Award-Winning Playwright R. Eric Thomas

IN CINEMA

Sunday, June 15th at 7PM

Pride at Maysles: THE WORLD BEFORE ME; VINTAGE • FAMILIES OF VALUE; POP-UP EXHIBITION and 30TH ANNIVERSARY PARTY

Co-presented with Family Pictures USA

PRIDE at MAYSLES: THE WORLD BEFORE ME

Cass Arrington, 2022, 6 min.

Cass Arrington tracks the multi-generational experiences of growing up queer across two generations of family history.

PRIDE at MAYSLES: VINTAGE • FAMILIES OF VALUE

Thomas Allen Harris, 1995, 72 minutes

VINTAGE • FAMILIES OF VALUE is an experimental documentary that looks at three African American families through the eyes of siblings who are lesbian and gay—including the filmmaker and his brother, Lyle Ashton Harris. Anni Cammett, Anita and Adrian Jones are sisters and mothers forging their vision of matriarchy out of a turbulent history of love and betrayal. Paul and Vanessa Eaddy are the only two gay siblings of a family of eight from Baltimore, Maryland. However, internalized homophobia has prevented them from forming a friendship. Over the course of five years, the Harris brothers, the Eaddys and the Cammett/Jones sisters use camcorders and Super 8 film to construct frank and sometimes raw autobiographical portraits of their respective families in VINTAGE • FAMILIES OF VALUE.

+ Post-screening discussion with director Thomas Allen Harris, Cass Arrington, and Michael Henry Adams! Celebration of Vintage • Families of Value 30th Anniversary and pop-up exhibition of Harris’ House of Haizlip to follow!

Thomas Allen Harris is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and scholar whose work explores family, identity, and spirituality. Drawing on the rich canon of African American and African Diaspora literature and arts, he draws audiences into dialogues that transcend the barriers which separate people from each other. Harris’ work re-interprets concepts around identity, autobiography, and representation using a model of co-creative socially engaged practice.

For over 30 years Harris has been creating deeply personal films that re-interpret the idea of documentary, autobiography and personal archive, including: Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela

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(2005), É Minha Cara/That’s My Face (2001), VINTAGE - Families of Value

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(1995)., and the NAACP Image Award Winning, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People

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(2014). Harris’ new projects include a film exploring his mother’s career as a chemistry professor and examining the unique challenges facing African Americans pursuing careers in STEM, and a film about the untold story BIPOC activism in the 1980’s around HIV/Aids and the queer creative renaissance.

The creation and touring of his films led Harris to create Digital Diaspora Family Reunion

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(DDFR), a transmedia project that explores the rich and revealing narratives found within family photo albums across cultures. Working in partnership with various educational institutions, libraries, and cultural arts spaces, DDFR organizes workshops, performances, and exhibitions that create communal linkages affirming our common humanity while privileging the voices of people whose stories have often been absent, marginalized or overlooked. The DDFR archive includes over 75 live events, 3,500 interviews and 50,000+ photographs. Out of this methodology, in 2019, Harris created the PBS series Family Pictures USA

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Sweetwater: The Gospel of Iman is a new work written by Nathan Yungerberg and directed by Zhailon Levingston (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), presented by National Black Theatre in Harlem as part of its 2024–2025 season, The Pilgrimage: A Journey Back Home. A commission of NBT’s I Am Soul Playwright Residency, Sweetwater explores the reality of chosen family through the eyes of Michael, a young gay Black writer, and Charlie, a struggling Black actress, as they navigate life in New York City during the AIDS epidemic. Their powerful bond defies conventional definitions of love, taking them on a journey that reshapes their understanding of intimacy, devotion, and legacy. The presentation runs June 26–29, 2025.

Nathan Yungerberg is a Brooklyn-based Afro-surrealist, storyteller, and single father of two who writes for television, audio dramas (podcasts), and theater. He was a freelance writer for Sesame Street, head writer for the Webby-nominated podcast Live from Mount Olympus, co-directed by Tony Award winner Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston (Cats: The Jellicle Ball), and script editor for the podcast Cultureverse, narrated by Yara Shahidi and Kelly Marie Tran. His plays have been developed or presented by New York Theatre Workshop, Cherry Lane Theatre, The Apollo Theater, JAG Productions, Roundabout Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company, Crowded Fire Theater, The Lorraine Hansberry Theater, The Fire This Time Festival, Blackboard Reading Series, 48 Hours in Harlem, The Playwrights’ Center, and others. He was commissioned by The New Black Fest for HANDS UP: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, published by Concord Theatricals and adapted by BBC Radio. His play Esai’s Table was featured in Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mentor Project, mentored by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Danya Taymor. His honors include a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, the National Black Theatre I AM SOUL Playwright Residency, the Playwrights’ Center Core Writer Residency, and the Djerassi Resident Artists Program.