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.

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