Emancipation Park Seed Film
CLIENT: AIA NATIONAL
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is the foremost professional association for architects, founded in 1857, and their membership exceeds 94,000 people. In recent years AIA has focused heavily on advocating for equity and sustainability in the built environment, which was also the basis of the prompt for the annual AIA Film Challenge:
“The AIA Film Challenge 2022 calls for stories of architects working with civic leaders to design sustainable and/or equitable communities.”
This project is a seed film, a mini-documentary that served as inspiration and an example of the prompt for the Film Challenge. Our goal for the subject matter of the seed film was not simply to uphold the prompt, but to focus on a project in a location that would feel accessible for architects. We pitched AIA leadership a variety of architectural projects from recent years that focused on sustainability, equity or both, but eventually landed on Emancipation Park in the Third Ward of Houston, Texas—a project I brought to the table as a Houstonian. The state’s oldest public park, Emancipation Park celebrated 150 years of Juneteenth celebrations in 2022, and AIA launched the seed film that day.
The park had completed a redesign in 2017 working with architecture firm Perkins+Will Durham in North Carolina, with huge support from the community and the City of Houston. The park’s powerful story and highly considerate redesign made it the perfect subject for an emotionally compelling, community-centered mini-documentary.
I reached out to Houston’s Mayor Sylvester Turner and Director of the Department of Neighborhoods TaKasha Francis and was able to get them on board for the project, a big win both for me and for the project.
This three-minute film was the culmination of 4.5 days of interview at multiple locations (including City Hall), staged footage and candid, “found” footage. Several city leaders volunteered their time, as did several architects from multiple Perkins+Will locations all over the country. Carefully researched and considered interview questions guided the narrative of the video, though we retained enough flexibility to pivot when real-time opportunities presented themselves—such as the children in the bouncy house, the horseback rider in front of the basketball mural and the woman sweeping her driveway who spoke to us about local arts organizations.
In addition to choosing the location and casting and producing the film, Spence was able to connect AIA President Lakisha Woods with Houston’s Mayor Turner (appearing in the video) in order to host a live interview and sneak preview of the film as part of the 2022 United States Conference of Mayors in Reno, Nevada.
Produced while employed by Spence
Film Cast:
Sylvester Turner, Mayor, City of Houston
TaKasha Francis, Director of Department of Neighborhoods, City of Houston
Jacqueline Bostic, descendant of park founder Rev. Jack Yates & Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, Emancipation Park Conservancy
Kenneth Luker, FAIA, Design Principal, Perkins+Will (Durham, NC)
Gabrielle Bullock, FAIA, Director of Global Diversity & Principal, Perkins+Will (Los Angeles, CA)
Thank you to the Houstonians enjoying the park who appeared in our film!
Film Crew:
John Gordon, Director/Editor, The Modern Reel
Jo Skillman, Creative director, Spence
Isaac Obioma, Project Coordinator, Spence
Jon Hamblin, Director of Photography
James Willis, Sound Mixer
Malu Pestana, 1st Assistant Camera
Sean Kelly, Gaffer
Thi Lam, Grip
Behind-the-scenes social content produced by BWash Media
Behind-the-Scenes Video
AIA wanted to highlight the process of creating the film to encourage participation in the Film Challenge. These videos were used on social media to do exactly that.