Film Image
Claiming Open Spaces
1995
Color
87 minutes
US

Claiming Open Spaces

CLAIMING OPEN SPACES explores African-American culture as it clashes with the design of the modern American city. The film includes a comprehensive section on New Orleans--the vital place of historical significance that this city holds, and its role in continuing African American tradition and culture. The film is both a critical examination of the design and histories of American urban open space, as well as a celebration of leisure, recreation and resistance.
Pricing & Ordering
Buyer Type Format Sale Type Price
Higher Education Institutions DVD Sale $300.00
K-12, Public Libraries & Select Groups DVD Sale $80.00
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Reviews
"A celebration of Black culture, the sort of positive portrait that Blacks deserve and seldom receive… a compelling, thoroughly researched production." - Columbus Dispatch
"Austin Allen's documentary takes a controversial stance: that African American's conception of open space is different from that of the mostly white civic authorities who have closed public parks in recent years, denying blacks a vital gathering place… In building his case, Allen creates a fascinating history of Black America." - The East Bay Express
"The documentary, along with the conversations, made a big impact on the audience of students, staff and local landscape architecture professionals, and opened up students' eyes to a different perspective to landscape architecture and what they can do as practitioners." - Quynh Pham, Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)
Screenings
• PBS, 1996
• Georgia Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

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TWN acknowledges that in New York we are on the unceded territory of the Lenni Lenape, Canarsie, Shinecock, and Munsee peoples and challenges the harm that continues to be inflicted upon Indigenous and People of Color communities here and abroad, which is why we all need to be part of the struggle for rights, equality and justice.

TWN is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Color Congress, MOSAIC, New York Community Trust, Peace Development Fund, Humanities NY, Ford Foundation, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and individual donors.