A black man wearing sunglasses is sitting on a couch. He is holding a red book and speaking into a tape recorder.

© Revenante Films 

Chameleon Street

Film Restored
Talk
Film
Fri 23.10.26, 20:00

Kinemathek – Hall

The improbable but true story of Michigan con man Douglas Street, a “chameleon” who successfully impersonated his way up Reagan-era America’s socioeconomic ladder by posing as a magazine reporter, an Ivy League student, a surgeon and a corporate lawyer. At once piercingly funny and aesthetically mischievous, the film trains a lens on race, class and performance. Starring, written and directed by Wendell B. Harris Jr., the economically precarious production was privately funded by the Harris family and other Black investors. Despite its critical success at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize, ‘Chameleon Street’ never found a distributor and Harris was unable to recoup the money to repay his investors. The film, which has been dubbed a “lost masterpiece of Black American cinema” by ‘Sight & Sound’, is long overdue being given its rightful place in independent film history.

USA 1989, director: Wendell B. Harris Jr., 94 min, OV
Introduction: Yaël Halbron (Revenante Films)
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Tickets € 10 / concessions € 7
When Fri 23.10.26, 20:00
Where
Available online from October
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Event details and guests

Film Info

D: Wendell B. Harris Jr.
W + E: Wendell B. Harris Jr.
C: Dan Noga
M: Peter S. Moore
A: Wendell B. Harris Jr., Angela Leslie, Amina Fakir
P: A Prismatic Images Inc. Production
Prod: Dan Lawton, Helen Boulware Harris, Hobart Whitaker Harris
WP: September 1989

Original format: 35mm, color
Screening print: 4K DCP, 94 min, Revenante Films

Restoration Information

The 4K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative was made under the supervision of Wendell B. Harris Jr. Numerous instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, flicker and warps were digitally restored using Phoenix software while as much as possible of the film’s natural grain has been left untouched. The original mono soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original 35mm magnetic track.

Yaël Halbron

is the founder of the Paris-based Revenante Films, an exhibition-first film agency dedicated to the international distribution of restored and rediscovered cinematic works. She works with filmmakers, producers, distributors and archives to bring classic films back into circulation. Halbron has been selected for professional development programs at the Locarno Film Festival and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF).

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About Film Restored

In 2026, the Deutsche Kinemathek’s film heritage festival explores risk in cinema. We are examining the perils facing film producers and distributors; looking at the challenges encountered in archives and during restoration work; and showing films about characters who have everything at stake. These are layers of risk that often overlap and are mutually reinforcing.

→ More about the festival

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