Mandela

Screening + Q&A:
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela

Saturday, September 27, 2025
4 PM

Free admission.

Bronx Documentary Center
614 Courtlandt Ave, Bronx, NY 10451

Join Bronx-born filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris for a screening to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his celebrated documentary, Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela. It is at once the story of young South African revolutionaries, members of the ANC youth league, spreading the word of Nelson Mandela and his fight against apartheid in the 1960s, and it is also a story of fathers and sons—Harris’ own exploration of his relationship with one of those young men, his stepfather B. Pule Leinaeng.

Following the screening, Harris will be available for a Q&A about the film and his career as a director.

Thomas Allen Harris (@thomas_allen_harris) is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and scholar whose work explores family, identity, and spirituality through socially-engaged storytelling. For over 30 years, he has created acclaimed films—including Through A Lens Darkly (2014), winner of the NAACP Image Award—that reimagine documentary and personal archives.


Harris is the founder of the transmedia project Digital Diaspora Family Reunion and the PBS series Family Pictures USA, both of which use family photographs to spark dialogue across communities. A Guggenheim Fellow and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Harris teaches at Yale University and lectures widely on media, archives, and social change.