2015 Storytellers' Institute
Keynote Presentations
Thomas Allen Harris (left)
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 more than six years, Harris produced for
public television, which included two Emmy nominations (in 1991) for his work as a
staff producer at WNET (New York's PBS affiliate) on The Eleventh Hour and Thirteen Live. Recent projects include a national community engagement multimedia initiative that empowers individuals and
families across North America to create new photos, unearth old pictures and share
images documenting themselves and their neighborhoods.
Since the 1970s, radio producer () has pursued a quest, microphone in hand, searching for sounds that enlighten, inform and celebrate life, sounds that carry a special quality that no other medium can convey. With examples from his recordings, radio series and longer-format work produced for public radio, Metzner will demonstrate how he continues to explore the soundscape, creating a virtual space where an audience can share a new experience of listening. We'll hear how sounds can convey a sense of a place, an activity, a mood, a person, a family!