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Help Get Through A Lens Darkly In Schools!

Using Transmedia to Create a More Diverse & Inclusive Culture & Strengthen Community

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Help Get Through A Lens Darkly In Schools!

Help Get Through A Lens Darkly In Schools!

Help Get Through A Lens Darkly In Schools!

Help Get Through A Lens Darkly In Schools!

Help Get Through A Lens Darkly In Schools!

Using Transmedia to Create a More Diverse & Inclusive Culture & Strengthen Community

Using Transmedia to Create a More Diverse & Inclusive Culture & Strengthen Community

Using Transmedia to Create a More Diverse & Inclusive Culture & Strengthen Community

Using Transmedia to Create a More Diverse & Inclusive Culture & Strengthen Community

OneWorld OneFamily
OneWorld OneFamily
OneWorld OneFamily
OneWorld OneFamily
1 Campaign |
New York, United States
$3,405 USD 46 backers
2% of $150,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal

Project Description


We are Through A Lens Darkly LLC, independent documentary filmmakers who, for over 25 years, have focused on creating unique audio-visual experiences that inform, educate and entertain, while illuminating the human condition in the search for identity, family and spirituality.

TALD producers Thomas Allen Harris & Deborah Willis with Ford Foundation President Darren Walker

We have successfully launched an epic new award-winning documentary film, THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE, which has played to sold-out audiences at festivals and in theaters in over 60 cities around the world, from New York to Melbourne, Los Angeles to Cairo, Chicago to Krakow, Atlanta to Rio de Janerio and everywhere in between, and will be nationally broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens on February 16th. Through A Lens Darkly, inspired by the ground-breaking work of photo-historian Deborah Willis, PhD., is about contemporary artists probing the recesses of the American dream by interrogating images of stories suppressed, forgotten and lost. It is the first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present.

Our companion transmedia project, DIGITAL DIASPORA FAMILY REUNION: 1WORLD1FAMILY, launched in 2009, is specifically designed to get audiences to personally engage with the subject matter of the film by bringing their own family photographs to a live public event, where their images are shared with others in the creation of a new form of community, where strangers are transformed into “family.” We have held over 23 DDFR engagements across the country, interviewing over 900 participants, gathering over 1000 hours of video footage, collecting over 10,000 images and receiving over 80,000 "Likes" and over 12.2 million media impressions, which have resulted in an additional 2,000 images being gathered from people eager to share their stories via Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Thomas Allen Harris and TALD Team @ Dartmouth College

Everywhere we have traveled, people have asked us how they, too, can use our film and transmedia platform in their schools, places of work, organizations and neighborhoods to spark cross-cultural and inter-generational dialogues on issues of race, visual representation, self-identity, self-determination and how we "see" one another, especially ideas around "The Other." This campaign will help us to create "Train-the-Trainer" materials and guides so that we can enlarge the reach of the film and DDFR.  Specifically, we are looking to create:

  • Educational Teaching Guides for High Schools Educators
  • Diversity & Inclusion Templates for Businesses & Institutions
  • Community Tool-kits for Local Organizations

The funds raised will be used for scholars, academic consultants, writers, multilingual translators, multimedia producers, videographers and editors to help us develop innovative tools that will enable the issues, ideas, messages and values prominent in the film and throughout the DDFR transmedia project to be successfully duplicated anywhere and everywhere.

We are at a socio-cultural and political moment where our understanding of people who are different from us is of vital importance to our own ability to understand ourselves. We see daily reminders of the dangers of marginalization and lack of representation in the images that define a society.

People Killed In Police Custody 1999 - 2014   Source: NAACP LDF, Inc. & Gawker

Through A Lens Darkly and Digital Diaspora Family Reunion offer Hope and a way forward that leads to greater social harmony and improved relations between people, founded on our shared values and experiences as Human Beings. This campaign will help us to spread that Hope far and wide.

