New Rediscovery!

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival—yet criminally underseen for over three decades—CHAMELEON STREET recounts the improbable but true story of Michigan con man Douglas Street, the titular “chameleon” who successfully impersonates his way up the socioeconomic ladder by posing as a reporter, an Ivy League student, a respected surgeon, and a corporate lawyer. Elevated by a dexterous performance and daring direction from actor-writer-director Wendell B. Harris Jr., the film pins a lens on race, class and performance in American identity, which has lost none of its relevance. At once piercingly funny and aesthetically mischievous, CHAMELEON STREET is a “lost masterpiece of Black American cinema” (BFI) long overdue to take its rightful place in the independent film canon. – Arbelos Films

“A disarming, disturbing, elusive, and profound meditation on personal identity.” – Richard Brody, New Yorker

Please Note: All in-person screenings at the Brattle now require proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test (within 72-hours).