The Stanley presents a Pay What You Can screening of the independent film, Chameleon Street, in collaboration with FilmScene. Arrive at 6:15pm for a pre-screening meal and stay after for a post-screening discussion.
This programming is related the exhibition, Flex: Masculinities in the Arts of Global Africa, on view at the Stanley from February 28, 2026 - July 26, 2026.
CHAMELEON STREET
(1989, Comedy, Drama, 94 min) Dir. Wendell B. Harris Jr.
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 impersonated his way up the socioeconomic ladder by posing as a magazine reporter, an Ivy League student, a respected surgeon, and a corporate lawyer. Elevated by a dexterous performance and versatile direction from multi-hyphenate 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.
About the Series
FilmScene and the Stanley Museum of Art have partnered to present a dynamic series of screenings that serve as a cinematic extension of the exhibition Flex: Masculinities in the Arts of Global Africa. This collaboration presents the ritualistic, performative, and deeply personal dimensions of Black masculinity and life across the globe.