Voices from the Edge: Tracy Heather Strain

On a rainy evening in April, the ExCollege proudly welcomed Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain for our fourth annual Voices from the Edge lecture. The lecture series features innovators from a range of fields and backgrounds and is made possible by a gift from Sarah Janover (J’85) and her husband Tom.

From left to right: Tufts President Anthony Monaco, Professor Jennifer Burton, Tracy Heather Strain, Sarah Janover (J'85), ExCollege Director Howard Woolf, and Tom Janover. Photo taken by Justin Tran, Class of 2020.

Strain showed clips from several of her projects, including Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, a feature-length documentary about A Raisin In the Sun playwright Lorraine Hansberry, which aired on PBS in January as part of their American Masters series. In conversation with Professor Jennifer Burton, Strain discussed the years-long, labor-intensive process of creating a feature-length documentary, from inspiration, financing, and research, to filming, editing, and distribution. Strain also answered a number of questions from students about her experience as an African American filmmaker and her ideas for future projects, which stem from her considerable research on Hansberry.

While on campus, Strain also met with students in the Directing for Film and Documentary Theory and Practice courses, as well as the Tufts Women in Filmmaking group. Strain reported that she felt very honored to share her work “with the warm and vital Tufts community.”

Read more about Voices from the Edge here.