Cry of the Third Eye, a new opera film in Three Acts, is an interdisciplinary performance work that serves as a sonic and visual durational archive of the gentrification of Third Ward, Houston Texas, a historic district, between the years 2011 and 2020.  Written, directed, performed and composed by creative artist Lisa E. Harris who blends documentary filmmaking with urban dreamscaping, Cry of the Third Eye is a meditation on the questions, how do we Home and how do we Value? This work is metered at a four year interval and all components of the production are sourced from the Greater Third Ward District. Cry of the Third Eye is presented as a cinematic experience with live musical narration, orchestration and discourse, however the film is designed to stand on its own without live performance. 

Running time: 91 minutes 

Link to Private Screener Available Upon Request

Equal parts musical odyssey and pictorial tribute, Cry of the Third Eye- a new opera film in Three Acts is  inspired by the historic, predominately African American Houston neighborhood called Third Ward.  Celebrities such as Beyonce’ And Phylicia Rashad are from this neighborhood, as well as the monumental George Floyd. 

“Third Ward is under threat of extinction due to gentrification and myriad abuse of public policy. I hope to shed light on what a tragic loss  that would be because Third Ward  is also our Home”  

This experimental film with live musical narration follows a young girl searching for her lost dog through the redevelopment of Third Ward, encountering bizarre events of abduction and deconstruction of a neighborhood in transit. Using music, poetry, film, animation and photography, Third Ward's architecture and natural landscape become silent characters as does the new train that is drastically altering the neighborhood.  Another invisible character in this documentary is DNA. My late grandmother stars in Act one of this new opera film, and four generations of her progeny are subsequently introduced as both cast and crew throughout the film. This holds relevance because her  actual home is the leading architectural character around which this documentary revolves.   The idea is to pose these parallel questions: what is opera, and what constitutes as the stage? Is there a connection between personal identity and structural identity and what effects do either have on community and/or society? Is the "people's opera" happening in ways that we can neither hear nor see? Also, what is legacy?  What does epigenetics look like for Black youth?

The first act of Cry of the Third Eye was written in 2011, Act Two in 2015 and Act Three in 2019.   The documentary is an experimental attempt at giving voice to Place and amplifying the spirit of a community. Inanimate objects that are arguably full of soul, such as my Grandparents home of 70 years, or Jack Yates Senior High School, the legendary rite of passage in this historical neighborhood, are the leading characters in this documentary.  I have elelcted to use the architectures of storytelling,  prose, and improvisation to amplify the voices of the physical structures that define Third Ward.  The story begins metaphorically by following  a young girl as she searches for her dog through the redevelopment of Third Ward Houston, Texas.  The new opera film is presented as a partially silent film with live musical narration/ performance. This is how the viewer is introduced to Place.  Half of the structures displayed in the first Act,  had since been demolished by the creation of Act Two, and later Act Three,  making this work an evolving archive of social change as well. This work is site specific, and I carefully framed both sides of the borders of the neighborhood according to zoning maps  and according to the people. I revisit  the same locations that were filmed in 2011 and employ the same cast of characters so that the evolution of time and change is most apparent, especially on the transitioning faces of the elderly, the very young, the pubescent, and animals. 

Even though my 'stage' is geographically in the same place,  the 'set' is changing all the time. For a decade,  I continued my process of  recording  visuals and audio from pre-determined neighborhood locations as they naturally occur, compiling my 'found-sounds' and editing my works to create the orchestral score. Any spoken dialogue or human vocal expressions that can be extrapolated from the found-sounds  serve as the text for the opera, along with additional prose based on actual daily conversations with neighbors, and my ailing and eventually deceased grandparents. As the process of extracting a voice from a place carried out, my personal life and voice begin to intermingle within the frame of my camera.  I wanted to tell a story of gentrification and then it became my house that was being torn down, and my dog and grandmother and my cat who would die in Third Ward. 

The end result of this documentary to me is a filmed memory, a tone-poem of a place in time and all of the spirit that floats in between mediums, dimensions  and structures; the transmission of inter-generational knowledge. The premonitions of dreams, my ancestors visiting me in dreams and in the same wooden walls, cement streets and changing faces , all creating a tapestry of Familiar. Of Home.  The film will be physically presented as a film screening with live musical narration, in  indoor or outdoor facilities, but again the film will have a life of its own.