stands out as it was the only one to comprehensively cover the DDFR Grand Finale event. Excerpt from Tequila Minksy’s article: New York-based documentary filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris is merging his filmic skills with oral traditions and new technologies [...]

On Wednesday, March 2, The Takeaway‘s John Hockenberry interviewed Thomas Allen Harris on Digital Diaspora Family Reunion in an episode the called: “Rewriting History, One Family Photo at a Time.” The Takeaway: They say that history is written by the people in power. And for centuries in the Western world, that meant that stories by [...]

BERNICE BENNETT Bernice Bennett shares a story which seems to be more than just a coincidence. She took photographs of pictures on a wall about a month before Hurricane Katrina destroyed everything. Ms. Bennett speaks to Thomas Allen Harris during the DDFR Roadshow at SilverDocs in Silver Spring, MD about her journey to South Carolina to find the [...]

It was supposed to be a routine matter, getting a passport in order to make an overseas journey. But for Clarence Page, that routine matter opened the doors to a long-held family secret that profoundly affected his life. Clarence Page, the 1989 Pulitzer Prize winner for Commentary, is a columnist syndicated nationally by Tribune Media [...]

We interviewed Sally Letterlough during the DDFR Roadshow at SilverDocs in Silver Spring, MD. She brought in images dating back to the 1900s. The photographs were some of the smallest prints we had come across – thumb-size! She also brough books she created that for her family family reunions which have been going on for 60-years. [...]