Through A Lens Darkly Screening, Cardinal Ritter High School, St. Louis, 2014

What We Need

We are looking to raise $150,000 to cover production costs associated with the creation of the 1World1Family Tool-Kit. We already have a substantial amount of content "in the can," which needs to be reviewed, transcribed and turned into short video pieces. We need to create specific teaching and discussion guides for each short piece and the guides need to be translated into Spanish. We need to create step-by-step instructional materials for how to run a DDFR event, including associated film screenings, community photo-sharing sessions and community discussions on visual literacy. We need to develop best practices and business cases for Diversity & Inclusion training and facilitation guides. We need to create specific educational classroom guides and student activities using our existing content and conforming to Common Core protocols.

We are routing contributions to the campaign through our fiscal sponsor, National Black Programming Consortium, which has been a very strong supporter and funder of our project. All contributions over $150 will be tax-deductible (less the value of the premium received.)

The Impact

PROJECT IMPACT – TALD: Post-VIP Screening, Aug 12, 2014

“The film is very important to anyone who is seeking liberation from self-doubt, and looking to reconnect to the greatness and power of family and community. This was a serious undertaking by committed artist who have a love for human family..........kudos TEAM DDFR/TALD”    - Kev via Facebook

“Thank you so much for this wonderful and necessary piece of work! I left the theater proud, reaffirmed, uplifted and education. There are so many artists in this project that I have studied and purchased their books. It also affirmed the decisions and sacrifices I have made over the past 4 years to switch careers and pursue fine art photography.”     - Kimberly via Facebook

"I cannot speak enough about your movie. After the screening, my head was about to explode because of the many images that were running through my brain.  I could not go home.  Instead, I went to a Harlem bar with my friend … to have a debrief ....There, we sat and talked about the many stories and emotions packed in your movie:  abandonment, life without a father, African-American history, self-esteem, family, freedom, slavery, family secrets, passing, the value that people of color place on each other (i.e. the photos that were tossed in the garbage).  I could go on and on and on.   … I stayed at the bar until 1AM talking about your film and how we need to get others to experience it....You gave each of us who saw your film a gift, and I thank you.”     - Alton via email

PROJECT IMPACT – DDFR: Post-Brooklyn College Engagement,

"Thank you to Thomas Allen Harris and his crew for reminding us how and why real people make real history every day. While DDFR encourages us to opens our hearts and our minds to own personal history, sharing our these experiences in front of an audience of our colleagues, friends, and family members opens us to a much wider human experience. That we can share and admire why we are historically and culturally unique as we behold and treasure our affinities as human beings is, for this participant, the wondrous balance created by DDFR. ... History will never be the same in these parts."     - Steve via email

Other Ways You Can Help

Please help us to spread the word about Through A Lens Darkly and Digital Diaspora Family Reunion. Tell you friends, share on social media, send the link for the campaign to your contact lists and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

If you know of organizations or community groups, schools or colleges, people or collaborators we should speak with; or know places that we should screen the film, host a discussion or bring the DDFR Roadshow, contact us, we play well with others!
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Choose your Perk

Special Thanks

$10 USD
A Special Thank You! Email from the THROUGH A LENS DARKLY Team
1 claimed

Social Media Honor Role

$25 USD
Inclusion of Donor Name in TALD/DDFR Social Media Honor Roll, which will go out on eblast and Facebook (over 10,000 contacts combined.)
5 out of 1000 of claimed

TALD Postcard

$50 USD
A THROUGH A LENS DARKLY postcard signed by Director Thomas Allen Harris. In addition, includes all perks below the $50 threshold.
6 out of 500 of claimed

THROUGH A LENS DARKLY DVD

$150 USD
The DVD includes Extra Video modules, Slideshows and More. In addition, includes all perks below $150 threshold.
9 out of 50 of claimed

TALD Dove Poster

$500 USD
A THROUGH A LENS DARKLY Dove Movie Poster signed by the Director, Thomas Allen Harris. In addition, includes all perks below $500 threshold.
0 out of 20 of claimed

Personal Photo-Sharing Session

$5,000 USD
An personal family photo-sharing session with our Digital Diaspora Family Reunion Roadshow Team, to be videotaped and photographed and then turned into a short video module broadcast on the 1World1Family YouTube Channel. Limited to New York Metro area only. In addition, includes all perks below the $5,000 threshold.
0 out of 5 of claimed

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