Christopher Harris: Speaking in Camouflage

The Whitney Museum of American Art will present an onsite film screening of three films by Christopher Harris for the 2024 Whitney Biennial on Friday, September 20 at 7 pm. Screened in the Museum’s theater, this program features the global premieres of two new short films, b/w and Speaking in Tongues: Take One, as well as the premiere of a newly restored 16mm print of Harris’s early masterwork still/here.

Speaking in Camouflage: Christopher Harris, organized by Kinopravda Institute co-founder and artistic director Greg de Cuir Jr., highlights a body of work by Christopher Harris, one of the leading Black film artists to emerge since the year 2000. Harris’s analog films address concern for Black communities and culture and are paired with free jazz and other avant-garde musical forms.

In still/here (2000–1), Harris explores the streets of the north side of St. Louis, Missouri, surveying the predominantly working-class and working-poor Black neighborhood where he grew up, to chronicle how dynamics of race and class are ingrained in the physicality of buildings and infrastructures. In his new film Speaking in Tongues: Take One (2024), premiering at the 2024 Biennial, Harris draws inspiration from Ishmael Reed’s 1972 novel Mumbo Jumbo, in which the author blends historical narratives with fictional representations to satirically dissect Western civilization. The Biennial also premieres b/w (2023), a silent film with live sound provided by the audience.

This screening will be followed by a conversation between Harris; editor, writer, and curator Dessane Lopez Cassell; and Michael B. Gillespie, Associate Professor in the Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies at New York University.

Program Details

Speaking in Camouflage
Friday, September 20, 2024
7 pm

Film details:
Christopher Harris, b/w, 2023. 3 min. – global premiere
Christopher Harris, Speaking in Tongues: Take One, 2024. 15 min. – global premiere
Christopher Harris, still/here, 2000–1, 60 min.

whitney.org